Welding Tips and Tricks

exnailpounder wrote:You can never have enough tig equipment lying around. It's called tig hoarder disease and most of us have it.

I...I just need one or two more things...I'm sure of it...no, really...

cj737 wrote:Is this your torch holder? Magnets near your work while TIG welding will wreak havoc on your arc. They will grab the arc and cause it to wander and pull the shielding gas off your intended work. Behaves like you have a bad crosswind.

It's a Riverweld torch holder with a magnetic base. The base is around a foot away from the welding.

I don't have enough stuff which is my problem, I have to build shit like a caveman sometimes.

After the initial debacle, I feel like I have to post a photo every time I create something that even approximates a correct weld. The stuff at the upper left doesn't count. It's from earlier sessions. It looks like they made as big a mess under the steel as above it.

Today I started over. I used a 3/32" tungsten, 3/32" rod, the BSX finger thing (sorry), and another piece of the treadmill I took out of the trash. I don't think I'm getting this steel as clean as it needs to be. The powdercoating is not easy to remove. The welds aren't bubbling or anything, but I see tiny brown flakes of something on them. Also, there is some plastic inside the tubing that keeps catching fire. That's interesting. Sooner or later I'm going to have to invest some better metal to play with. This stuff was free, but it's a pain.

Anyway, I think I'm learning some stuff. I'm holding the torch more vertical, and it appears that I need to get used to finding a pedal setting and holding it steady, instead of changing it all the time. Is that correct? Before, I was altering it a lot because it seemed like sometimes the arc was too weak or too strong.

I'm also feeding the rod better, and I'm finally starting to have some sort of rhythm.

I don't know how to manage the duty cycle. All I know is, the torch gets hot after about 4" of welding, so I put it down and rest it for three minutes. Suggestions welcome.

The Flak Finger works really well. Again, sorry!

That's why it's called FlakFinger (aside from the rip-off). Get ready to catch some flak...

One of my co-workers showed up today with some new BSX crap, and caught flak. He's supposed to know better, and forgot for a minute.

Steve S

Pedal wise-yeah you found a sweet spot so you can just flow now. That's a peice of the puzzle down for now. Unless you want to manually pulse...
Please invest in better material... Burning plastic sounds toxic and problematic. Go get some decent steel. You can go to a metal supply and ask for weird drops the have around that they will sell cheap. Or some companies may sell you scrap of you ask nicely or know a guy. We get all of our stainless square for practice at school through a stainless tank and trailer company. They can't use it so they give it away.

Now... When do you want to start aluminum

Lil brown spots are usually some kinda crap in your weld. If you've got nice clean, shiny metal (shiny since you're on steel), then you might need to question your filler and gloves. If you've got grease n stuff on your gloves, you transfer that to your rod. If your rod is dirty or even dusty like it is when you get 10 lbs. of filler in a cardboard box, then you really need to clean that up too.
A quick full circumference scuff of scotch brite on your filler rod will usually do you well but not too much to remove all the coating. ER70S2 will finish with a slightly duller copper finish once you're done in just a few swipes. Acetone or denatured alcohol give a good final clean up for all your work material minus the gloves. Cotton and paper towels aren't the best because they leave lint behind which turns into brown turds in your weld too.
If you dipped a lot, clean the inside of your cup too and always keep a perfect grind/spiral with no flat spots on your tungsten

You would do well to abandon the pedal for the moment and set your machine to straight amps and focus on torch and rod until you get comfortable. This will eliminate you having to manage thirty things simulataneuosly. Set the amps a tad lower, slow down, and make each step/dip perfectly.its not practice metal so you can take all the time you need.

The only people that excel in life are the ones that put it on nightmare mode and keep trying until they finish the game

entity-unknown wrote:The only people that excel in life are the ones that put it on nightmare mode and keep trying until they finish the game

Anybody play Resident Evil? I remember playing that on easy and it was still a nightmare.