Welding Tips and Tricks

Hope I explain this right. I am trying to figure out how to tig weld aluminum on an inside corner.......like welding inside the corner of a box. I just did this on a home project and it did not go so well. The welding went fine on other parts of the project so it comes down to me.

Is there a certain method here?

Yes keep a clean tungsten , and have enough stick out to get a nice tight arc , and make sure your surface is clean.

Do you start at the inside or outside of the corner?

This is what I was working on. I do the occasional welding that is not at home
I scored this bottle for $30 and decided to build this carrier. The carrier is aluminum and the guard for the gauges is stainless. The part that I had trouble with was at the base where the one inch tube meets.

rahtreelimbs wrote:Do you start at the inside or outside of the corner?

I don't understand what you are talking about, sorry.

thespian wrote:

rahtreelimbs wrote:Do you start at the inside or outside of the corner?

I don't understand what you are talking about, sorry.

Do you start at the tight inside of the corner and work out or so you start away from the corner and work in.......hope that is better.

rahtreelimbs wrote: Do you start at the tight inside of the corner and work out or so you start away from the corner and work in.......hope that is better.

It doesn't matter, but I personally find it easier to start away from the inside joint so that by the time I get there, the base metal is much hotter from the welding. Enough stick out and a good torch angle is your key.

I've never seen anyone make a gauge cage to protect their horizontally oriented gauges... I've always seen them oriented vertically. It seems to me it would be difficult to see them from your table or glance over at them to insure your flow/tank level was good

Are you talking about this blurry part?

Oscar wrote:Are you talking about this blurry part?

Yep......my aluminum tig welding is so so at best......I royally sucked on that corner.......can't learn unless you try.

That arrow clears things up.

I would run the weld into the corner from the right and make the turn to come out all in one weld.

Starting in that corner is a little tricky with the torch rotation. Both methods are not easy.

You can also run the weld in from the right, stopping at the corner. Then weld in from the left while feeding wire from behind the puddle - also no fun.

Longer stick out is the key to seeing in the corner in my opinion.

However, I would likely not have welded the entire corner anyway - looks unnecessary.

MinnesotaDave wrote:
However, I would likely not have welded the entire corner anyway - looks unnecessary.

I agree.....just trying things out.

I would have pointed straight into the corner first, and stood on the pedal to get it fused good. Then I would have tracked out to each side. I learned a while back to always aim your welds so you're not ending in the most uncomfortable/unreachable portion of the weld joint. So far that advice has worked great for me.

Thanx everyone!

I'm not sure if posting links to another Forum is allowed.

I've kinda had the same journey recently, got there in the end.

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/thre ... -al.72563/