Welding Tips and Tricks

...who know how to weld. Working on an aluminum bike rack for my car (my daily driver, not my race car... ha), using 1" .080 wall 6061 and just now, welding on 3/8" plates on the ends that will attach to the trunk. Being able to just hold my hand steady (i use the word 'steady' quite loosely, more like using cursing to try to calm down my shaking hand) to try and follow the curve of the tube and attempt to control a puddle and not dip my tungsten into it is a battle that I usually lose at (hence why I've taken a break at the moment and am back on the computer with a gin and OJ in my hand lol). I've managed to run a decent bead for about a quarter way around each tube and then it's a battle of ugliness from there. TIG is HARD! So this is just a big props to you welders who have that skill, always impressive looking at some of the stuff you guys do, I'm like... How the f_k do they do that so easily????? K, time for another drink and then add a couple more tubes to the rack.

I'm at your level.
The magic answer is

Practice
Practice
Whinge
Smack head into table
Practice
Mumble obsenities
Repeat.
Buy more gas.......

Agreed, raticus.

Tube, especially the small stuff, is the holy grail. People who can weld out of position should be called Gandalf of Merlin and given a knighthood or something. But trying to get good is addictive.


Kym

Hand props are very important. If you can't rest your hand steady then the weld will show it. A TIG finger is also helpful for propping your hand on the material that you are welding. Practice is very important, but being comfortable is also a big part of it. Other things like torch angle, arc length and dipping are things to be thinking about while welding.

I will often use an adjustable pipe stand to lean on or rest my arm on to get steady. Old old old guy I used to work with. His favorite saying was if you can't get comfortable you can't weld.

Props is the operative word. Figure out a way to create a surface to rest against. In my case, I stumbled on a bunch of copper blocks. Or I use a bar clamp. I have OVE GLOVES, a nomex & kevlar glove marketed for oven work. Jody sells the TIG FINGER in two sizes. Get a couple. No one is steady while being burned. I sometimes worry I've got Parkinson's disease. I never believed I could avoid dipping tungsten. Propping works wonders!

ha, I wasn't asking for tips on hand props... not the 'props' I was referring to, but that is a good question... I do need to make some sort of setup that can be adjusted 10 different ways for 10 different angles of welding on the bench... but I'm still in the newbie stage, I don't even have a real vice yet, much less a real table (I welded myself a welding table but haven't come up with the money yet for the table top so for right now it's just a table frame that I have been using on occasion as a welding 'stand' of sorts, just using an old folding particle board cafeteria table that I found in the dumpster with a steel sheet clamped on to it for now)...

I bought both TIG fingers btw, the small and big one, but I can't seem to figure out how to get it to stay on my fingers... I'm thinking of getting the wife to sew me an entire glove out of the same material, a TIG Glove... would be a lot easier to use, at least for me.. or maybe I can convince Jody to make them

Take a look at this. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/vtr-ts3020fk
I just bought one of these last week. Jody has a video of it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnEKt55lBFg
There are more youtube videos about it too.

big gear head wrote:Take a look at this. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/vtr-ts3020fk
I just bought one of these last week. Jody has a video of it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnEKt55lBFg
There are more youtube videos about it too.

cool thanks, but I already have a table, this is it... just have to finish it... just copied a basic plan I found online, just need to spend the $220 at a local place here for a 3/8" steel top and some expanded steel for the bottom welder/bottle mount, and then go to town drilling and tapping holes in it and I should be good to go...

big gear head wrote:Take a look at this. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/vtr-ts3020fk
I just bought one of these last week. Jody has a video of it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnEKt55lBFg
There are more youtube videos about it too.

I just bought two of "those" at Harbor freight for $60ea with a 20% coupon. They sometimes come in handy.

I will agree that for some TIG seems to be the hardest to master. I also agree that the only way to improve is to practice. As far as the shakes, I have made arm rests to help limit that. Here is the last one I made out of scrap SS I had laying around. https://instagram.com/p/6JbkBsDlak/?tak ... iorwelding I know it won't help for welding around pipe or off of the welding table but if you can get some practice in with a steady hand it will help. Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing your projects.
-Jonathan

I have short, fat fingers. Leather gloves seldom fit well. XL gloves have fingers too long. L are a real struggle to put on, then nor very flexible. The Ove Glove is my answer. It insulates well, and fits. The TIG Finger fits over it and stays in place.