[RamboBaby]

Thanks. I was referring to peddle pulse because I just don't like fiddling with those settings on the machine. I bought my machine specifically to weld thick aluminum so most of these bells and whistles are useless to me. I kinda figured that one to two inches was about the max safe run on this thin stainless. Two inches is working ok (did some flat bead pads but they sucked too) but I really don't wanna push it much further because I saw the puddle starting to behave differently toward the end of the run. It wasn't welding any better but I thought that may have been a clue that it was getting ready to crap up. I don't really know what it was doing, I just know that it wasn't the same for that last centimeter.

[Rick_H]

I regularly pulse outside corner joints in 16g stainless...the welder I have has it and I've learned to embrace the tech and make life easier. Ive only embraced pulse in the last 2 years, before that I never used it.

I make tight seams, speed tack the joint every 1" or so, then pulse with 1/16" tung, 7, 8 or 10 cup (what ever is on my torch at the time) around 55-65 amps, I use 2.5, 10 and 60pps regularly, if I'm on my 150sth Maxstar it has a 50%/50% balance, if I'm on my 350LX Syncro I use 75% on, 25% background. Make nice steady pulls and it comes out beautiful, rounded if your torch angle is good.

FIT UP IS EVERYTHING! If my fit isn't good I sneak in .030" filler

I've gotten so good and cocky , I don't even use a backing bar anymore...only bites me in the ass occasionally.

[exnailpounder]

I wondered when the master was going to add his 2cts. Thanks Rick! I am gonna try pulse one day.

[Rick_H]

I wondered when the master was going to add his 2cts. Thanks Rick! I am gonna try pulse one day.

Far from a master but I feel I have a decent understanding of stainless. It will move when you look at it wrong and I second that motto "get in, get out"

[Rick_H]

Here's some 16g I just did a sample for ya....

[Bsmith]

Here's some 16g I just did a sample for ya....

Forgive my ignorance. 50 wasn't hot enough to penetrate or 65 was too hot cause you had welded already? Thanks for the detailed pics.

[Rick_H]

50 was actually fine, I was trying to show the difference a few amps makes (hard to see in the pics), I increased to 65amps since I upped the pulses to 10....

That setting usually works but with all the heat in only a 5" piece it actually caused it to go through and sugar with out a purge or backer.

[Bsmith]

50 was actually fine, I was trying to show the difference a few amps makes (hard to see in the pics), I increased to 65amps since I upped the pulses to 10....

That setting usually works but with all the heat in only a 5" piece it actually caused it to go through and sugar with out a purge or backer.

Got ya now. I was thinking lack of penetration.

[exnailpounder]

50 was actually fine, I was trying to show the difference a few amps makes (hard to see in the pics), I increased to 65amps since I upped the pulses to 10....

That setting usually works but with all the heat in only a 5" piece it actually caused it to go through and sugar with out a purge or backer.

Nice work on those edge welds. Do you recommend pulse for ALL SS welds or just certain thickness'? Damn....now I gotta learn pulse! It's interesting to see the heat soak on your pieces. With the pulse the heat seems so controlled and the colors are pretty even across. I would be interested to see a comparison in the same situation but no pulse....hint, hint

[RamboBaby]

Thanks a lot. That should make things much easier on me. I got put to work today, then spent several hours cutting and deburring these little squares so I'm tired right now. I believe they're 18 & 16 gauge. The matched sizes are all gonna be mismatched gauges. Nothing was measured, just hacked off in the chop saw so each set is sized slightly different. I'll post photos of my progress when I feel like welding them later tonight or tomorrow.

[Rick_H]

50 was actually fine, I was trying to show the difference a few amps makes (hard to see in the pics), I increased to 65amps since I upped the pulses to 10....

That setting usually works but with all the heat in only a 5" piece it actually caused it to go through and sugar with out a purge or backer.

Nice work on those edge welds. Do you recommend pulse for ALL SS welds or just certain thickness'? Damn....now I gotta learn pulse! It's interesting to see the heat soak on your pieces. With the pulse the heat seems so controlled and the colors are pretty even across. I would be interested to see a comparison in the same situation but no pulse....hint, hint

Not on all welds, I only use it when I want to control the puddle for edges or on overhead welding I find it helps keep the puddle and material where I want it. I've started using it on my sanitary piping in the last year or so, took me awhile to dial it in. I'll do another sample side by side on Monday and post some pics.

Pulsing can give you false results with penetration, it can looks beautiful but be very shallow. However it Actually allows deeper penetration at the same amps in most.cases. I actually don't recommend new TIG welders use it, they need to learn how to read the puddle first.

