Welding Tips and Tricks

mlevinson,
Welcome to the family!! Your tig welds are looking great, keep up the good work and practice!
-Jonathan

More work on the side by side stereo system. I'm use .065 aluminum plate and tread plate. Using a ahp alpha tig 200 ex. 3/32 2%Lanthanated tungsten electrode sharped to a point. I use a CK flex loc torch with the 3 series torch head on it. argon & helium mix today about a 50/50 mix it welded nice. The speaker boxes I used straight argon. Just trying stuff. Next I've got the fab a box to hold two 12" subwoofers that will most likely be Tuesday. I'll be sure let u guys know how that turns out.






These are by far some of my best tig welds and I've got to give must of the credit to Jody and what he does here at welding tips and tricks.
Thanks everybody on your help so far. I really like it here.
Brian/ bholcomb

Bholcomb87 wrote:? My ahp has pulse but only .05-10hz and AC balance is only + or - 5%. I need a better tig welder I've out grown my AHP.

What you have to remember on that AHP is that the AC balance of -5 to +5 is not a percentage, it is just a dial number. It's range is 20% to 80% electrode positive, so if you have it on +5 your at 80% electrode positive and will melt that tungsten all the way back to China where it was made... Nice looking welds on those speaker boxes by the way.

Dave

I never knew that about the AHPs AC balance I just got a feel for the welded so now I no depending on the condition of the aluminum where to set the AC balance. Thanks for the info.

had the root looking good but screwed the pooch on the cover tried to rush through it at the end of the day

Justin,
I see good improvement on the root. Keep up the practice and don't rush. Testing in a hurry might not be your thing. I personally prefer to blow through a test but not if I am rushed.
-Jonathan

i was just screwin off on lunch but they shortened our break so i had to rush lol i pushed the root in at about 21 and 230 wfs

Brian, those boxes look great.
I'd be interested in how they sound vs a wooden box. (I know the reasons they wanted metal, just curious)
Were those speakers/head unit just for mockup, or the actual?

Sent from my SM-G900R4 using Tapatalk

Just welded an O2 sensor bung for a wideband. A little undercut on the bung, but no big deal as they aren't structural. Of course it probably didn't help that I use $2.95 O2 bungs from ebay. Probably that free-machining mild steel crap that caused it!






Now I just need to wait for the other O2 bung to arrive for the passenger side wideband since I thought I had another one but I was wrong.

Ok guys finally got it down then i moved on to a vertical t joint and its not looking to bad either

I learned to tig weld in late November or early December on aluminum. I had no tig experience before that. I bought my machine in February and started welding steel for the first time. i have been tig welding steel for about 4 months now and I have finally got to the point that I am not dipping the tungsten and am staying pretty consistent. I am very happy with these welds on a goat milking stand. I almost cried having to sand them off for a flat flush surface. My wife said you will do more like them suck it up and get out of my way (she had the grinder). I don't usually post pics of my welds so I figured this is a good time to start.

Looks good. I like your wife sounds like mine.
-Jonathan

She gives me a hard time. I have to warm up before I do my best. I grab a piece of scrap and run a couple beads and I am good to go. Same when shooting my bow I have to shoot a few times before I go hunting. I have always been like that. She is the opposite. She can start right in and do her best then start tapering off. She always challenges me to a welding contest as soon as we get to the shop to see who has to do the cooking or cleaning Gotta love her.

Ran out of 3/32 rod, finished up with 1/16th. First crack at a weave.

aeroplain,
For a first attempt that looks good. It appears that you are holding the electrode at a angle and not perpendicular to the material. See how one side is undercut and the other is not? Try holding the rod straight on to the joint or plate with a slight push angle. Either this or you are moving faster on one side than the other. Even counts of 2 or 3 on each side. The rest is just hood time. Keep up the good work.
-Jonathan

Thanks Jonathan, torch straight down. This was on 1/4" so I assumed that I wasn't pushing enough rod into the puddle(1/16) 150 amps, 3/23 2%lanth, hotter than the hubs of Hell, but more likely lack of hood time.

aeroplain wrote:Thanks Jonathan, torch straight down. This was on 1/4" so I assumed that I wasn't pushing enough rod into the puddle(1/16) 150 amps, 3/23 2%lanth, hotter than the hubs of Hell, but more likely lack of hood time.

Man I look like a idiot now, I thought I was looking at a stick weld Carry on.
-Jonathan

No worries. If it was stick it would look like a dog turd rolled in the gravel. I stick welded once,,,in 1974.

@areoplain,
By the looks of your weave, you're right handed. You seem to be holding your torch at almost 90* at the right and tilting the torch to the left, therefore increasing the torch angle on the left side of your weld. This increased angle causes the undercut and lack of fill on the left. If you try and start your weld in the center of the joint and keep your angle consistent from side to side your weave will fill out better without drawing base metal from the sides.

Easier to show than to type out, so I hope this makes sense.

Len

Braehill wrote:@areoplain,
By the looks of your weave, you're right handed. You seem to be holding your torch at almost 90* at the right and tilting the torch to the left, therefore increasing the torch angle on the left side of your weld. This increased angle causes the undercut and lack of fill on the left. If you try and start your weld in the center of the joint and keep your angle consistent from side to side your weave will fill out better without drawing base metal from the sides.

Easier to show than to type out, so I hope this makes sense.

Len

+1 on that one.

Braehill wrote:@areoplain,
By the looks of your weave, you're right handed. You seem to be holding your torch at almost 90* at the right and tilting the torch to the left, therefore increasing the torch angle on the left side of your weld. This increased angle causes the undercut and lack of fill on the left. If you try and start your weld in the center of the joint and keep your angle consistent from side to side your weave will fill out better without drawing base metal from the sides.

Easier to show than to type out, so I hope this makes sense.

Len

Yea, what he said
-Jonathan

Way to be original Jonathan!

mcoe wrote:Way to be original Jonathan!

As my daughter says "I try" (in that cute 3 year old voice)
-Jonathan

Makes perfect sense to me, and yes I am right handed. I tried to stay as steady as I could and think with more hood time things would improve. This is an addition to a winch stand with 4" added. There was about a 1/2" gap to fill, so there are a few passes under the weave. (glad you can't see them anymoe )The fill underneath was lower on the undercut side so that is where my assumption that the filler was to small. Since filler size has not been a criticism, it's clear my technique sucks.

Braehill wrote:@areoplain,
By the looks of your weave, you're right handed. You seem to be holding your torch at almost 90* at the right and tilting the torch to the left, therefore increasing the torch angle on the left side of your weld. This increased angle causes the undercut and lack of fill on the left. If you try and start your weld in the center of the joint and keep your angle consistent from side to side your weave will fill out better without drawing base metal from the sides.

Easier to show than to type out, so I hope this makes sense.

Len

areoplain,
I was in no way saying that your technique sucked. If you find yourself in a place where you can't weave without getting undercut you can always stagger from side to side moving forward in half your normal amount. It ends up looking quite good once you get the hang of it.

If all you have is a small filler wire you can slow down and let the puddle take more wire if it needs it. It's one of the benefits of Tig welding.

You're doing fine, keep after it .

Len