Welding Tips and Tricks

Sometimes when tig welding my caps the filler metal will ball up. Why does it do this? Im using 3/32 309 stainless wire.

The most common causes will be a change in torch angle ( easily done without realizing on pipe joints ) causing the heat to focus on the filler more than the parent metal or the filler rod not being shielded sufficiently by the gas cover on approach to the puddle - again angles can play their part - or just not enough gas - the fact you say on a cap I would think this is the problem - in a V prep the argon tends to stay within the confines of the joint more easily - once on the cap run it's more likely to escape - try a bigger ceramic - or more flow & pay attention to rod / torch angle - maybe if you can give more information of the joint other members that do more Tig welding than myself can help further - I do some but not that regularly - I've only really had this problem on some aluminum joints in the past - not stainless - but it was always gas or angle related - I think aluminum just makes the problem more noticeable - as taking a hot rod out of the gas cover between dips will usually give this balling problem.

P.S. Welcome to the forum

Thanks, I'll try and turn up the argon. I tried turning it down a bit recently because I was afraid of pulling in oxygen, however I may have turned it down too much. Here is a picture of what I'm working on. This is a 1/8 rod on the cap which has never given me problems but when i tried 3/32 I kept having the balling up issue.

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Well that looks pretty good - I'd be happy enough with it - the fact you've had the problem after going to a smaller filler rod I'd think it's just the filler is getting too hot while not fully shielded - the smaller rod being more prone to it - I'd check how much gas your using & up it slightly if it's marginal - what size ceramic are you using & have you tried a gas lens to hopefully improve gas cover without huge flow rates.

I turned the flow up and this problem was fixed. Thanks!