Welding Tips and Tricks

I started tig welding 8 days ago and have been progressing quickly in school. I lay out 1G 2G and 3G welds pretty good, nice flat caps with good tie ins and straight beads, good looking root as well. I grabbed a 4 inch pipe at school and attempted to do a 6G weld just for the hell of it. Surprisingly the first two passes were decent while walking the cup but as I started to fill up each pass became more rough and the cap looked just awful, beads were not straight or uniform. I'm having a hard time with positioning and definitely with getting comfortable using my left and to control the torch instead of my right hand on the right side of the pipe. Any 6G tips especially ones involving positioning would be appreciated, I went back to doing 3G after attempting 6G and it went a lot smoother than before I had done the 6G

You're probably going to think I'm nuts, but if you want to get good with the left hand, teach yourself other things left-handed.

A dear friend had a pool table in his living room. I taught myself to shoot left-handed. My right-hand game improved, just from having to teach myself the basics again. I can even throw darts half-decent left-handed, and I'll swing a hammer with either hand, as the need calls for.

While you're still learning 6G, and nobody is testing, grind each pass smooth so you have a fresh, even start each time. There's a tendency when starting, for an unevenness in the root pass to be magnified in the hot pass, and further magnified in the cap. Your grinder can take that out of the equation, until you no longer need to do it.

Keep practicing. It'll all come together, and you'll wonder why you didn't get it sooner. Happens to us all.

Steve S

Thanks Steve, appreciate the advice. I actually have a pool table in my living room too, will try playing left handed
Also will try grinding and making each pass smooth.

See if they have a junk torch you could bring home a practice with your left hand, that how I got comfortable. And do dry runs vefore you light up to help you get used to all the body repostioning that goes on in a 6g position.