Welding Tips and Tricks

I know yall will likely know all of this and how to do it but this is for beginners etc. I put a parts list in the description all from amazon if you are interested. I think the total came out to $136 not including the power source (Which i was using a $160 ArcOne 100sts that ive had for 10 years but you can find on ebay for cheap) bC7RJCrLzWY

Nice video, but you really, REALLY need to clean your metal before welding. All rust, mill scale etc. needs to go. The metal needs to be bright, shiny metal, then it needs a bath in acetone. Even for practice.

Louie1961 wrote:Nice video, but you really, REALLY need to clean your metal before welding. All rust, mill scale etc. needs to go. The metal needs to be bright, shiny metal, then it needs a bath in acetone. Even for practice.

Yep always clean metal. Makes the world of difference. Helps especially with aluminum and stainless of you do that as well.

I think this video has a home in the WT&T site in the section "How Not To Weld" so "beginners" can be alerted to avoid learning bad habits and maybe pay more attention to good stuff out there from people who professionally know what they are doing and give of themselves and not for themselves.

Have to agree - you did not do anything correctly in that video.

Kudos for enthusiasm though.

Yeah. . . All the sparks were from a lot of mill flake, and from what looked like torch slag? I'm in the grind it clean class for steel. I don't start with the IPA or acitone until I step up to SS or aluminum. Unless it's greasy.

Hey speaking of... can galvanized coatings explode or result in some violent cooking off? I TIG welded a galvanized nut to a threaded acme rod last night and I was holding the thread and rotating it, and going round while holding the torch still. Then suddenly I hear a bang, I think I saw something fly away from the nut at the same time. I think the galvanized coating cooked off when I was welding.

Now, I had ground off the coating on half of the nut I was welding, and ground and cleaned the threaded rod too. But perhaps I should've stripped the entire nut in acid?

I was also using a mask with P100 filters and sitting by the open garage port!

DennisCA wrote:Hey speaking of... can galvanized coatings explode or result in some violent cooking off? I TIG welded a galvanized nut to a threaded acme rod last night and I was holding the thread and rotating it, and going round while holding the torch still. Then suddenly I hear a bang, I think I saw something fly away from the nut at the same time. I think the galvanized coating cooked off when I was welding.

Now, I had ground off the coating on half of the nut I was welding, and ground and cleaned the threaded rod too. But perhaps I should've stripped the entire nut in acid?

I was also using a mask with P100 filters and sitting by the open garage port!

I had something similar happen when I was Sil-brazing a nut onto a SS container. Big whoosh and half the nut was gone. I know zinc doesn't like tig welding as I have had problems like this several times but I thought I had the zinc ground off. It gets impregnated in the metal and is a pain in the ass. Are you afraid somebody is gonna yell at you for not wearing a mask?
I mig welded some galvanized caster bases for some dollies I made on Tuesday and have been sick ever since so I'm glad one of us was smart enough to wear a filter.

I think it's best to head of those comments by the gate, so we don't get derailed. I know how it goes.