Welding Tips and Tricks

Good afternoon everyone,

I am completely new to welding. I am seeking to learn how to TIG weld as a hobby. I am looking forward to learning all I can about TIG welding!

Welcome. I wold encourage you to start your welding learning program by working with 7018 Stick rods. Learning to watch the puddle, manipulate the rod, and weld in differing positions will be invaluable skills for TIG. Its cheaper too and an extremely important, valuable process. Plus, whatever TIG machine you buy, will also perform Stick welding functions.

Use 1/4" or thicker material to learn on, 3/32" 7018 rods. Learn to strike the arc, lay stringer beads, fillet welds, and run overlapping passes. Later, work on uphill and and "out of position" welds. Then when you get to TIG, you'll make good progress by understanding what you're seeing, and how to correct your mistakes.

Avoid attacking round tubing, pipe or crazy positions until you master the basics of flat welding. It's all building blocks of a time-based skill to weld well. And don't think for a moment that those welds you see on Instagram are anything but artwork performed by Superhuman Skilled Welders with years and years of practice and experience. They are exceptionally talented folks!

erfan223 wrote:I am seeking to learn how to TIG weld as a hobby. I am looking forward to learning all I can about TIG welding!

Welcome to the forum! CJ737 has given good info and advice: stick welding is a good process to learn welding, and you can even convert a DC stick welder into a TIG welder if you want.

Have you found Jody's videos? They are a great way to learn about TIG (and stick, and MIG too). Do you have a machine, or access to a machine?

Welcome to the forum.

Thank you all! I appreciate for you pointing me in the right direction.
One of the first things I'd like to do is build a small welding table in my single car garage. Something like a 2.5'x4' table with a vise on one end just for light duty work.

I was thinking of sourcing some square tubing from a local metal supplier and a flat sheet of mild steel to do a stick welding project. I was thinking a 3/8" table top would suffice for light duty hobby work. Any suggestions?


My welder is a lincoln squarewave 200

erfan223 wrote:Thank you all! I appreciate for you pointing me in the right direction.
One of the first things I'd like to do is build a small welding table in my single car garage. Something like a 2.5'x4' table with a vise on one end just for light duty work.
I was thinking of sourcing some square tubing from a local metal supplier and a flat sheet of mild steel to do a stick welding project. I was thinking a 3/8" table top would suffice for light duty hobby work. Any suggestions?
My welder is a lincoln squarewave 200

1/4" or 3/8" top is plenty fine. You can use 2x2x0.125 square tubing for the frame with that small of a surface. 4 Upright legs, and a horizontal frame rail about 6" up from the bottom, and against the underside of the top. 1" long stitches every foot or so for your top-to-frame is PLENTY of strength. Tack the frame up everywhere, keeping it very square/straight/true/plumb. Weld one leg face, switch legs to avoid distortion. Takes longer, but makes the result very square.

Stick weld the thing. Clean the mill scale of the ends of the joints, plus along the top/frame. build the frame using the top as work surface, then flip the frame over onto the top, weld the frame to the top, flip it all back over.

Use casters or leveling casters for feet. Leave about 3-6" of overhang of the top to frame for clamping work to the top.

For attaching a vise to it, you can get a piece of trailer receiver tubing, and an insert (EWS square tubing has an internal weld seam and won't fit another piece of square tubing cleanly) to mount your vise on. That way you can plug your vise into the table when needed, remove and set aside (or build a shelf on the lower frame) and store it.

Thank you everyone for your advice!
It really helped me.

Its been a long time coming, so here is my new welding table and welding cart I built.

Welcome! Nice looking table. Can we see some close-ups of your welds?