Welding Tips and Tricks

My AlphaTIG has been sitting here for weeks, and I am determined to lay a bead today. I cleaned up a piece of crappy steel, and I plan to use it for practice. I have an E3 1/16" electrode, pure argon, and a 1/16" steel filler rod. I plan to start at around 90 amps. I don't have much clean scrap, so I figure I'll have the arc going for 10-15 minutes, max.

Question: how bad is the UV from TIG? With MIG, I routinely weld (short jobs) with gloves, shorts, and a T-shirt. Am I going to suffer if I try that with TIG?

I don't have a welding jacket. I have a denim apron I use for machining, and I have a crappy long-sleeve dress shirt I use sometimes. It's fricking hot here, so I am hoping to avoid bundling up too much.

My helmet is a Hobart, and it's supposed to be fine for TIG. Do I have to worry about UV bouncing around and attacking from behind it?

I wouldn't worry about light bouncing around in the helmet. Now I get it is hot but I strongly reccomend something on your arms. For all welding, spatter protection(maybe long pants instead of shorts to) and UV protection. That denim jacket should be fine. Even a long sleeve shirt is good for tig. I know Jody will use just a long sleeve shirt especially with tig. But if you're running mig with shorts you must have balls of iron. I'd burn myself too much. I don't wear it during the summer or gloves in the farm but I don't do a ton of welding there. If you are just tacking you don't need it since it is a lower risk but if you are doing prolonged welding 15-30 min or more at a time for sure a jacket. Oh and clean your steel to bright and shiny metal. Speeds up the learning if you aren't constantly coating your tungsten and cups with garbage. Just a little grinding action should be good.

Thanks. I'm kind of amazed how much you have to gouge up the metal to get it clean. The steel I prepared is worthless scrap, so I didn't care if I ruined it. I blasted it with a belt grinder and messed it up pretty good, but I wonder what I should use for items I don't want to ruin. Do I need a dedicated knot wheel, or can I used the one I already have on my angle grinder?

I also wiped it pretty good with acetone.

I don't get burned much when I MIG, except for the occasional bit of slag that falls into my socks. That always wakes me up. I find that a few minutes of dancing and screaming fix me right up. Seems like socks always reach out and catch hot pieces of metal. Machining swarf is magically drawn to socks.

I did stop machining in sandals. I feel good about that.

Yeah every article of clothing tends to catch everything-especially frayed jeans. Cleaning steel is pretty basic. A flap disk or a wire wheel will be fine. Just make her shiny. Acetone is very critical for carbon steel especially for practice stuff. Mostly for aluminum. And clean every side-top, bottom, and sides. What thickness is the steel?

I would say the steel is a fat 1/8".

Things went well, for the most part. At first, I made big balls of filler. Then I realized I wasn't dipping the rod. I was just dragging it. After that, it seemed like I was depositing filler more or less correctly.

I was shocked to see how much easier it was to see than a MIG weld. I think this will be extremely controllable once I figure it out. That will be huge change.

Sadly, just when things were going good, I noticed reflected light coming in under the helmet. I really hope I didn't flash myself badly enough to have a problem. I quit instantly. I had glass reading glasses on under the helmet, so maybe they caught some of whatever got by. It was a real rookie mistake.

For 1/8" I would run 130-140 and use the pedal to control it. I weld a lot of 1/8" for practice stuff and 90 amps has to be slow as hell. Puddle in about 3-4 seconds max or increase the amps.

Absolutely, the metal can never be too clean. In my experience I've used alcohol wipes on critical stainless to avoid any contamination but unless something out of the ordinary has been on the metal (carbon) idk that acetone would be necessary. As far as the PPE goes, I would definitely avoid the shorts and t-shirt ordeal, jeans and a basic flannel is a step in he right direction and yeah it's hot but welding is hot work and you need to play it on the safe side. I've broken a toe in non steel toe boots I can't imagine what would've happened if I was in sandals. Be safe buddy and good luck

Thanks, Farmwelding. I was barely melting the surface. I think I was probably getting just the right amount of penetration to weld something the size of the filler rod itself to the steel. I really look forward to trying again, without the added bonus of reflected UV in the face.

I started out by striking an arc and moving the torch with no filler, just to see if I could melt the steel. It was much easier than I thought, but I did learn that you don't want to rest your torch hand on the metal you're welding.

Yep especially when you move into aluminum or very hot tig-don't run it on the metal-or get a tig finger. Get at though. You'll need all the hood time you can get. Then again who doesn't.

I do have a TIG finger. I was not absolutely sure what it was for, but I was positive I needed it.

Welding arc produces uvc which is the most dangerous to us and is cumulative. So why does the home/hobby welder need less protection than tradies given burns happen within minutes?
Sunscreen
Long sleeves and pants
Leather footwear
Gloves
Shield
Someone said flannel. You gotta be kidding who wants to be a human roman candle?


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Yeah between flannel and frayed jeans I don't know what lights up quicker. Is sunscreen necessary? I've never heard of people using it really before this. Is this common in certain types or all welding?

