Welding Tips and Tricks

I generally Weld pipe, down hill API1104 but I own a tig setup that I hook up to my old '82 sa200. It is a weldcraft 26 series torch. I run a #12 jumbo gas lense, a 1/8 red tungsten and usually the same size filler rod. I am having great difficulty trying to learn this on my own. I see all these photographs on pages from facebook that have these beautiful welds. Some stringers, some walking the cup. But even when I am trying to even run little sringers I cannot reproduce anything similar to that I have seen. I'm wondering if it is because I'm using a straight DC machine that doesn't use pulse. I can crank it up and lay the filler wire down and step the torch over the filler rod and it looks like a real small stick weld. I don't have any one to show me what to do and am pretty lost. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

1. You aren't gonna make perfect beautiful welds right of way
2. You don't need pulse for most things, in fact it is better to learn without having those features in my opinion.
3.post pictures so we can see what your welds look like to see what you may be doing right and wrong
4. Watching videos is the next best thing then having someone teach you.

I was dicking around with it a lot today. Part of the problem could have something to do with using metal that is 3/32 thick trying to T joint it. I might need to get a hold of some thicker material to practice on.

The weldporn you are referring to is result of years of practise so don't be too hard on yourself.

I would advise you to go down to 1/16 filler on that 3/32 sheet. With 1/8 filler you need to crank up the amps and then you will quickly overheat the base material.

I was just sitting here watching some odd Jody's videos and it made me think again about the thickness so I went back out into the garage and checked it again. It ended up being 1/16" sheet, but I have some 1/8" is can play with tomorrow and post some photos of and see if I can get down to the metal yard and see if I can pick up some scrap short iorn that is a little thicker.

AndersK wrote:The weldporn you are referring to is result of years of practise so don't be too hard on yourself.

I would advise you to go down to 1/16 filler on that 3/32 sheet. With 1/8 filler you need to crank up the amps and then you will quickly overheat the base material.

Great advice. Trying to use filer thats too big will cause it to stick and you will fight it all the way. It's better to use smaller filler and feed in what you need.

practice for a while without filler to learn the puddle
craig

1/8 inch sheet? I would approach that at 125 to 135 (foot pedal), DCEN, 3/32 tungsten and 1/16 filler myself, #8 cup 15 CFH. If steel material a ER70S2 filler. You get the ripple affect by applying filler in consistent manner, but that takes a lot of practice. I prefer a dab dab dab approach. Keeping end of filler in gas shield.

A lot of difference a little thicker metal mad and running the 1/16 wire. All I had was er70s-6 but was actually pretty easy to run the first pass on either side. After I did that I ran another then switched from the 3/32 tungsten with a #8 cup back to the 1/18 tungsten and #12 jumbo to try to walk the cup. Ended up contaminating the tungsten on one side and repaired it. Walking the cup on that side ended up more difficult and I undercut it quite a bit. My machine was on the 130-80 amp range and I tried varied between 50 and 65 on the rheostat.

It's taking me a while to upload photos.

The cup walking on this one was just walking back over with out filler rod to fix what I messed up with trying to do it the first time with filler rod. I didn't know the right rod angle to hold and didn't have the tungsten the right length so it would dip too close to the puddle causing some spots not to tie in on the bottom.

For some reason the pictures uploaded rotatated 90 degrees. These are all horizontal and I am right handed.

You're obviously using that P.O.S. windows 10. Open your pics with paint and save as with a new name you will find your uploads will be oriented correctly.


Sent using Tapatalk

Actually, no, I'm using my android phone, I don't own a pc or laptop anymore.

Perhaps you should try to use less advanced techniques like walking the cup. That requires multiple passes back over your hot zone (HAZ) and requires a more special pausing technique. Bein a stick welder you're probably very familiar with this but I personally think it's different than TIG since with Stick you're looking for your pool whereas with TIG, you don't get that Stick like pool when you're doin it right but if you're over-heating you will get that pool effect you might be looking for.

