Thanks for all the help and advice. I managed to finish my first proper project. It’s a bit wonky from overheating because I’m still slow and some of the welds are a disgrace, but some of the welds came out quite nice. Frame is all painted in hammerite now to protect it from the weather but in...
Well, at least I've rescued some of the porous joints and I'm fairly happy with them. They ain't very pretty, but as they say "grinder and paint, makes me the welder I ain't".
I'm only making a picnic bench for the garden, so not structurally critical. Worst case I fall on my bum from 12...
I'm about as crap at darts as I am at TIG. From what I can tell, my gas is fine. I've got one of those "pea shooter" things for measuring the gas flow, and its bang on 8LPM with a steady flow. Anyway, I did some more work today, tried various combinations and I think i've narrowed it down to a...
TIG is so hard I think because there are so many variables and I'm being impatient which also doesn't help. However, I went back to a ceriated 1.6mm tungsten, no7 cup, 1.6mm filler wire, checked all the gas line connections (they were fine) and upped the gas flow rate and got a much better...
Yes, pure argon. No. 8 cup. I just cleaned some offcuts in acetone (dunked them in, scrubbed the insiders with a toothbrush), tried some beads just on the flat outside surfaces of the tube. Not as bad, but similar porosity issues.
I don't know what's going on. I've tried various amps from 65...
8L/m argon, 100amps DC. Lanthinated 2.4mm Tungsten and 2.4mm ER702-S filler rod. Err.. tungsten was sharp but might have been a tad dirty. However, work pieces were clean, at least on the outside.
Thanks for the advice. It's a bit weird though, because previously I'd practiced joining a couple of pieces of 3mm thick angle iron back to back using the same gas and amperage settings and the bead went down quite nicely. The only real difference is being angle iron I'd been able to properly...
Hi all,
New to TIG and been practising on some mild steel rectangle ERW tubing 50x25x3mm for a project I'm hoping to do soon. Trying to stick offcuts of said tube to one another for some practice. Tacked it ok, but when I gave it the full beans the porosity was ridiculous and at one point the...
Thanks Richard. I think I've solved one of my contamination issues; I checked for gas leaks with a soapy water solution and found I was losing a bit of gas from the low pressure side of the regulator. Nipped that thread up a bit more which stopped the leak and I've had some much nicer results...
Thanks for all the help and advice. I've had another go tonight (day 3) and got MUCH better results following the advice and the basic ally setup on the TIG forum sticky post.
Stacking dimes all day lol
More practice on steel... maybe a little cold but better results than before.
LOTS...
I don't think this aluminium is anodised, but I will try grinding it a bit more aggressively rather than just going at it with the wire brush.
There are a lot of variables... the machine has a shed load of different settings. Would I be best to set all the AC specific stuff to neutral and...
Hi Tigman. So for mild steel I had the machine set as follows...
DC
~90amps (approx 3mm steel)
1.6mm grey tungsten
1.6mm filler rod
Gas nozzle 7
Gas Flow ~8lpm
I think only the peak current and basic current as in play when it's on DC. I didn't use the foot pedal for steel. Set peak and base...
Wow, thanks for the amazingly fast replies :D
It's a Stahlwerk AC/DC 200amp TIG/MMA machine. Not the most expensive, but from the research I did, it seems reasonable for the money and comes with a 7 year warranty. I've got a 10L 290bar bottle of 99.998% pure Argon from *removed for legal reasons*. I had the...
Hi all, I've never welded before apart from a few minutes of MIG, so I thought I would make a nice easy start for myself by jumping straight into TIG :)
I got hold of a Stahlwerk AC/DC tig a few days ago. I've done a bit of practice on mild steel and on aluminium. The steel went ok. I need a...