Welding Tips and Tricks

This is a custom 4" in/out airbox for a turbo diesel similar to what I own. I'd like to know how you good welders would do the weld on the outlet pipe. This is not my welding, I'm only a beginner.
Would you weld it with the pipe pointing upwards or is it better to have the pipe facing towards you and welding, say, from 2 o'clock to 10 o'clock (right handed) and rolling it clockwise?
I hope my question makes sense.
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John
When TIG welding you need to be comfortable and able to move the torch along the weld joint at a steady rate . I don't know what's being joined to the pipe but one option would be to start at 3 (or 2) and move towards 12 o'clock (being right handed) stop, rotate and continue, essentially welding the pipe in quarters. start and stop as you need to but try to go as far as you can to keep starts and stops to a minimum.

This is my own effort. I'm a bit disappointed I wasn't able to do better because I've done some much better welds on flat plate while practicing.
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If I was welding that, I would set it up so that the tube is facing me and I could have my torch hand in/on the tube to rest on. You would get a more fluid movement by resting on the tube and just kind of rotating your hand around in it. It would heat up and you would have to stop to cool and reposition but IMO you could do longer welds before having to stop.

exnailpounder wrote:If I was welding that, I would set it up so that the tube is facing me and I could have my torch hand in/on the tube to rest on. You would get a more fluid movement by resting on the tube and just kind of rotating your hand around in it. It would heat up and you would have to stop to cool and reposition but IMO you could do longer welds before having to stop.

^^^This.

To help improve the outcome of your welds, rest your torch hand and filler wire hand. Add some rod and then travel. When the front of the puddle "keyholes" add rod, travel until it keyholes. This will help you produce a more consistent bead and get equal dips.

You don't need much to any stick out either. When I weld aluminum in these circumstances, my tungsten is just equal to the edge of the cup, my cup tight to the work. This helps prevent the tungsten and puddle coming into contact. Many use a travel forward, dab, retreat, travel forward method. The momentary "retreat" allows the filler wire to be added without contaminating the tungsten, then the torch passes over the weld and drives it in for full penetration.

Lastly, bear in mind, whenever you add wire, you are cooling your puddle. So heavy dabs equal a lot of rapid cooling. So you do need to either reduce your filler wire amount (your picture shows rapid dabbing of heavy amount) or slow your travel a lttle bit. And if this is your primary effort, you've done pretty damn well.

Thanks for the replies guys. I did do mine with the pipe facing me but wondered if it was usual/better to point it up and do it like T joint/filet. I'm sure that for those experienced enough to do any out of position welding, they would do an equally good job either way.

This might make you laugh but I find that I do much better welds on scrap and I'm sure the reason is nerves when you don't want to spoil your project. There's this kind of "fear of failure" nervousness that isn't there with scrap stuff. With the scrap you just don't hesitate to squash the pedal to get things going and it doesn't really matter if you touch or blow a hole in it.

I bought this TIG machine for my 71st birthday last November (bucket list kind of thing) so I'm still at the stage where my ambitions are more advanced than my capabilities
I swore I wouldn't start anything practical/useful before the end of my 3rd argon bottle (E size if that means anything to people) but got impatient at the end of the 2nd..

John, welding around the pipe is a challenge as the torch angle is always changing as you progress, it takes more of an effort to keep everything (torch angle, filler, line of sight and hand position) where it should be, looks like you did a good job to me.

Id have the pipe face the ceiling and weld in quarters, slowly walking around the pipe, resting my hand on the box....really wouldn't matter what position in as long as fit was there, its all about torch angle and being comfortable!

+1 with Rick. Use a tig finger and slide around the pipe as you walk stopping only if you run out of filler of if the piece is overheating. Having the pipe horizontal means gravity affects the bead as you go from bottom to top. Having the pipe vertical means the bead will be consistent all the way round.


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Coldman wrote:Having the pipe horizontal means gravity affects the bead as you go from bottom to top.

This is true, but, with aluminum and TIG, you are not going to get "sag" like you might with MIG or Stick. Also, by running uphill with TIG, you get better penetration than downhill.

Horizontal would work too, but you often run out of walking space. With the pipe inlet facing you, its 2 welds from 6-12, counter clockwise if your right handed, clockwise if your left handed. When you get to 12, rotate the piece 180* and repeat. You're pulling the puddle and feeding in front/from above.

It doesn't matter in the end, its all difficult when you're new

Anyway, I did finish the airbox and fit it to my wagon - Nissan Patrol now with 4.2 turbo diesel I transplanted last year.
Most of the worst welds are in the bottom half so can't be seen as much.
This is the finished item fitted..
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