TIG is Hard

[westerner]

In my limited experience welding TIG as part of my job, one thing I finally recognized that took too long TO recognize-

When you drop a bit of rod into the puddle, the dang puddle grows, generally VERTICALLY. Cramps my style, generally....

 

[Janderso]

Jeff, try that weld with the 18 ga. material again, only this time without using any filler metal. Just focus on heat control and steady motion, and the result should be a neat, strong fusion weld. Whenever tipping two thinner pieces together at an angle like that, even at 90 degrees, simple fusion is the way to go. Just don't overheat your starting corner, or you'll lose your base metal.

Pontiac,
It’s interesting, that fusion method is much easier than using the stop, fill, proceed method.

 

[Janderso]

First, make sure you are on high frequency start ONLY. Not continous.
You will always have this issue with TIG. The best you can do is.control it... You can help it with a well insulated torch, and maybe a sleeve on the leads.
Also, if you have the option, turn down the HF. On older machines there's an adjustment available.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

I have a Miller 220 AC/DC, Tig, stick, MiG, ac for aluminum etc.
It’s a good machine to just dial in and forget it. Sometimes I adjust the feed or amps.

 

[General Zod]

In my limited experience welding TIG as part of my job, one thing I finally recognized that took too long TO recognize-

When you drop a bit of rod into the puddle, the dang puddle grows, generally VERTICALLY. Cramps my style, generally....

That is because you're not supposed to drop droplets of rod into the puddle; by the time the ball falls off the rod, it has grown to way too large of a size. With TIG, the rod size should generally be no larger than about ½ the diameter of the molten weld pool. By having a rod much smaller (in diameter) than the weld pool, allows one to carefully gauge the amount of filler metal introduced so that it does not grow unnecessarily large. The tip of the rod needs to be introduced to the leading edge and letting the molten pool wick only what it is given by the operator. One can obtain very shallow bead height, while still obtaining proper convex reinforcement and penetration if the correct amperage and overall technique is used.

 

[C-Bag]

All good stuff.

The guy who taught me to rebuild VW’s worked in Africa as a machinist on wildcat oil rigs. They had to recruit help from the natives and his test for welder was he’d get a piece of paper and a pencil and draw a nice long back forth bead pattern. Then ask the person to copy it. The guys who could draw and could do a nice controlled pattern he could train to weld. I found it was good practice when I was just doodling. He didn’t tell me where he got that but it works for me.

 

[erikmannie]

A corner joint on 18 gauge was a challenging way to start!

I started with stringer beads on 3/16” plate, and then butt joints on like .090”. I worked exclusively with mild steel for a long time before moving on to other materials.

Try obtaining a large quantity of .063”-.090” mild steel coupons, and then work on butt, lap, Tee, edge & fillet joints. I find corner joints to be the most difficult.

I would have expected you to dip the tungsten a lot more frequently; I know I do! I would rather have a tight arc, dip my tungsten a lot & then have to decontaminate & resharpen my tungsten rather than risk too long of an arc.

I weld with 2.5-3X cheaters, and sometimes I use 5X eyeglasses (in a different hood that has no cheater).

Wearing headphones & listening to music with a beat helps SO much with TIG. Ted Nugent Double Live Gonzo is a favorite for this.

 

[AGCB97]

A few things that I have found.
NUMBER 1 Being able to see the puddle and where you're going well. A good helmet is the best investment in welding well. When you use low amp settings as on thin metal, there's not as much light generated by the arc. You have to be able to lighten the shade of the helmet lens to make up for it. Experiment with reading glasses without the helmet to get the best diopter for the distance your eyes are normally from the work. Right and left eyes may not be the same. I use a reading glass with one of the lenses popped out as I only need closeup help on one eye. Keep all the lenses clean. A clear Pyrex cup helps to light up the puddle surrounding area.

As for skin protection: who wants to put on a leather jacket when the ambient temperature is above 80 degrees? Unless your weld overhead or there is danger of sparks FALLING on you, fabric welders sleeves with elastic top and bottom allow you to weld in comfortable clothing while protecting your skin from arc burn. These apply to TIG and MIG welding NOT stick or gas welding.

Practice, Practice, Practice, and have fun!

Aaron

 

[Janderso]

All good stuff.
I think I’ll leave my table set up and dedicate some time each day to practice
This welding process is so much harder than MiG welding But so much more versatile.

 

[C-Bag]

My main means of welding was OA as every shop I worked in had a rig. Along with a buzz box. I’d never used a MIG until the 90’s because nobody had one. Then I spent years of doing one fab job after another with that old Miller then a Lincoln 175. They were no brainers. One day they needed somebody to TIG weld and my time as a OA worked good even though I had no idea what I was doing technically. As guy who was a real TIG welder came over and trouble shot for me and gave me some tips. Mostly I suffered from not being able to see because I’d not yet went to reader glasses and I had a cheap helmet. There are several guys on YT who say not to start out on MIG. Dunno why. Welding is welding…..

 

[General Zod]

There are several guys on YT who say not to start out on MIG. Dunno why. Welding is welding…..

MIG is tricky because IMO, it all has to do with the electrode holder & the electrode (there are of course other factors). If you think about it like this, MIG is quite unique compared to TIG or SMAW: in TIG/SMAW (which are considered 'constant current') if you move the electrode away/to the joint, aka: changing the arc length (without doing anything else), you can clearly see the difference in the change of the arc; IE: with SMAW you can usually see the metal deposition go to crap if you increase the arc length way too much (unless you're using 6013s, then you can't see hardly anything because of the slag )

With MIG or any wire-feed process, because the electrode (the wire) is feeding out of the electrode holder at a high and usually constant rate, the situation is much different IMO. If you increase the stick-out (contact tip-to-work distance) even just a little bit, the wire is still being fed at the same exact rate, so the metal deposition is still happening in a fairly uniform fashion and you can still see a molten pool, but the added CTWD causes a resistive heating effect whereby there is more voltage drop in the wire than there should be. The voltage drop in the wire needs to be kept at the appropriate level, so that the arc intensity and amperage at the weld pool is not decreased. It's not like TIG/SMAW whereby those are CC processes, and if you increase the distance from the electrode to the weld pool, the machine typically increases the voltage and you can see the arc flare out. MIG/MAG are 'constant voltage', so the typical scenario for a beginner using MIG/MAG is holding too long of a stickout and not having a clue that this is affecting the voltage and amperage output because the resulting weld bead can still look fairly uniform, yet is way too cold; it was hot enough to melt the wire feeding out of the gun, but typically not hot enough to melt the base metal and create a proper fusion between the parts intended to be welded.

So I agree with those YT guys IF the person that is starting to weld doesn't have that knowledge I specified above, or is not being guided by someone who knows what happens when you do things wrong. That's just my take on it of course.