Play around with it and do some testing, youll find results and settings that are acceptable

[RamboBaby]

First attemp today. I looked at your pulse settings and dialed it back to 35 amps so that I can learn to control the puddle instead of relying on the machine per your recommendations. First tack at 50 amps went exceptionally well (right side), but it opened up the gap like a prostitute's legs on the left side. I had to squeeze the gap closed with my left hand and try to hold that while I tacked the left end. I wasn't focusing well enough and got the torch pointed at a bad angle, thus peeling back the top edge (50 amps). You can see the evidence via that big doo-doo ball on the left end. Had to tack right of that one and got it on the second try. Turned down to 35 amps and got the center tack. Lost sight of the puddle at the beginning of the first run from right to left, hence he lack of fusion. Should have waited a few minutes for the whole thing to cool off before proceeding from center to left but only waited about thirty seconds. That caused me to penetrate through the back side toward the end of the second run. Man, this stuff really is super sensative to heat and does not shed it very well. This never would have happened on mild steel. I think that I should have been rolling the torch counter clockwise as I moved right to left so as to roll the 16 gauge down into the gap but I was rolling clockwise instead. The 16 gauge is on the back side of the photo while the 18 gauge is in the foreground. It's sitting in the photo exactly as I welded it without a backer bar. I used 2" X .125 aluminum tubing and a pony clamp for the fit up.

[RamboBaby]

Lap joints. 40 amps on the first try. I don't think that I had a very good torch angle and it just wanted to roll over without tying in. I went back over most of the joint with a second pass but you can see what it looked like on the first pass by looking at the right side. I started out worried that I was going to peel the 18 gauge back but wound up with the opposite effect.
Flipped it over and cranked it up to 45 amps and caught a more favorable torch angle. This went twice as fast and worked out great even though I was now washing 16 gauge top plate into 18 gauge bottom plate versus the opposite situation on the first weld.
Interesting how five amps made so much difference and you can see the difference in the heat affected zones as viewed form the flipped over side from where it was welded. I was worried about putting too much heat into the parts like Exnailpounder had described and wound up doing exactly that by using too little amperage on the first weld.
I think this is going to take even more time to get accustomed to than aluminum did. I did roll the torch in the correct direction this time.

[RamboBaby]

I tried bumping the amperage back down to 40 to start this weld off.....just to make sure that torch angle wasn't the problem. You can see lack of fusion on the right side where I started welding and I was able to rule out torch angle as being the culprit. Bumped it back up to 45 amps and everything went smoothly until the end when torch angle caused LOF. Flipped it over and discovered that torch angle becomes less critical when washing thicker 16 gauge metal into the joint than it was with the thinner 18 gauge metal.
Any other time that I've worked with thin lap or T joints heat input was never this critical and I always had plenty of extra amperage at my disposal.
This is one heckuva learning experience and I feel as if I will be able to weld almost anything without much problem once I get a good handle on this. I am already able to make passable welds on 1" tubing, with either hand and from any position. Learning stainless seems to be every bit as hard to learn as it was when I was learning to turn the torch with every single dab of wire when welding tubing that small, in compound angles overhead (when I made my tig cart).

[RamboBaby]

Square butt, both pieces 16 gauge, 40 amps with 1/16" 308 filler wire.
This went well, sort of. There was a bit of a groove at the left end of the weld from when I deburred the metal. Started getting out of the peddle toward the end of the weld and got cold lap.
I knew that I should have cleaned the back side of the joint before welding. I let it cool off and bumped up the amperage to 45. I'm guessing that it was the oxidation that I failed to clean caused the puddle to be sluggish and not want to follow the torch.
This was welded flat sitting atop 3/8" hot rolled flat bar.

[Poland308]

Looks like brushed SS. That sometimes has a thin layer of clear coat that will make your weld look darker than normal.

[RamboBaby]

Half cube, outside corner joints, 16 gauge, tacked with 50 amps, welded with 42 amps.
Tried this first on 18 gauge and made a mess out of two of the three joints. The last joint was buttoned up rapidly with a smooth movement. The first I tried to dab filler and the second I just tried little circles. I forgot to set my amperage and was working with 40 amps when I should have been working with 35.
With the second cube I had some bad fit up on one side and realized that I needed a game plan to compensate for that. That particular joint was welded left to right in the horizontal position, torch angled down to wash metal into the gap, counterclockwise circles. The other two joints were welded right handed, uphand, 45 degree angle, counterclockwise circles. I am actually happy with the way that this last one turned out. You can see a spot in the middle of my last weld where I outran my heat and had to go back and tie it in. The fit up on the last weld was perfect and allowed me to travel at a faster rate than with the first two welds.
I realize this isn't anything to brag about but it is a very real accomplishment for me.

[RamboBaby]

Looks like brushed SS. That sometimes has a thin layer of clear coat that will make your weld look darker than normal.

I didnt know that any of it got coated but you may be correct. There are a few spots on some of this stainless that dont have that brushed look and they are extremely dull and more gray than silver. I was wondering what the deal was in that regard.

[Coldman]

Looks like its coming together for you. You are getting good penetration and colour. Just seat time now.
Some points:
-fitup is key. No gaps. As soon as you get a gap it turns to crap so you must stop if a gap opens up do whatever it takes to close it up.
- use plenty of speed tacks to hold it all together.
- play around with speed tack settings to keep them as small as possible so you don't see them once consumed by the weld.
- Start and finish with filler to prevent corner burn back.
- with more practice head towards keeping the bead as small as possible. This way, once smoothed over and polished the weld disappears and a corner looks almost like a fold. If you get that good, you won't be short of work in food/sanitary, architectural, marine and auto craft industries.

