Welding Tips and Tricks

I bought a Lincoln square wave TIG 200 a few months back and this is the first time I have had a chance to do some practice. It didn't go all that well. I had some. 063 tread plate. I was getting really frustrated. I moved to so he 1/8 inch flat bar. The results didn't improve. I went back inside the house to watch more of Jodi's videos. I believe I had contaminated my tungsten. After breaking that off and grinding an new tip and putting my settings to the basic that Jodi recommended things improved greatly. I can finally lay a bead and add some rod. I'm an much more happy with the way things are progressing. My last beads I tried my basic stubby gas lens kit I bought from Jodi. I believe it works better than the regular cups. My settings; 130amps, 120htz, and frequency at 70, gas lens and #8 cup. 3/32 2% lanthenated tungsten. 100% argon at 20cfh.

Better then my first ones

Well they look a lot nicer on the 1/8" than the tread plate. How did you break your tungsten and why did you choose to break it? Sometimes it does get a lot built up but usually I get a little and just grind it because breaking it can cause problems with tungsten cracking making your arc do weird things. But overall for your first time not bad at all especially on aluminum. Just make sure to watch the puddle to get a consistent bead shape/width across the plate. Hope to see more in the future.

stefuel wrote:Better then my first ones

Yup. As long as you don't practice on the actual project you're good to go.

Farmwelding wrote:Well they look a lot nicer on the 1/8" than the tread plate. How did you break your tungsten and why did you choose to break it? Sometimes it does get a lot built up but usually I get a little and just grind it because breaking it can cause problems with tungsten cracking making your arc do weird things. But overall for your first time not bad at all especially on aluminum. Just make sure to watch the puddle to get a consistent bead shape/width across the plate. Hope to see more in the future.

I was watching a video by Mr. TIG. He said when your tungsten gets contaminated that you just have to break it off and start fresh. I figured that was common practice.

ttreb4 wrote:

Farmwelding wrote:Well they look a lot nicer on the 1/8" than the tread plate. How did you break your tungsten and why did you choose to break it? Sometimes it does get a lot built up but usually I get a little and just grind it because breaking it can cause problems with tungsten cracking making your arc do weird things. But overall for your first time not bad at all especially on aluminum. Just make sure to watch the puddle to get a consistent bead shape/width across the plate. Hope to see more in the future.

I was watching a video by Mr. TIG. He said when your tungsten gets contaminated that you just have to break it off and start fresh. I figured that was common practice.

Mr. Tig has a bad reputation around here but for practicing you are going to contaminate tungsten a whole lot and by breaking it you will burn through tungsten too quickly. If it gets too big of a ball then I may cut it off with a cut off wheel but I haven't had that big of a ball for awhile now since I try to stop whenever I hit the tungsten. Breaking it though can cause cracking and other problems though.

Farmwelding wrote:

ttreb4 wrote:

Farmwelding wrote:Well they look a lot nicer on the 1/8" than the tread plate. How did you break your tungsten and why did you choose to break it? Sometimes it does get a lot built up but usually I get a little and just grind it because breaking it can cause problems with tungsten cracking making your arc do weird things. But overall for your first time not bad at all especially on aluminum. Just make sure to watch the puddle to get a consistent bead shape/width across the plate. Hope to see more in the future.

I was watching a video by Mr. TIG. He said when your tungsten gets contaminated that you just have to break it off and start fresh. I figured that was common practice.

Mr. Tig has a bad reputation around here but for practicing you are going to contaminate tungsten a whole lot and by breaking it you will burn through tungsten too quickly. If it gets too big of a ball then I may cut it off with a cut off wheel but I haven't had that big of a ball for awhile now since I try to stop whenever I hit the tungsten. Breaking it though can cause cracking and other problems though.

Thanks. I'll just grind it down and if need be ill try cutting it off.

If you clean the test piece better/more and lower your AC Balance, you'll get cleaner welds and reduce all the black soot and peppering. That includes wiping down your filler rod. Get a stainless steel brush or 2, dedicate them to only Aluminum, and use some Acetone to wipe down the rod and plate before lighting up your welds. You'll be surprised at how much cleaner things come out.

Also, breaking up the oxide layer with the brush does help initiating your puddle slightly. I prefer a frequency of 150hz to help focus the bead when practicing.