Welding Tips and Tricks

good clean fit ups makes life easier
craig

Washing over a weld to smooth its surface without adding filler wire is not a recommended process, it could weaken the joint because of the heat input. metallurgical changes, and grain growth. You could add additional weld then contour to a smooth surface. This creates a lot of additional work, but the end results is the target.
My comments are not to disagree with anyone, but to encourage a better end product.
Ron

jcw wrote:

zank wrote:I tried the 1/16" rod previously and it would chill the puddle too much and the rod would occasionally stick. But now with more heat, I'll try it again. That joint had a rather bad fit up as well.

Either one [rod] you pick, will require you to finesse your technique in one way or another. With the 0.045" filler rod, you would need to develop years worth of muscle memory over-night in order to feed the rod fast enough [and more importantly accurately enough] without hiccup'ing as you're moving down the weld joint. With 1/16" filler rod, you have to both feed the filler [though not as much], and always be cognizant of the "stickiness" of it should the puddle not be the correct size due to heat input, which means you have to have a kung-fu death-grip on it, not always possible with those soft-skin TIG welding gloves.

You'll get it eventually, just keep practicing [something I need to do more often---stupid work schedule]. You[we]'ll get it.

steeldr. wrote:Washing over a weld to smooth its surface without adding filler wire is not a recommended process, it could weaken the joint because of the heat input. metallurgical changes, and grain growth. You could add additional weld then contour to a smooth surface. This creates a lot of additional work, but the end results is the target.
My comments are not to disagree with anyone, but to encourage a better end product.
Ron

Ron,

Washing a weld requires less heat input than adding metal... You have to melt both the filler rod and the base metal to sufficient depth for full fusion across the full width, or you can "just" melt the surface for a cosmetic dressing.

If you can cite an article or two supporting adding another pass versus washing a surface, I'm game to read, but it's a non-sequitor to me that adding metal somehow does less damage than a simple surfacing.

Steve S

Oscar wrote:

jcw wrote:

zank wrote:I tried the 1/16" rod previously and it would chill the puddle too much and the rod would occasionally stick. But now with more heat, I'll try it again. That joint had a rather bad fit up as well.

Either one [rod] you pick, will require you to finesse your technique in one way or another. With the 0.045" filler rod, you would need to develop years worth of muscle memory over-night in order to feed the rod fast enough [and more importantly accurately enough] without hiccup'ing as you're moving down the weld joint. With 1/16" filler rod, you have to both feed the filler [though not as much], and always be cognizant of the "stickiness" of it should the puddle not be the correct size due to heat input, which means you have to have a kung-fu death-grip on it, not always possible with those soft-skin TIG welding gloves.

You'll get it eventually, just keep practicing [something I need to do more often---stupid work schedule]. You[we]'ll get it.

I learned with .045" and is the most common size for things I weld. I will say it made feeding everything else size wise up easy, I still don't wear a glove for .030" though, can't seem to make it look as nice with a glove.