[RamboBaby]

Looks like its coming together for you. You are getting good penetration and colour. Just seat time now.
Some points:
-fitup is key. No gaps. As soon as you get a gap it turns to crap so you must stop if a gap opens up do whatever it takes to close it up.
- use plenty of speed tacks to hold it all together.
- play around with speed tack settings to keep them as small as possible so you don't see them once consumed by the weld.
- Start and finish with filler to prevent corner burn back.
- with more practice head towards keeping the bead as small as possible. This way, once smoothed over and polished the weld disappears and a corner looks almost like a fold. If you get that good, you won't be short of work in food/sanitary, architectural, marine and auto craft industries.

Very good info. My goal is to be a weldor.....driving trucks for a living really bites the big one.
Getting on it now.
Thanks

[RamboBaby]

18 gauge, 35 amps.
This was my third attempt on this gauge. I tried to turn the gas up from 15 cfh to 20 cfh and it didnt want to tack.....just blew back the edges. Went back to 15 cfh and everything went just fine. I think by looking at the dull gray color that maybe 30 amps would have been more appropriate. Looking at the penetration on the back side tells me the same thing. I probably could have gotten away with it if I hadn't been holding such a tight arc. I don't think that I was ever anymore than 1/32" away from the metal with any of the three seams.
The colored portions of weld are where I had to add filler wire to fix the argon blowouts. I speculate that too much gas pressure caused the weld puddle to push back instead of tying in. Whatever the case, turning the gas back down caused all to be right again.

[Rick_H]

I see progress in those pics so good job! It takes seat time, torch angle is very important fitup is more important on outside corners. If you get a seam opening up you have to get filler in there quick on ss or it turns into a mess super quick.

What I see is your a little low on amps and your moving too slow....but moving faster comes with seat time. I'll try to take a video tonight I can post on my IG account.

Your on the right track, keep burning rod!

[exnailpounder]

I see progress too but I am going to add my 2 cts....I found out that being in a comfortable position can dramatically improve weld quality. I am not saying your not in position , I am only offering a tip. I have short wood blocks that I can stack up to get my torch into the proper position and steady my wrist. Welding thin metal requires a really steady hand, among all the other stuff you have to be doing right. One little off move on an outside corner weld and you scallop out an edge. Just my 2cts.....Carry on....nice work! I have to go to the LWS this morning to get some things but I am hoping to play with some more SS tubing later....I'll post up whatever mess I create

[RamboBaby]

One little off move on an outside corner weld and you scallop out an edge.

You can say that again. I can consistently get two, but not three, edges to tack and they weld just fine. One edge always peels back at one or more points when tacking. I have been carefully watching the torch angle (because this has really been pissing me off) and the edge will peel back instead of tying into the joint with the exact same torch angle and fit up. I have noticed that I can sometimes stop this if I stab the tungsten into the weld puddle and push the puddle into the other side of the joint but I've only been fast enough to do this a couple of times. It works the same as if I had added filler but at that point I have a stuck and crapped up tungsten. There just doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to when this super thin metal is gonna refuse to cooperate but I know this would not be a problem if I had a proper filler wire to tack with. Tacking is the only area that is giving me real problems and they ruin the joint from that point forward unless I was able to get off the peddle quick enough (it's about a 50/50 shot).

What I see is your a little low on amps and your moving too slow.

I've tried tacking with filler but my filler is just too big (1/16") for 18 gauge and it just winds up making a mess. I tried three in a row, all with the same result. I'm moving as fast as the metal will bond but there is inevitably going to be one spot on the seam that I outrun so I have to go back and fill in a pinhole somewhere. I really need some smaller diameter mig wire to tack up this super thin stuff but I don't have it and am out of $$$. Now I'm out of 18 gauge to play with as well.

Quit my job a month ago because I was tired of the company trying to bully me and refusing to do proper maintenance on the trucks. The boss threatened to report me to D.O.T. when I refused to pick up a load. I had to remind him that I sent him photos of the truck I was driving several hours before I left out the previous night and that he had refused to do the maintenance. This would have been a big, fat fine for him because he is the owner of the company. He then threatened to put it on my driving record that I hauled his truck back from Florida without authorization. You always get some variation on this kind of crap no matter what company you drive for. I found out from the office girl, after I quit, that the company is on conditional probation with Department of Transportation for that shoddy and unsafe equipment that they run. The freight industry really sucks. I need a welding job!

Welding thin metal requires a really steady hand,

I've only been welding this super thin stuff with my right hand for this very reason. I weld reasonably well with my left hand but this stuff is just too delicate for my trembling left hand.

[exnailpounder]

It's just too damned hot here to weld today. Lens fogging up non-stop. I will have to live vicariously through you guys till I can get back in the seat. Played with pulsing. 10 PPS about made me have an epileptic seizure bot 30 PPS worked really good. I knew my machine had pulse but I pretended I forgot about it. Now I have to learn some more...dang!