Can I put sunscreen in my eyes next time?

Chips O'Toole wrote:Can I put sunscreen in my eyes next time?

-10/10 would not reccomend. This is one of the perks of auto dark hoods-you don't always have to lift it up-or you flash yourself- and don't put your foot on the pedal until you are ready because I have flashed myself with AC before and that is one hell of a bright arc at 180 amps for two seconds.

Someone told me about suede bibs for helmets, to close the gap in front of the neck. I ordered a piece of leather from Amazon, and I will secure it in place as soon as I get it.

Farmwelding wrote: A flap disk or a wire wheel will be fine. Just make her shiny.
Acetone is very critical for carbon steel especially for practice stuff. Mostly for aluminum.
And clean every side-top, bottom, and sides.

No, no, and no.

Wire wheels tend to polish heavy mill scale instead of remove it. Grinding wheel or flap wheel removes it.

Some stuff is very clean already - but cleaning won't hurt it.
Metal type is not the deciding factor, what's on it is.
Oily steel is just as important to clean as oily aluminum.

Clean where you weld on thick stuff. If it's thin enough to pull impurities from the backside, then also clean it.
Imagine cleaning every surface on a 3 foot wide piece just to weld the edge - doesn't make sense.

Farmwelding wrote:Is sunscreen necessary? I've never heard of people using it really before this. Is this common in certain types or all welding?

Since tig doesn't throw sparks, thinner shirts tend to be worn.
Or no sleeves and use sunblock on arms (not me).

At 200 amps I sunburned my chest tig welding with a single layer of long sleeve t-shirt.

At an acquaintances shop, he told me when they fire up his 500 amp wire feed, it will sunburn you through your jeans - so he has them wear a leather apron.

Another welder told me he gets burns on his neck from welders near him - so he needs sunscreen.

I guess if never thought of the wore wheel that way. I guess that could not work perfectly. As for cleaning I guess my mind immediately went to small pieces for solely practice. I'm used to doing this so I just clean both sides to do practice in both sides running beads. And I figured for steel shiny surface gets you there. I guess sometimes you think back on the more recent experiences you've had and forget about some of the junk metal. I guess the moral to the story is clean the hell out of your material for tig welding especially when starting. Back to the main thought on my mind. Why does the wire wheel only polish. I always thought of it as a removed of the junk on top since it turns shiny like grinding except less material removal? I beleive you Dave but just wondering why?

And as for the sunscreen I guess that make sense. 500 amps on a wire feeder must do a number on skin. I'll bet those mig nozzles are hot at the end of the day.

Chips O'Toole wrote:Someone told me about suede bibs for helmets, to close the gap in front of the neck. I ordered a piece of leather from Amazon, and I will secure it in place as soon as I get it.

Yeah. Just a little bibby flap in the front and (for me) one on the back to block light. Turns a $30.00 helmet into a nice $30.00 helmet . Little hook&loop patches of velcro from the craft store work well.

The front is nice to prevent welders tan, but the back one is for visibility.

I wear gloves and sleeves because I'm scots-irish and burn like a ginger in the sun.

You know Pete I'm gonna have to try that. I have a Tillman leather flap on the front cause I was running a lot of self-shielded flux core and stick and getting angrier than a hive of bees with all the spatter. I might have to get one for the back and try it out. Although being in school it is still nice to see the reflection of what jerk is tapping on my shoulder and asking me something so I can know who to yell at once I'm done.

Wire wheel is for cleaning up welds between passes


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Coldman wrote:Wire wheel is for cleaning up welds between passes


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Makes sense now- hence the name stringer wire wheel at least for that type. That makes a million times more sense now.

You mean nobody flashes you from behind with one of those little led-flash lights?

Not that you should ever do that to any one on Monday when you get to class. I would never do anything like that.

I will have to fire up the knot wheel and see what, exactly, it takes off. It's great for MIG, but it sounds like it's not the thing for TIG.

For gosh sakes don't TIG while wearing a "polo" type shirt. A couple of years ago I ordered a new Alpha 200 and got all my gear together while waiting on shipment. Tig gloves, protective sleeves, had my Ar bottle full. I was ready to go when the big day came and the brown truck came by.
I came home from work, unboxed everything and her set up. So excited I put my sleeves on pulled, put on my gloves, put on my crappy old auto darkener hood I have been using for mig and fired her up.
After months of watching Jody's videos I was actually able to run 3 or 4 beads before I shut her down and finished my real work day.
I was wearing an open collar knit shirt and forgot to put on a cape or jacket. The helmet didn't cover my neck. Within a day or so I had no skin on a triangle at the front of my neck where the knit shirt buttons lay open. Third degree burns. Raw neck meat.
Had to put Neosporin on that crap for two weeks.
Told dermatologist about it the next time I saw him for my annual skin check and he hit the ceiling.

I added a leather neck protector flap and now never let any bare skin be exposed to arc light.

I shake my head when I see people on tv tig welding without even gloves on.