Two things: increasing the flow of your purge slightly can help. The other, when doing fusion welds, taper off the heat just prior to finishing that "segment" so as not to keyhole. Those dimples are an indication of a lack of filler/too much heat for the travel speed. Pretty common challe...

...... My suggestion is to pickup a phone book, look up "custom sheet metal, and welding". Drop by their shop,... Try a small welding shop. As the bigger commercial workplaces have rules/codes/etc. But, small places will more likely spend the time with you. It makes their head bigger. 2 h...

......These were really the first time I had picked up a tig, within the first few days. So, not my greatest work as it was a bit ago. But, I can share my experience. These welds were stainless V band flanges to aluminiumized 3.5" and stainless to stainless....... My friend, if you were doing ...

.... get a Tig finger or improvise with fiberglass exhaust wrap tape so you can rest your torch hand close to the weld without burning - also try for a fit up where an autogenous weld is possible but have some very thin filler in the hand ready to make up any imperfections if needed - I find this w...

Just throwing this out there but it also looks like normal Tig learning curve issues - probably too much heat build up from too slow a travel speed - maybe bit long an arc - possibly not perfect fit up - all these will make backside contamination worse as the hotter & longer the weld takes the ...

@ Mojo88 - what stainless grade was used in the photo shown? T409 is an inexpensive variant commonly used for SS exhausts. And many times 409SS is coated with Aluminum to aid in preventing corrosion. If your practice SS sections were Aluminzed 409, then the popping you experienced could have result...

LtBadd wrote:.....
Your practice welds should be as close to the real conditions as possible, cleaning the material is #1 on the list, even for practicing .......

Wisely spoken. Great advice..... thanks!

That is symptomatic of contamination on the inside of the tubing being pulled out due to the heat. You should always clean the inside 1/2" or so to bare shiny metal whenever you're welding up tubing. Purging will help with preventing any contamination (sugaring) on the inside. I hope you pract...

Thayne78 wrote:.....It was taken with a cellphone and the picture is good on the phone but sucks on the forum. Sorry about that..

Many cameras (phones) have 'macro' setting, which is used for very close focus. You likely know this already, but just thought I would toss it out there......

TIG noob here... been practicing about a month so far. Slowly getting the hang of it. TIG is much trickier than I thought it would be, haha. My focus is on stainless steel exhaust pipes. Sometimes my practice goes smoothly, but often times I am getting spattering and popping and I end up with disast...

Recently went through the same shopping process, and ended up with this:

AlphaTIG200X

I'm a noob at TIG, but it seems to be working great.

.... No practice part available + relative TIG newb + unsuitable actual part + crappy fit-up/gaps = disaster waiting to happen. Sorry, but while it can be done, I would avoid the headache if I were you. All of those little wires will melt away regardless of where you focus the heat if you don't mov...

I have some stainless steel flex couplers, which I want to weld into my exhaust system (also stainless steel). The exhaust pipes are .060" wall thickness, while the metal on the flex couplers is much thinner. It looks to me that as soon as I start trying to TIG these together, I will just blow ...

Wow, that's a great reply, thanks very much! Much appreciated. :mrgreen: Can I ask you to look at this autogenous weld that I just did on 2.5" pipe (.060" wall thickness)? Is coloring ok? I have some bluish coloring there, not sure what that is but I have heard that coloring should be NOT ...

Recently bought new AlphaTIG200x machine and just getting comfortable with it. For now, I will be using it to TIG stainless steel (SS) exhaust systems. In the old days, I mainly used O/A or MIG, but the pipes were steel (not stainless). So anyway, I am looking for best prep and techniques for a nice...

Old time mechanic here. Had two service stations back in 70's, worked on cars when they were basic machines. Did mostly O/A welding on exhaust systems. Then did MIG starting 20 years ago. Finally now trying TIG and bought new machine (AlphaTIG200x) just a couple of weeks ago, mainly to fab up stainl...