Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi guys I'm new here and was in autobody several years ago and got pretty good at mig welding. But after watching these vids on YouTube I have found my self with a power tig 250ex, water cooler, strait argon, and a gas lens kit! Thanks Jodie lol. I'm in the process of building a smoker and I know I could tack and stick weld it but I mainly want the practice of tig. I'm welding 1/4 mild steel what is the best size tung. Filler rod and Amps and frequency to be welding these corners? Any help would be great. By the way really love the vids there great thanks Jodie

http://www.millerwelds.com/resources/ca ... ulator.php Here is a link to answer your specific question. If you have an Iphone you can get this app. It is through MIller and it is fairly accurate. I highly recommend it. Welcome to the group.

I think it's spelled "Jody".

Oscar wrote:I think it's spelled "Jody".

If he buys a Tigfinger and a tee-shirt, he can spell it however he wants???

Well I bought 3 tig-fingers. What do I get to do?

Oscar wrote:Well I bought 3 tig-fingers. What do I get to do?

Oh, hell, you DON'T want to know where my unsupervised mind wandered to on THAT question....

Steve S

I meant ON THESE FORUMS!! lol

LMAO!

Back to "normal"...

I suppose I'll chime in to help... 1/4" mild steel, I would use 1/8 tungsten 2% lanthanated, 1/8 70s6 filler and run somehwere in the 150-175 range on the amperage. Just try it out and see how it goes, if the puddle isn't getting down in the root or not catching both edges add 10 more amps or slow your travel speed. Also frequency doesn't apply to DC welding, that is a function reserved for AC tig. I haven't been tig welding long so I'm sure some veterans will tweak my answer and help you out even more...

Titus,
When you're welding outside corners you will suffer from shield gas being lost from the shape of the corner. If you go back a few inches and tape foil bent in a 90* it will cause the gas to stay in your weld zone longer. You can also tape foil across the inside to retain gas that escapes though the gap in the joint.

Miller's recommendations are pretty close to the mark. You didn't mention a foot pedal, but if you have one it will make this job a lot easier to do with the ability to change amps as needed for differences in the gap. I'd tack about every three inches to maintain your gap and skip around to limit warping, it isn't much different than welding sheetmetal in that regard.

Len

I over looked the corner part so the settings I sent you the link to may be different because I looked up a butt joint. I don't know how much it will change but you can play with the calculator for yourself.

Come on now dad, foot pedals are standard issue if you buy direct from Everlast! You oughta know dat!

Jody !! Sorry lol thanks for the input I'm working on it slowly I will post some pics of some welds this weekend and hopefully you guys can point out the good the bad the ugly !

Make sure your metal is clean! No rust or mill scale