Welding Tips and Tricks

I've been trying to weld flatware to make little animals and it's pretty tough. The best results for me so far has been tig brazing and even those results weren't all that great, due to my limited, hobbyist abilities (see pictures of the crab - that's mine). I'd like to see someone with Jody's skills do this sort of thing so that I can learn from it. I attached a couple pics of birds made by Matt Wilson, who lives in SC. Pretty impressive work. Not sure what process he uses. There is also a fellow in the UK, "Roostercreations", and he uses a mig welder with ss wire, but I don't know anything more specific than that. Both guys' work is very clean, which seems pretty tough to do with silverware.

Hard to see and say for certain, but Matt's work indicates a fair bit of grinding afterwards. You too can accomplish the same thing. You might also up your filer to 316 in case the flatware you're using is a better grade than cheap 304 or 308.

The other thing that will help with the finished appearance is using some tin foil on the backside to create an argon "dam". Stainless sugars (oxidizes due to presence of atmosphere) wherever argon is not directly flowing. This will reduce the amount of discoloration and grinding/polishing afterwards.

I believe the only places he is grinding is where he needs to shape something. For example, the beak is made from the shafts of two spoons coming together. Grinding is needed to form it into a beak. I'll have to try the tinfoil dam trick.It's pretty junky steel. Here is a link of the guy from the UK. I can see generally what he is doing, but with detail.