If you've got a pedal, use it and learn from that. Ditch the settings. It will come in handy once you really understand the art because TIG is really an artistic process vs. an industrial process like MIG or Stick. Once you understand how the pedal works, you should be able to easily and logically transition to a torch switch with all them fancy dials. I think the hardcore pros just like any practical tradesman would veer away from auto anything and stick with manual but they sure are handy with lengthy or consistent processes.

We've all been here including myself reaching out to this forum to get some n00b help. Keep your practice up, make sure you've got plenty of coupons, and make sure the basics of your machine can handle the basics of your job i.e. don't buy a DC welder hoping to knock out an AL job without much thought.

The last thing that I think is critical from all the advice you'll get from here and just random hunting is: Find the help that suits the job you want to do. We all tell you to stick with steel but if your job will be 100% AL for the rest of your life, focus on AL but ALWAYS stray away from your comfort zone and focus to give you some more practical experience which I promise will always influence your work even if it's not the same material.

To build consistency with adding filler and travel speed, learn to use a counting method. 1, 2 dab, 1 travel, 1,2 dab, 1, travel. Like Stick welding, whatever you do on the left, you do on the right side equally. TIG wants the travel distance and the filler added to be equal each time. That is how you achieve a consistent bead. Some of your pictures show a very different rate of adding filler and smaller travel (ridge lines much tighter) and others are more stretched out (greater cup travel distance, less frequent dab).

A rule of thumb is: tungsten distance (arc length) equal to fill rod diameter. I use the diameter of fill rod to determine the amount of filler. If its a 3/32 wire, I add 3/32 each dip. 1/8 wire gets a 1/8 dip. Travel equals the wire diameter.

A tight arc is always best, but maintain a push angle to prevent dipping the tungsten. Cup size varies so much by condition, its hard to use only 1. But a #7 or #8 is a very versatile cup size.

Practicing on 1/16 and 1/8 is not my preference. Grab some 1/4"-1/2" and practice. Don't worry about full penetration, just run stringers and fillets. The heavier steel will tolerate the prolonged heat and allow you to weld more, cool less.

On CJ's note.... One of the best pieces of advice I got for beads.... DO NOT put all your weight on your forearm on the table otherwise you'll be moving your wrist, not your arm, which will cause an uneven path AND you'll need to pick your weight up to move which will immediately create a deviation to your path. Float your arm! Enjoy!

Without reading your advice I ran out to the discount metal business down the road and picked up some stainless at about 3/8" thick and 1/4" and just sat there and welded. Took some trial and error but then I flipped my machine in to the 190-120 gear and tried sort of a "dab and step tungsten forward" sort of deal. Immediately things changed and started putting some things down I thought looked real good. After putting down alot of passes on my T joint I was working on I cast it aside and grabbed a new setup. Sitting somewhere around 130 amps (if my math is right and my ocvs are still at 91 putting my output at 190 with the rheostat at 100) with a 3/32 tungsten, argon at 20chf and a brand new gas lense. I'm also running a large 6"x2" square tubing for a chill block. Having an SA200 doesn't allow for a foot pedal. It's set it and scratch start which I just flick the tungsten and work with my filler rod to fire it up so it won't ball up my tip. It seems that trying to walk the cup/run stringers real wide attempting to create a large puddle like I would with a 3/16 or 5mm stick rod on .375 wall pipe was causing alot of my headaches. That was the whole reason of trying to do T joints so that I would have something that sort of simulated the bevel I would have if I went to work on pipe. When I started out learning to weld the guys I worked for didn't give me plate - they had me cut pipe and run it in the 5G position down hill over and over like I would on the line. They said "practice like you play". But, I don't have a bunch of pipe sitting in my back yard and the knowledge of what amps I am running is a new concept to me. Before it was just "throw it up on 3rd gear and 40" for the bead, 75 for the hotpass, 60 for the filler and cap and drive up to the next one.

Of course I do usually have a helper who can turn me up or down on the rheostat when I need them to while on the job, but for practice in my garage that's a no go.