Spitwelder
New Member
- Messages
- 8
- Location
- Cambridge, UK
I'm a new boy on this forum
I learnt to gas weld as a panelbeater 40 years ago and did a fair amount of Mig welding on thin steel. I haven't done any welding for about 20 years but now I do a little Tig welding for work. Generally I'm happy that things are stuck together well enough but things don't look all that pretty. So i thought I'd have a play. I was using a Lincoln V205T so there aren't any excuses with the machine. I used a couple different thickness that represent the majority of the welding work (16 and 20 gauge). I also varied the balance, frequency, and amperage on each piece.
This exercise taught me that I like the frequency set to max (150hz) it seemed a little wayward at lower settings, I like the balance set to 85% negative on nice clean material like this, my torch technique needs some work as I quite often touch down a couple of inches into a weld (the change of hand angle seems to come with a lowering of the tungsten gap) and finally my rod hand technique needs some serious work if I'm going to weld anything longer than three inches.
I've learnt most of what i know off YouTube (welding tips and tricks, weld.com) but I'd be interested in sitting down with someone and going through techniques etc. I'm sure I can improve a lot more.
The plus symbols are the last weld and the one I consider to be the best. Top piece is 16 gauge and bottom 20 gauge. An interesting side note is that I found the thinner material easier to weld which seems a little counter intuitive to me.
I learnt to gas weld as a panelbeater 40 years ago and did a fair amount of Mig welding on thin steel. I haven't done any welding for about 20 years but now I do a little Tig welding for work. Generally I'm happy that things are stuck together well enough but things don't look all that pretty. So i thought I'd have a play. I was using a Lincoln V205T so there aren't any excuses with the machine. I used a couple different thickness that represent the majority of the welding work (16 and 20 gauge). I also varied the balance, frequency, and amperage on each piece.
This exercise taught me that I like the frequency set to max (150hz) it seemed a little wayward at lower settings, I like the balance set to 85% negative on nice clean material like this, my torch technique needs some work as I quite often touch down a couple of inches into a weld (the change of hand angle seems to come with a lowering of the tungsten gap) and finally my rod hand technique needs some serious work if I'm going to weld anything longer than three inches.
I've learnt most of what i know off YouTube (welding tips and tricks, weld.com) but I'd be interested in sitting down with someone and going through techniques etc. I'm sure I can improve a lot more.
The plus symbols are the last weld and the one I consider to be the best. Top piece is 16 gauge and bottom 20 gauge. An interesting side note is that I found the thinner material easier to weld which seems a little counter intuitive to me.