First time on a Tig torch.....

Ok, time for some p***taking

Finally managed to get some play time tonight,

3mm steel, 90A, 5lpm
Autogenous (sp) beads....


Beads with filler rod, too slow at front?


The back, lots of penetration?


Then I thought, what the heck, and tried a fillet, 110A


I tack welded the ends first, this worked beautifully, then tried a run but found the rod favoured one side or the other, so I cheated and went over the top, this is the result above. Whether or not it's the done thing, I was most impressed at how easy it was to reflow the mess, add a bit more get a possibly usable result?

Things I've learnt...
The torch seems awkward to hold and move, I tended to use my wrist than slide along?
It puts a massive amount of heat down, not sure what I was expecting but damn hot!
There's lots going on, kept forgetting to feed the rod and ended up with a red hot glove

Considering it's my first time ever with tig, what you reckon?

I found it much more enjoyable than Mig and that's fun, being able to see what's going on was good too, watching the metal pool up and the rod flowing in is good. No spatter, much slower, time to think, excellent fun.

So suggestions please, obviously need to practice beads while moving but what's a good thing to do???

Oh and I only dipped the tip once

I would say ur WAY to hot
I use 2% thoriated tungsten ground to needle sharp point on steel
Also match ur electrode size , filler size , cup size ,gas mixture ,flow and then ur amps

miller has some excellent videos for beginners on You Tube!

Ok, searching the tube now...

This was a 1.6mm Red electrode ground to a point for about two diameters length.

Will try a lower current.

Welding Tips and Tricks - TIG, MIG, Stick and a pantload of other info is a great place for info

not bad, your ready weld holes in leaky petrol tanks next. what machine pics?

Dave K2

I have seen worse, including my own early efforts.

#1 Running the torch near to the edge of a plate trying to just melt the corner is good practice for controlling the torch in a straight line. This is
without filler rod.
#2 Develop the co-ordination between weld pool movement and rod insertion at low (=slow) power, ignore lack of penetration. Add power and speed
as you get better, don’t try to run before you can walk. If your hand is getting as hot as you describe you probably need more rod protruding
from your hand.
#3 Selection of welding variables is very important, but you will be able to detect their effects , and modify them better, when you can control the
torch/rod effortlessly.
#4 Restrict yourself to downhand welds until you can do them in your sleep, then move to uphill and overhead welds.

Practice does not make perfect, but it does make better.
Hope this is of some use.
Rich

It's this machine...
TIG Welder, R-Tech Tig161, AC-DC Inverter TIG Welder AC-DC 240V 160Amp

From the video clips I've just watched, It looks like I was holding much too big a flame/arc, does this increase the heat laid down?

I agree it looks like you have too much heat.

Also, it almost looks like your laying your bead in the wrong direction.

For a right hander, with the torch in your right hand, you should be welding towards your left, dabbing fill rod with each slight movement.

That will give you that "roll of quarters" appearance.

Don't feel bad, it takes many hours to master TIG, be persistent, and have fun.
-Luke

CLEAN mtl is a must NO scale, rust ,or anything else just bright clean metal this includes under the edge of ur fillet

Yes,I was working right to left, filler in left hand.

Also looks like I had too much angle on the torch.

The metal was bright but I scotch-brighted it before starting, didn't use any solvent though.

Had about 6-7mm stick out and using a 7 shield.

A real welder told me once that welding is like painting it's all in the prep
he also said downhand is for pussies and asked to c mine ........ That cured me of that
But he claimed to be able to weld cat shit to a screen door.....never saw him try that
Practice is the key ! Good luck

I have read two different books that advised against going back over the top of a tig weld with another tig pass unless approved by a welding engineer. I don't know why.
[Is that what you meant by "back over the top"?]

Oddly, I've spoken with people who make things like pressure tanks where they tig the very inside, and then go over that to complete the weld with mig....

Yes that's what I meant, obviously I have a lot to learn

I have also read of doing a Tig root and Mig top, interesting stuff.

One thing I did find particulary hard was holding the torch, it seems very bulky and awkward to hold and press the trigger, maybe I should go straight for the foot pedal??

Two common neophyte TIG mistakes.

#1 Having insufficient electrode protruding in an attempt to avoid touching down, result, arc too long.
#2 Over compensating, because you cannot see the end of the electrode during #1 above, the following errors tend to occur :-
2.1 Changing the torch angle, making the angle much too shallow so you can see the electrode.
2.2 Correct #1 by having too much electrode protruding, then compounding this mistake by increasing gas flow to prevent the concomitant
contamination.

If, as I suspect, you are practising alone, the avoidance of bad habits, which may become ingrained, is paramount. Follow the textbook, exactly, until you have sufficient skill to produce excellent results when ignoring the textbook.

Stamp the date on your practice work, keep them to remind yourself of the progress you are making.

