[Aaron]

Hello my name is Aaron I am desperate to learn to be a good Tig welder. I love to learn and hope to be able to gain a ton of knowledge and ask all my questions. Thank you

[tweake]

welcome. feel free to ask any questions.

[bobthebiker]

So, I don't really have any practice with TIG, but asking the right questions, or watching the right people's videos on how to best get started are good places, depending if you're a visual learner, or what your learning pace is. Once you learn how to run it, much like my own experience with stick, mistakes will be made, but you have to practice and keep trying if you're going to get good. Welding in general is part practice, part asking how, and part learning what settings to use with what jobs/materials.

[Aaron]

welcome. feel free to ask any questions.

So I'm having a bit of a struggle feeling like navigating the site is tough I'm of course not tech savvy. You said I could ask questions I thought I posted questions to you with no response. Maybe they didn't go through. Any way where is everyone? Are there only 5 or 6 people on here. I am trying to learn why my arc shot up the tungsten I to the cup instead of establishing clean arc start downward toward the base metal? I'm pretty sure I have the right setup now 2% lanthanated tungsten medium back cap stubby gas lens from weldmonger with a furick #8 clear cup 20cfh 3/8 or so of stick out. The one thing I was thinking is my ground cable was possibly coming into contact with my torch line even though it has a leather wrap. Or maybe the ground was not good I'm just not sure. Hoping to learn why the torch does this for any reason so I can diagnose my issue. Hoping tomorrow I can hit the shop and start running beads on coupons and get some torch time in. Thanks for the help.

[tweake]

welcome. feel free to ask any questions.

So I'm having a bit of a struggle feeling like navigating the site is tough I'm of course not tech savvy. You said I could ask questions I thought I posted questions to you with no response. Maybe they didn't go through. Any way where is everyone? Are there only 5 or 6 people on here. I am trying to learn why my arc shot up the tungsten I to the cup instead of establishing clean arc start downward toward the base metal? I'm pretty sure I have the right setup now 2% lanthanated tungsten medium back cap stubby gas lens from weldmonger with a furick #8 clear cup 20cfh 3/8 or so of stick out. The one thing I was thinking is my ground cable was possibly coming into contact with my torch line even though it has a leather wrap. Or maybe the ground was not good I'm just not sure. Hoping to learn why the torch does this for any reason so I can diagnose my issue. Hoping tomorrow I can hit the shop and start running beads on coupons and get some torch time in. Thanks for the help.

i moved your question over to the tig section so others can join in.
yes its quiet here. so you may have to wait a while. on the plus side you don't have to deal with all the trolls etc that busy sites tend to have.

btw whats is FA$TL!F€KU$TOM$ ?

[Aaron]

Fast Life Kustoms is my shop name my brand. I have a body shop and have been a body repair man for a long time. I'm 46 I started in the body shop learning at 15. I've always wanted to have my own shop and now I do. So this is why I'm learning Tig welding. I want to be better and grow and be able to do the best work i can do. I was welding a run on the bottom of a door with my miller 135 and going so slow and still have distortion and I was fed up so Tig welding is a must for me now. I want to be good at Tig welding and provide better quality for my customers.

[cj737]

MIG or TIG, body panels will distort. As you weld, the patch expands. As you continue to weld and restrict the panel, it shrinks while it cools and then distortion around it and within it comes. Not many ways around it.

The best (very experienced body fabricators) will weld on a short stitch, then hammer and dolly. They go slow, skip around a lot, and have enormous patience to let the panel stay within a temperature range to reduce the distortion.

(Think rectangular patch) Others, tack just 2 corners on the same end. They leave enough gap around the patch. Then they weld the vertical straight out on one end. Let the patch cool. Then they weld one horizontal the whole way. Let it cool. Then the other horizontal. Let it cool. Then they do the other vertical end. They still hammer throughout.

And still others use MIG and just do hundreds of small tacks. After, they grind the tacks, do the hammer work, and so on. You know bodywork. It’s 99% prep and patience to get the best results.

A tip I’d offer: switch from ER70 steel filler to SiliconBronze. You can TIG with it and MIG with it (it requires 100% Argon for both processes). The benefit is it requires less amperage because you want the metal hot to melt the filler, not liquifying the filler and base metal. It’s “brazing” not welding. A bit of practice and you might prefer it. It’s softer, more ductile, and won’t rust. Super easy to finesse afterwards prior to paint prep.

[Aaron]

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MIG or TIG, body panels will distort. As you weld, the patch expands. As you continue to weld and restrict the panel, it shrinks while it cools and then distortion around it and within it comes. Not many ways around it.

