Welding Tips and Tricks

New TIG arrived today. Tech didn't speak a word of English, as expected.

He fired up the machine before he connected any of the leads.

Then proceeded to build the torch while leaning against the welding table he had already connected the ground to.

He couldn't get the tungsten to fit because the fitting (I'll learn the names eventually), was 1) a scosh to small and 2) the Tungsten hadn't been sharpened.

At that point, I (the one who's only seen a TIG on TV, YouTube, and store shelves) stepped in and took over the whole operation.

Afterall, how much worse could I do than this "technician)?

I left him to control the machine, after I built the torch with the power OFF.

Now, what you see in the pics are my very first attempts at TIG, after putting on my very thick reading glasses under my welding helmet.

4mm Angle iron (unbeknownst to me) the amps were set at 100. It became quite obvious something was wrong. When I tried to make the top row.

I told him to set it at 165 for the bottom pass. HUGE improvement but still a long way to go.

1mm sheetmetal was all on my own and the results are obvious.

Oh, can't forget the obligatory Q-tip. This actually happened at then of the second sheetmetal pass. I'm suprised it took that long given my naturally shaky hands. Sorry, the pic went off into the ether somewhere.

My take away is I need to learn how to move the torch as I'm feeding the puddle. I also need to develop a comfortable position for doing just that.

All-in-all, good learning experience.

The TIG was bought to do sheetmetal work. I have stick and MIG for the big stuff, so future posts will be my progress in welding sheetmetal, at least to this part of the forum.

Hope you enjoyed my folly.

To TIG any type of metal, the metal must be CLEAN. Your first two examples, that is trash condition material. Consider about 1amp/0.001 of material thickness for steel. 4mm would need the full 160 amps. 1mm would want about 40amps.

For gas flow, 2x cup size is a good rule of thumb. A #5 cup, run 8-10CFH.

cj737 wrote:To TIG any type of metal, the metal must be CLEAN. Your first two examples, that is trash condition material. Consider about 1amp/0.001 of material thickness for steel. 4mm would need the full 160 amps. 1mm would want about 40amps.

For gas flow, 2x cup size is a good rule of thumb. A #5 cup, run 8-10CFH.

The metal, while scrap, was freshly cleaned. The brown you're seeing are burn marks.

Thanks for the rest of the tips.

The angle iron shows millscale, that’s not clean. When people say clean, they mean grind the surface to a bright shiny, metal surface then chemically cleaned.

cj737 wrote:The angle iron shows millscale, that’s not clean. When people say clean, they mean grind the surface to a bright shiny, metal surface then chemically cleaned.

Interesting.

How do I chemically clean it after I grind it?
What chemicals are used?

I'm used to stick welding where milscale is not an issue.

Do I need to do the same for mig?

Thanks

TIG and MIG need clean shiny metal for best results and to eliminate porosity. Acetone is a common chemical to clean metal prior to welding.

Stick welding can burn through millscale because it’s DCEP. MIG too can burn through shallow scale, though not a best practice. TIG is DCEN and does not eradicate millscale by its process, so you need to remove it mechanically then clean the metal behind you chemically.

the 3 c's of welding, clean, clean and clean. o how i make that mistake.

you should really clean for stick welding to. but with stick its forgiving, with tig its not.

(right click, open image in new tab if needed)

Thanks guys. Being strictly stick before, I pretty much just knocked off rust and debris, then went for it. I never realized how milscale affects welds.

I’m self taught and forums like this one plus YouTube are a huge help.

Funny how the videos for beginners on YouTube never talk about cleaning.

Gunhappy wrote:Thanks guys. Being strictly stick before, I pretty much just knocked off rust and debris, then went for it. I never realized how milscale affects welds.

I’m self taught and forums like this one plus YouTube are a huge help.

Funny how the videos for beginners on YouTube never talk about cleaning.

Go straight to the source (on YouTube). His name is Jody Collier. Watch all his videos. You'll be a certified welder when you're done.

Gunhappy wrote:
Funny how the videos for beginners on YouTube never talk about cleaning.

watching the wrong video's.
look up weldingtipsandtricks video's. he mentions it a lot.
also weld.com has a lot o good ones as well.

one of the problems i've found of teaching yourself is there is a lot of poor info out there. often its simply leaving out bits or doing shortcuts without explaining why. it can be really difficult to sort through and work out why its done a certain way.

one video pissed me right off. he has a young fella weld on a trailer and says its a good weld when its obviously crap. the poor young fella will end up a bad welder because he thinks hes good when he isn't.

Jody keeps pushing CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN when Tig welding anything. Do your own test...wipe with acetone,,,clean millscale right off half of the piece. wipe it down with acetone...wipe filler rod...start on cleaned area and weld toward the millscale section.
I'd bet you will .. .. when you take note of the difference.