[Bowden]

Hi everyone,

I'm from Sydney Australia and new to TIG welding.
When I left school in 1980 I got a job as a fitter's assistant in a terrible working environment run by cheapskates. Without any welding experience, and the fitter not wanting to weld due to the over 40C (104F) temperatures in the workshop, I was given the job of welding brackets and general welding of compaction machine bodies. Being new at this and having received 10 mins of 'training', the arc horrified me and I thought I was going to be electrocuted at any moment. I must have done an acceptable job so was kept on the welding booth as my primary task. I liked the new job so at my own expense I enrolled at our technical college known as TAFE (Technical & Further Education). I completed the 'Electric Arc Welding' and the 'Gas Welding' courses. This went great for a number of years then left the trade to pursue IT.

I kept my hand in welding since then because my new friends over the years found out I can weld. All stick welding jobs.

I decided to buy a TIG welder (AIG TIG 200P AC DC PULSE TIG), which I'm still waiting to be delivered, because I need to do a lot of welding on two alloy boats that I own. I decided to buy a TIG because I wasn't familiar with the conductive qualities of alloy and bought MAP gas and alloy brazing rods; well that was a waste of time due to the amount of heat that I had to put into the job before I could braze, not to mention the amount of time waiting for the alloy to heat up.

I have no experience with TIG but a lot of old experience with stick and gas welding. I have watched every one of the WeldingTipsAndTricks videos, especially the TIG related ones, so am keen to put that knowledge to practical use soon.

I have cut up a lot of steel and alloy coupons to learn and practice on before I go anywhere near the boats.

Cheers

[weldin mike 27]

Welcome. I'm from Bendigo, Victoria. I was born in 1982.

You'll find all the information you need here.

All the best, mick

[BillE.Dee]

Welcome to the forum. You will find lots of info in here about the various processes of welding (of which you have some experience ). Hopefully you have some "bigger" coupons for practice as the various alloys (aluminum) will get hot pretty quickly. When I first got going in TIG I simply ran some beads without filler just to get the feel of the machine and process. I also did a lot walking away to regroup and learned some new 4 letter words with a lot syllables in each word...I suppose it happens to the best . Enjoy the group.
gramps

[Oscar]

Welcome. Be sure to do a search here for the other threads regarding TIG aluminum problems, as they are the most prevalent for beginners not knowing what they are doing wrong. You'll find about thread per week regarding this. Lots of info on this.