Welding Tips and Tricks

Hey all, new here and new to welding. I have done a little stick welding at work in the past but that has been a few years. I am an elevator constructor and in construction we weld the elevator rail brackets to the building steel. I am now in the service end of it so it has been about 6 years since I welded. I am currently restoring a 67 GTO which will need some body work and am in the process of trying to make some chassis repairs which will require welding. An engineer in one of the buildings I visit during my week used to do a lot of stainless steel welding years ago and at one time owned his own company. He talked me out of a wire feed system and has been teaching me sporadicly how to TIG and recently sold me a Maxstar 150S and set me up with everything I need. The unit he sold me he used maybe 2 times so it is basically new. I am now in the process of burning holes in my chassis and getting ready to throw the tank and welder through the window of my garage. I am ready for all the pointers you guys have and greatly appreciate any help.
Thank You in advance.
Bill

Need some info on welding parameters in order to give some advice. (steel, torch set-up, filler metal, machine settings)

TIG is a good choice for body work, IF you're already good at low-current TIG. MIG is much more forgiving for the less experienced welder on light-gauge steel.

You mentioned body work. You said you were blowing holes in the chassis. These are different animals.

The body metal will be quite thin-- 22 to 26 gauge, requiring an .040" or 1/16" tungsten, and very low amps. Say under 25.

The chassis will be about 11 gauge (1/8") to 3/16", and can be welded between 40-65 amps, depending on how long you need the heat. A 1/16" or 3/32" tungsten is more appropriate here.

Get some scrap of the right thickness, put it on the bench, and practice, practice, practice. For chassis work, you should consider back-purge, or at least backing bars, for strength. Spend some time viewing Jody's TIG tips videos. I've been doing this for years, and I consider it time well spent. There is ALWAYS something new to learn.

Good luck, and please report back soon.

Steve

Bill, I have one more comment.

Your previous experience is stick welding, so you are accustomed to seeing the weld puddle form almost immediately when you strike an arc. With TIG, if the puddle forms immediately, the hole happens immediately after. On thin material in particular, it should take a second or two with your heat in the same place to see a puddle, about 2-3 times the dia. of your tungsten, form. Otherwise, you'll never keep up with the heat, and get a hole every time.

Steve

You got a foot pedal with that machine? Get one if yuo dont, itll help.

Secondly, when you start your arc, start real low on the foot pedal, just enough for the HF to arc, and SLOWLY build up your puddle. Very important with tig, thats why the higher end machines have up slope and down slope. Also when your done welding, slowly let off the foot pedal, dont just break your arc all at once.

Thanks for the tips, I belive the tungsten I am using may be too thick based on the sizees mentioned here. I would say this part of the chassis is about 1/8" thick at best but the plate I am adding is 3/16". The sheetmetal for the body work is 16 gauge. I decided to stop blowing holes in the chassis and go back to thicker angle iron which is a little more forgiving and work my way down. I will also go back to how I first started to learn and use just the torch on scrap steel and sheet metal to practice moving the puddle without the filler. I also have started reading and watching Jodies tips. The machine I have is a small Miller Maxston S , not sure about using a foot pedal with this, I will look into it.
Thank You,
Bill