If I had one of your US dollars for every time I have dipped the tungsten into the weld pool I could repay the national debt of the USA.

Rich

Edit, I neglected to notice you are in the UK.

#14 Dave K2

#1 Foot actuated switch
+ Easier to control the torch, satisfactory for small, “on the bench” workpieces.
- You will get extremely pissed off with kicking the switch around the shop when you have large “walk around” workpieces.

#2 Torch actuated switch.
More difficult for a beginner.
You can improve the handling of the torch by breaking the electrode in half and using a short back cap, when access is limited you will have to do this anyway. Expensive electrodes are not optimally used.

MIG overlay is common, heat the work up and get a sound root run with TIG, subsequent passes on the pre-heated workpiece using the faster, cheaper, MIG process.

Health warning, my advice is based on extensive personal experience, but my experience stopped twenty years ago. End of health warning.

Rich

Good stuff, thanks,

yes I am practising alone with only you guys and YouTube to guide me

I will try the foot pedal out, I'm on the bench anyway so that's Ok.

Do you wear gloves on one hand, both hands, neither and just one of those tig-finger thingys on the torch hand to let it slide???

What do you wear to stop the non-torch arm getting sun-burn when it's too hot for a full weld jacket??

At this stage I will take any and all tips that are going

#18 Dave K2

#1 “yes I am practising alone with only you guys and YouTube to guide me”
From the internet, library, or your nearest bookshop, obtain, ASAP, information on the theory behind the welding practice, this will be applicable to many other welding processes, it is impossible to know too much.

#2 “Do you wear gloves on one hand, both hands, neither and just one of those tig-finger thingys on the torch hand to let it slide???”
I wore an ordinary industrial glove on my (left) torch hand and a standard TIG glove on my right hand, there is no right or wrong here, wear what you find comfortable. Caveat follows.

#3 “What do you wear to stop the non-torch arm getting sun-burn when it's too hot for a full weld jacket??”
I assume too hot refers to the ambient temperature and not the heat produced by the welding process. You need to protect your skin at all times from harmful rays emitted by the arc, closely woven material will usually suffice. If you need elbow to wrist protection from the heat the welding equipment suppliers sell (or at least they did, a brief Google did not produce any examples) leather arm guards fastened with straps and buckles, they work well. If they are no longer sold they could be homemade or try one of the guards archers use.

Rich

Clean means ground down to shiny metal, not just a clean surface. Hard to tell in your pics but it seems to be all mill scale.

Get a bunch of practice coupons and rotate them out. They are getting heat soaked and your third weld on one will require a lot less heat than your first. You will have to know how to deal with this, but uniformity at the beginning will help.

I tell people to understand the limits by:

1. doing a weld at half the amperage you think you need, waiting on the puddle to form, and then dropping some filler in.

2. Twice the amperage you think you need and still shoving the rod in and trying not to melt through.

This just to see what's at the extremes.

(tip: the rod cools the puddle.)

Dave K2 said:

Good stuff, thanks,

yes I am practising alone with only you guys and YouTube to guide me

I will try the foot pedal out, I'm on the bench anyway so that's Ok.

Do you wear gloves on one hand, both hands, neither and just one of those tig-finger thingys on the torch hand to let it slide???

What do you wear to stop the non-torch arm getting sun-burn when it's too hot for a full weld jacket??

At this stage I will take any and all tips that are going

Click to expand...

Self taught here so take my comments accordingly

Mostly weld repair alluminium castings these days so foot pedal is essential, still makes life much easier when doing one off jobs on various thickness of steels
& saves a lot of time reaching over to the welding set to adjust controls.

I mostly use a WP20 water cooled TIG torch & hold it more or less as one would hold a pencil, wrap the torch cable over the forearm to support the cable weight,
small & next finger trail along the workpiece to steady & guide.

The light weight goat skin / cow hide gloves are ok for thiner steel DC welding & do help with feel when new to the job. The small & next finger always suffer the heat
& one trick to reduce this problem is to cut some fingers from cheap heavy heat resistant gloves
(the type that look like what are sold as gardening gloves these days & have large diameter fingers) Slide these over the 2 outer fingers of both gloves as the left hand
also overheats from steadying the filler rod.
Having got used to them I tend to just use heavy insulated welding gauntlets these days though I rarely weld thin stuff (though even then the extra finger insulation
can still be appreciated)

You MUST cover exposed skin as Ultraviolet burns are dangerous & damned uncomfortable, bear in mind that UV can still burn the skin through a T shirt. Welders sleeves can be purchased or backless welders jackets both of which are easy to slip on. I would never TIG weld with either hand bare, for most smaller jobs an average weight sweat shirt & long gloves suffice.

For me one of the hardest hand skills to master was control & constant feed of the filler rod between fingers & thumb, master the technique & welding life will be much
more pleasant (lots of on line videos showing the techniques)

Regards

Brian