Welding Tips and Tricks

16ga mild steel. 1/16 tungsten and 1/16 filler, #8 cup and 60 amp. What did I do wrong? Thanks

No expert here... moving to slow and gass

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

Gas was set at 20cfh

Are you set on DC?

And what type of filler?

Also did you clean the metal?

DC- 1/16 70s-2. I wiped the metal down before welding.

Mark_k wrote:16ga mild steel. 1/16 tungsten and 1/16 filler, #8 cup and 60 amp. What did I do wrong? Thanks

looks like you didn't clean the mill scale off.
the 3 C's of welding, Clean Clean and Clean.

Mark_k wrote:DC- 1/16 70s-2. I wiped the metal down before welding.

There's some type of gas coverage problem.

How far is your electrode from the work?

I think tweake may have hit it, wiping down doesn't mean cleaning, use a wire wheel.

Was that base metal galvanized at some point? Some of that light-colored sooty debris reminds me of what I've seen when welding galavanized metal if the coating didn't get 100% removed before hand.

The base metal hadn’t been galvanized before that I am aware of. It’s a sheet that I purchased from Lowe’s to dial in my welder and get comfortable with tig again before welding up an HK receiver.

Stick out

Mark_k wrote:Stick out

your cup is in back to front.

It’s a series 9 torch.

Mark_k wrote:It’s a series 9 torch.

got a better pic?
it just doesn't look right.

Spartan wrote:Was that base metal galvanized at some point? Some of that light-colored sooty debris reminds me of what I've seen when welding galavanized metal if the coating didn't get 100% removed before hand.

That's why I asked if he had it on DC, looks like cleansing action...or something on there...

Cup looks a bit crooked, but correct. That's a non-gas lens cup, right?

Could put your electrode a bit in, but what about torch height?

It does look crooked for some reason.

To break it down, we know it's a contamination problem, that much is clear, the only question on if it's a lack of shielding issue or a dirty metal issue. If you're not long arcing to the extreme, your cup size and gas flow is more than enough. so either you have a loose connection that is sucking air into the shielding gas via the venturi effect or more likely your metal is oily, galvanized or has mill scale.

It almost looks like galvanization to me with all that sooty mess I've tigged over mill scale before and it looked somewhat like that, but a little bit different, but it's likely one of the two, regardless though you need to GRIND your plates down to bright shiny metal, not even a wire brush will do the job, you need a flap disc or hard rock to remove either.

It's really hard to overstate just how clean your metal should be while tigging for best results.

Cleaned the metal with a flapper disc before.

did you grind the mill scale off that?
did you clean the back side?
i don't see any marks from cleaning.

are you using argon or is it mig gas?
new bottle or one you have used before?

sorry for the noob questions but seen pro's get it wrong before.
you could have contaminated gas bottle.

the other thing is possibly amps and travel speed to low. hence the big dabs and blowing out the end.
pays to put a nice big tack on the end to give some mass for you to finish the weld on.

Mark_k wrote:Cleaned the metal with a flapper disc before.

that looks like way to slow travel speed.

This light-colored band looks galvanic to me. Try grinding just a bit deeper, and several inches around where you are going to weld. Also recommend increasing travel speed. Probably about twice the speed you are doing there. Start the puddle, dab, and get moving!

Thanks, it’s been about 3 years since I’ve held a torch. I feel it’s going to kick my ass for a while again. Thanks again. It is argon. It’s a bottle that I’ve had prolly 4 years or now. I didn’t clean the back side.

Tweake, there’s the line between clean and dirty.

i think spartan is about right with travel speed.
i suspect what might be happening is the steel is getting so hot that the stuff on the plate outside the clean aera is cooking off making it look like there is contamination happening .
plus probably sucking a lot of crap into the puddle from the back side.

try bumping up the amps to say 80 amp (not sure i don't do steel much) and running a much faster travel speed.

Mark_k wrote:Thanks, it’s been about 3 years since I’ve held a torch. I feel it’s going to kick my ass for a while again. Thanks again. It is argon. It’s a bottle that I’ve had prolly 4 years or now. I didn’t clean the back side.

Well, if you're trying to knock the cobwebs out, practicing on 16ga welds near the edge sure isn't going to make it easy on you or do much to build the confidence back up. Consider getting some 3/16" or 1/4" material to run some beads on away from the edges, and then maybe some lap joints from there.

Go back to the 16ga welds this weekend after you have a few extra hours of hood time getting familiar with the process again.

From the original pictures I’d say too low amps and moving too slow/ or too big of filler wire. On 16 ga I’d be at 80 to 100 amps and a 1/16 or more likely a 3/32 wire.

Edit: just read Tweake’s post, I’m late to the party but hes spot on.