Fired up my tig machine

I had some wonderful guy, yeah that is how I will describe him, from the front office doing the monthly safety walk around walk up behind me. I stopped welding and he looked at me and what I was welding and said " that looks easy".
I just kinda laughed and flipped my helmet down and continued to weld.
I should have challenged him to show me how easy it is.

Joe
 
:D the table or the work piece, the work piece was ground clean at the seam, the table is extremely challenging to keep from flashing here....
 
The first thing we had to do in class for each type of metal as we changed, was run beads without rod. We had to be able to do 6 consistent beads as the first graded work piece and then moved on to using rod. It is harder than it sounds and very helpful to learn to control the arc. I was 3 months into my TIG class when it went online for Covid. I still suck at it, but am getting better.

Cadillac said:
My problem with tig welding is I don’t do it frequently enough. I forget settings or just getting comfortable with it. I always practice alittle before the job, get the boogies out of my system. Much more confident with mig but like the challenges of tig. You’ll come around practice practice practice.
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I am really enjoying the autoset feature on my Miller. I can see why a pro might pooh pooh it, but as someone who doesn't weld on a regular basis it is awesome being able to just dial in the type and thickness of the metal and size of the wire or rod, and the machine does the rest. I can fine tune it but honestly the machine is a better welder than I am, so I take its advice.

Janderso said:
Tig welding is not easy.
I keep telling myself to practice. I ordered some cards so I have no excuse.
I was able to weld the coolant tank with some success using my TIG.
I used the grinder too :)
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Love my grinder, I probably remove half the metal I put on. ;) Not really that bad, but I'm not done welding until the grinding is done. I look forward to the day I can lay down a bead and just clean it with a wire brush.
 
the work piece. It just looks rusty in the pic.
TIG just takes some practice. Having someone who has some experience watching you can really help.
Another question is can you see the puddle good while you are welding? Most of the people that I have seen that really struggle, cannot see very well. I have to use a cheater lens now for that very problem.

Joe
 
Right now, I think I can see JUST good enough, arc length, and when to dip the rod, advancing along the weld are just a couple of things screwing with me....
 
You definately have the right gear to do the work that a primo welder there. Someone said above that try running beads without filler for practice, that is a good way to get a sense of the puddle And heat control. And if you think you dipped the tungsten pull it and regrind.
I wish Jody from weld.com lived in the neighborhood That guy is awesome except for the fact he makes me look like a blind man welding. It’ll come in time just don’t get discourage. Good luck!
 
Thank you....
 
@Aukai, you've bought yourself enough welder to do professional work, now you don't have as much to blame when welds turn out less than aerospace grade. Meant lightly on this friendly forum, of course!

The fusion weld practice that @Aaron_W mentioned is very, very useful for mastering heat control. You don't have to fiddle with filler rod, you eliminate the distraction here just to focus on heat control and fusion. You take two coupons of sheet metal (16 gauge bare steel) and tilt them together like a pup tent on your table. Then you fusion weld the ridge line of the tent. You're looking for even penetration through the back, no burn-throughs or runs, and a smooth bead across the top. When that gets boring, you can start adding ES70S6 or similar rod in a thin gauge, and learn how to puddle, feed, and move with filler rod on the same type of work piece as before. Then you can step up to 1/8" butt welds. Then practice lap welds, again without filler rod, then with filler rod. And so it goes. Then there's stainless, and eventually aluminum as you work your way through.

This sort of practice plus the benefit of added stick time will make you a better welder. It's nice to do it in school, but you can do it in your shop at home for nearly zero cost.
 
There is an old saying that if your not good at welding you will get good at grinding. I have been doing TIG for better than ten years (off and on, as needed), seem to know my way around the grinding tools pretty well now... Still have trouble making "pretty" welds...
 
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