Tig Welding Stainless - Project #1

[coolidge]

Well I just finished my first stainless TIG welding project and thought I would document what I learned.

Project #1 Description - I'm making a mobile stand similar to the roll around stands they use for hanging IV's in a hospital. Instead I'll be attaching the Accu-Lube system on this stand plus an air manifold with 3 air drops for the Accu-Lube, Maxi Torque-Right PDB, and hose to blow stuff off.

Can you spot my welding design mistake in this photo?



Here the base has been drilled for the casters, again can you spot the welding design mistake?



Here I reconfigured my BuildPro welding table for this job extending the center plate out, you will see why shortly.



On this project I'm paying a LOT more attention to tack welds, more tacks beefier tacks. I did these inside corner tacks in order, did all the middle tack welds, then the bottom, then the top, avoiding for heat soak. The strategy was to keep things flat and square.



Now you can see why I reconfigured the welding table, so I could rotate the stand during welding, this worked out nicely.



With everything well tacked I began running beads. This stand will see no stress or weight really its ridiculously overkill in terms of material thickness and size. I felt there was no need to weld into the corners and go looking for trouble.



The great thing about TIG is you can weld right over top of your tacks and you can't really tell they were ever there.



This doesn't look too bad and on this bead my glove stuck and I buried the tungsten into the puddle after only about 3/4 inch from the right edge. I just hit it with the wire brush, popped in a new tungsten and finished the weld.



Here it is completed! So the welding design flaw...if you weld something in the middle, a tube, flat stock, whatever its going to warp towards the heat pretty much no matter what you do. To save time I cut 2 short legs for the base then used a 24 inch long solid piece for the other two legs.

I ended up having to run welds in the middle of that 24 inch piece, first it bowed one direction towards the heat during tack welds and then back the other direction when I was running full beads. I think a better design would have been to cut 4 short feet and weld those to the end of the vertical post that way all welds would have been on the ends of the tubing. My 2 short feet came out nice and flat without much effort.

 

[Franko]

It looks great to me, Coolidge. But, I have no personal experience welding stainless.

That's a very spiffy welding table.

 

[bpratl]

I love you're welding table, did you fabricate it? Bob

 

[coolidge]

I love you're welding table, did you fabricate it? Bob

No that is a Strong Hand Tools BuildPro brand welding table, its precision CNC drilled and machined to within .004 flat, mine measured within .002. Not cheap but worth every penny. Setting up stuff square and flat is a breeze just insert the locating pins (I turned them on my lathe) and bang your material is setup straight, flat, and square, just clamp and get welding.

So the table is expensive, I have the Nitrided version to prevent rust (Pacific NW gets lots of rain) and they go for about $1,250 at Industrial Tool Crib. I have the 30" high version TMQB52238 but it also comes in a 36" high version TMQA52238. Pricey but consider this the Miller welding table is smaller, much thinner (the BuildPRo is 5/8 inch thick), and its so warped that I deemed it utterly useless and it cost over $500.

http://www.stronghandtools.com/buildpro/index.php

 

[mhagadorn]

Very nice Coolidge. I'm a self taught TIG welder as well. Fighting weld shrink is tricky. Have you gotten into aluminum welding?

 

[coolidge]

No I'm too much of a welding noob to tackle aluminum just yet. Ha I remember heating up an aluminum part with a torch in my early 20's, I was like when is this thing going to get hot...seconds later it went BLOOP into a puddle

 

[bpratl]

I'm also a newbie at TIG welding and still have a lot to learn. After purchasing my TIG welder I was forced to learn how to weld a aluminum casting because one of my employees broke a major part, on a alignment machine, that was needed to get a job out. After a lot of prep and clean, clean, clean it came out great. It was easier than I expected. Stainless is next. Bob

 

[Uglydog]

Very nice welds! Seriously, nice. Size and overall shape is great.
It's difficult to see what you have for penetration. You might want to turn up the heat just a little and use more filler. They should all be convex. The little holes at the ends could also use a little more filler in order to ensure that they are not weak at that point.
Caution: if you turn up the heat on SS you risk "caramelization". It will look like melting brown sugar for toffee.

Daryl
MN

 

[mhagadorn]

No I'm too much of a welding noob to tackle aluminum just yet. Ha I remember heating up an aluminum part with a torch in my early 20's, I was like when is this thing going to get hot...seconds later it went BLOOP into a puddle

Well, your water cooled torch will earn its keep when you do try it. Clean clean clean is one of the keys to preventing "bloop into a puddle". I even clean my filler rod.
You will begin to care more about some of those welder settings. My Lincoln has none of that fanciness, but it seems to know what to do.

 

[mhagadorn]

Very nice welds! Seriously, nice. Size and overall shape is great.
It's difficult to see what you have for penetration. You might want to turn up the heat just a little and use more filler. They should all be convex. The little holes at the ends could also use a little more filler in order to ensure that they are not weak at that point.
Caution: if you turn up the heat on SS you risk "caramelization". It will look like melting brown sugar for toffee.

Daryl
MN

Daryl, are you talking sugar on the backside? I.E. Inside the tubing? He may have some of that happening. Thin SS sheet or angle is the worst. Hard to weld the front without sugaring the back. As I understand it, a backside inert gas flow is the solution. I'm too cheap to spring for that.