Welding Tips and Tricks

These practice pieces are the first thing I've ever TIG'd outside of practice beads. It's 16 gauge sheet metal with 1" pieces of black iron pipe cleaned up. Gas flow was experimented with between 15-20 cfh. 55 amps. 1/16 cerriated tungsten. 1/16 308 rod because my weld supply didn't have 70s2 or 6. Besides the rod type, I just wanted to get the technique right and beads appropriately sized.

I played with the pulse function, but this Lincoln 200 TIG only goes up to 20. I tried 15 and none. Please comment and advise.

I would personally be running that around 90-120amps. Probably on that lower end. But definitely not less than 75A.

1/16" tungsten is too small, 3/32" or 1/8" will make it easier for you. You're trying to weld very dissimilar thicknesses which is a hard first project. Try practice running beads on each material separately until you figure out the settings. Get comfortable with larger diameter filler on the pipe, probably use 3/32". You might experiment with different types of tungsten too, I have better luck with lanthanated than ceriated. If you're trying to use the pulse to control heat input, turn it down to 1 or 2pps, but with that thick pipe I wouldn't use it at all. Maybe practice with it on the thin material. I find that pulse has to either be less than 3pps, or greater than 35 or it makes my brain skip a beat. When you get ready to try the pipe to plate weld again, primarily weld on the pipe because it can take more heat, and slightly walk the puddle onto the plate to keep it from getting too hot. If you have thinner wall pipe, or thicker plate, it will be easier to weld to materials with similar thicknesses to start out.

Both good pointers. Thanks guys. I'll have to order some lanthinated because I don't think any of the local suppliers carry it.

Shaky6 wrote:Both good pointers. Thanks guys. I'll have to order some lanthinated because I don't think any of the local suppliers carry it.

I'll bet they do!

tungstendipper wrote:

Shaky6 wrote:Both good pointers. Thanks guys. I'll have to order some lanthinated because I don't think any of the local suppliers carry it.

I'll bet they do!

Hard to believe but my LWS only stocks 1.5% lan

I'm a ceriated fan.

LtBadd wrote:Hard to believe but my LWS only stocks 1.5% lan

Richard,

My lws does stock most, but in small QTYs. I just wanted to comment that there's an Airgas by me and when I was in there they told me that about 90% of tungsten they sell is thoriated. I was kind of puzzled why since it's known to have radiation...but they said it's because PG&E is their main customer and that is pretty much all they use. He said about 7%-8% of their tungsten sales are ceriated, and that they rarely have anyone ask for lanthanated. My lws is only about 5 miles away, but a small family run shop, and they're the ones that stock most, including 2% lanthanated which I bought from them.

It makes me wonder why a large company like PG&E would use so much thoriated given the known health issues if you inhale the dust when grinding.

On most of the online forums and on YT, thoriated is rarely recommended and lanthanated seems the most common.

I bought 2% lanthanated to be safe but Is welding with thoriated better? Do more people in the real world use more thoriated like PG&E ?

Alan

Thoriated sucks, I think it is just what has been around the longest. E3 is a little better than thoriated. Ceriated and lanthanated are the best of what I have used.

Thoriated is about all I use. I have other stuff, but I do 95% with it.