The best (very experienced body fabricators) will weld on a short stitch, then hammer and dolly. They go slow, skip around a lot, and have enormous patience to let the panel stay within a temperature range to reduce the distortion.

(Think rectangular patch) Others, tack just 2 corners on the same end. They leave enough gap around the patch. Then they weld the vertical straight out on one end. Let the patch cool. Then they weld one horizontal the whole way. Let it cool. Then the other horizontal. Let it cool. Then they do the other vertical end. They still hammer throughout.

And still others use MIG and just do hundreds of small tacks. After, they grind the tacks, do the hammer work, and so on. You know bodywork. It’s 99% prep and patience to get the best results.

A tip I’d offer: switch from ER70 steel filler to SiliconBronze. You can TIG with it and MIG with it (it requires 100% Argon for both processes). The benefit is it requires less amperage because you want the metal hot to melt the filler, not liquifying the filler and base metal. It’s “brazing” not welding. A bit of practice and you might prefer it. It’s softer, more ductile, and won’t rust. Super easy to finesse afterwards prior to paint prep.

Hey yes thank you for responding this is what I'm talking about. So I hear you what your saying and yes this is the technique and slow is way. I even take the 1/16 cut off wheel and cut the spaces back out at the seam of the butt joint to keep the metal from pushing into itself. The biggest problem is the hard wire and the weld hump after from mig welding it's tough to hammer and dolly it has to be ground or flat enough that you can dolly the low and hammer the high to move the panel how you want. I will put some pics here.

[Aaron]

MIG or TIG, body panels will distort. As you weld, the patch expands. As you continue to weld and restrict the panel, it shrinks while it cools and then distortion around it and within it comes. Not many ways around it.

The best (very experienced body fabricators) will weld on a short stitch, then hammer and dolly. They go slow, skip around a lot, and have enormous patience to let the panel stay within a temperature range to reduce the distortion.

(Think rectangular patch) Others, tack just 2 corners on the same end. They leave enough gap around the patch. Then they weld the vertical straight out on one end. Let the patch cool. Then they weld one horizontal the whole way. Let it cool. Then the other horizontal. Let it cool. Then they do the other vertical end. They still hammer throughout.

And still others use MIG and just do hundreds of small tacks. After, they grind the tacks, do the hammer work, and so on. You know bodywork. It’s 99% prep and patience to get the best results.

A tip I’d offer: switch from ER70 steel filler to SiliconBronze. You can TIG with it and MIG with it (it requires 100% Argon for both processes). The benefit is it requires less amperage because you want the metal hot to melt the filler, not liquifying the filler and base metal. It’s “brazing” not welding. A bit of practice and you might prefer it. It’s softer, more ductile, and won’t rust. Super easy to finesse afterwards prior to paint prep.

[tweake]

Fast Life Kustoms is my shop name my brand.

thats considered spamming. so your signature has been removed.
no self promotion here please.

[cj737]

Fast Life Kustoms is my shop name my brand.

thats considered spamming. so your signature has been removed.
no self promotion here please.

Really? That’s not Spam(ming). Spamming is sending unwanted adverts and emails. He’s merely linking a professional trade name within his signature. It was you who asked, others might have already inferred it. It’s an awfully silly interpretation, Tweake. We’ve had Superior Welding here for years (among many others).

Aaron - if for some reason the signature is sustained, change your avatar name to FastLifeCustoms and you can kill two birds with one marble.

[tweake]

Fast Life Kustoms is my shop name my brand.

thats considered spamming. so your signature has been removed.
no self promotion here please.

Really? That’s not Spam(ming). Spamming is sending unwanted adverts and emails. He’s merely linking a professional trade name within his signature. It was you who asked, others might have already inferred it. It’s an awfully silly interpretation, Tweake. We’ve had Superior Welding here for years (among many others).

Aaron - if for some reason the signature is sustained, change your avatar name to FastLifeCustoms and you can kill two birds with one marble.

its a really common spam trick, we get it a lot on other forums. its commonly done by bots, but its also done by people. the standard ruse is to do meaningless small talk.
i was being gentle, its normally an automatic ban for doing that.

superior welding is completely different due to his connection to jody and thats hes also a mod.

if you want to promote your shop, put pics up on Instagram.

[cj737]

Seems to me that stumping for an equipment vendor is much more a breach than having a meaningless bit of text in your signature. Was it even a hyperlink?

Rules, rules, rules for everyone until there is an exception.

[tweake]

i'm just using common forum rules. if someone wants to promote themselves here they are free to ask jody/admin.