TIG Welder Tips

philw696

philw696

Member
Messages
25,602
Love seeing Tig welding let's have some pictures of what you Guys are doing.
What projects are on the go ?
 
lifes2short

lifes2short

Member
Messages
5,848
Lozzer said:
Yes I can, found a video on YouTube of my last year's project in action, I fabricated every bit of kit in the vid, including the glovebox itself, I know what I would rather be doing :)
Click to expand...

a bit ott if you ask me, some coveralls and and an angle grinder would of done or just give it to the russians I'm sure they could find a use for it ;)
 
azapa

azapa

Member
Messages
1,300
OK, well you did offer to help :cool:
Just got the Argon today and fired her up. Quite hilarious, but I eventually got a weld out of her. Here are some questions, please, be very patient:

I'm welding thin car body steel, 0.8 to 1mm. I tried 1 and 1.6mm tungstens, about 20 to 30 Amps.

  1. I thought to weld stainless and carbon steel the the earth was negative? Nope, would not light up unless I used positive earth. Sound right?
  2. On initiating the arc, it was quite strange, either I had to touch the metal and lift, or hovered over and some very long spark (sometimes an inch) would start, particularly when I had the welding rod close. How should the arc be starting?
  3. See machines front panel. Should I be using pulse or direct? (second switch from left, top row)
  4. In general for car body steel, 0.8mm, how should the other controls be set? Base current? Is that the starting current to arc up? What is fall time? The roll off ramp when I release the trigger?
  5. The 1mm tungsten seemed very fragile and would glow hot with 24A. The 1.6mm (both gold tops) would seem too cold, but both welded OK, The 1mm seemed to leave a smaller, cleaner weld, but at the same time, blow more holes! Does not make much sense, sorry!
  6. I bought a smaller 2.5M3 argon tank, that is the pressure on fitting the valve, about 1900PSI. Sound right?
I'm fixing some engine tin on an open air beetle I've recently bought (oh no..) and need to be an expert by about 2pm Brit time, so, all help most welcome :) Cheers!
760067600776008
 
Lozzer

Lozzer

Member
Messages
2,285
azapa said:
OK, well you did offer to help :cool:
Just got the Argon today and fired her up. Quite hilarious, but I eventually got a weld out of her. Here are some questions, please, be very patient:

I'm welding thin car body steel, 0.8 to 1mm. I tried 1 and 1.6mm tungstens, about 20 to 30 Amps.

  1. I thought to weld stainless and carbon steel the the earth was negative? Nope, would not light up unless I used positive earth. Sound right?
  2. On initiating the arc, it was quite strange, either I had to touch the metal and lift, or hovered over and some very long spark (sometimes an inch) would start, particularly when I had the welding rod close. How should the arc be starting?
  3. See machines front panel. Should I be using pulse or direct? (second switch from left, top row)
  4. In general for car body steel, 0.8mm, how should the other controls be set? Base current? Is that the starting current to arc up? What is fall time? The roll off ramp when I release the trigger?
  5. The 1mm tungsten seemed very fragile and would glow hot with 24A. The 1.6mm (both gold tops) would seem too cold, but both welded OK, The 1mm seemed to leave a smaller, cleaner weld, but at the same time, blow more holes! Does not make much sense, sorry!
  6. I bought a smaller 2.5M3 argon tank, that is the pressure on fitting the valve, about 1900PSI. Sound right?
I'm fixing some engine tin on an open air beetle I've recently bought (oh no..) and need to be an expert by about 2pm Brit time, so, all help most welcome :) Cheers!
View attachment 76006View attachment 76007View attachment 76008
Click to expand...
My 2p for what it's worth lol
  1. Depends on the machine but yeah + earth, I got it the wrong way around before re welding ally
  2. Again depends on the machine, what you describe is a scratch start machine without the HF (high frequency) start feature, although this can happen if the metal is not clean enough/poor earth too, try scratching the metal before trying to arc.
  3. Direct
  4. Otherwise known as slope in and slope out , set around 2-3 seconds. Base current is starting/finishing current there is a main dial for the welding current amps?
  5. Just use the 1.6 tungsten. OR looking at the weld there it looks like the plates have started to part with the heat causing them to expand, ie not enough tacks/tacks too far apart, try the 1mm tungsten again but tack the plates together at say 10mm spaces.
  6. Not sure what the pressure in the smaller bottles are ,we use the full size ones and those are around 3000, the gas is regulated through the flowmeter at around 10l/min? To be fair I don't know how much gas mines set at I set it by ear lol

That's confused things :D
Early days and you're doing fine I would say, good luck!
 
Lozzer

Lozzer

Member
Messages
2,285
Oh, try laying a nice run down just on the plate itself and not a joint, till you get a feel for it, it will help you set the amps etc (less likely to blow through too)
 
Zep

Zep

Moderator
Messages
9,317
I use the same size tungsten as the sheet, as I found it gave a bit more control without the foot pedal.
 
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