A question for recent beginners

[Richard.]

I stand corrected.

Well you may be right. Some of them could be awful. Like all things welding, quality can be up and down depending on lots of things.
I bought one from a member/dealer on here and it was pretty good to be fair.

 

[Wallace]

I'm not a recent beginner but mastering tacking up in Tig took me a while to get the hang of and that was thanks to guidance on here.

 

[DAPPH]

Practice , practice & practice again ... Yeah ... & don't forget to turn the gas on as well .

 

[HughF]

I kind of 'got' tig from the moment I picked up the torch. But I was already a pretty skilled gas Welder, I think that helped.

 

[FergalFarty]

I'm a real newbie with about 3 hours of TIG experience. I've done a bit of stick and MIG in the past, but I found laying down beads on mild steel with the TIG pretty easy. Butt and lap joints also. I think I found it easy as I've done a lot of fiddly electronics soldering in the past and that requires fine control like TIG.

Fillets though, that's another story. They're a right mess at the moment, I can't seem to keep the arc down in the root without dipping the tungsten. I've signed up for an evening course, but that doesn't start for a couple of months so it's down to the garage to practice those fillets.

Also, I think the torch that came with my machine (WP26F) is too big and the hose is too heavy which makes it difficult to control. That's my excuse anyway!

Fergal

 

[Turbo]

Some great tips so far, I'll add my 2p's worth.
As already said, get the best mask you can afford with a large viewing area & rated for tig welding.
A flex head torch is very useful, especially if you suffer from joint problems in your arms.
A pair of decent tig gloves is essential, a pair of Ultima Golds are on my shopping list for the next visit to the welding shop!
A welding bench & a suitable stool makes life so much easier than trying to weld standing over a bench. It doesn't have to be anything fancy - I'm currently using a folding aluminium camping table with a sheet of 3mm steel over the top.
I find it very hard to press the torch switch and not mess up my weld. I've rigged up a foot switch & I will use it until I feel confident enough to use the torch switch again.
And finally - practice, practice, practice.

 

[Kent]

TIG welding is a very perishable skill. I learnt to gas weld at college and never did very much in work. It helped when I picked up TIG (which was all scratch then) most shops who did not specialise had no TIG at all or only basic scratch in the main from a dc stick plant. Talking 80s here btw, the stainless steel boom in the late 80s early 90s livened up my skills (yes 8hrs lid time a day can do that in a few weeks). Don't call myself a TIG welder at all I don't even have anything over scratch dc here but the number 1 thing is lid time and remember it's a perishable skill if not maintained.

 

[Turbo]

TIG welding is a very perishable skill.

Agree 100% with that.
12 years ago I was a reasonably competent tig welder. I worked in a food factory & 95% of the welding was tig welds on stainless food machinery. I was able to carry out weld repairs in less than ideal locations, usually with a line manager breathing down my neck telling me to hurry up! (Didn't work - the more they shouted the slower I worked!) I was never taught tig welding but I had been taught gas welding at college so I guess that carried over.

Last year I lifted a tig torch for the first time since then & at first I made all the usual newbie mistakes - making holes, dipping the tip, welding the rod to the tip. welding the rod to the workpiece, etc. I got very good at sharpening the tungsten & eventually the knack of welding came back - still not as good as I was but that will come with practice.

Still can't use the torch switch but I've never used one before. Of the welders I used 12 years ago, one was scratch start & the other had a foot pedal!

 

[Richard.]

TIG welding is a very perishable skill. I learnt to gas weld at college and never did very much in work. It helped when I picked up TIG (which was all scratch then) most shops who did not specialise had no TIG at all or only basic scratch in the main from a dc stick plant. Talking 80s here btw, the stainless steel boom in the late 80s early 90s livened up my skills (yes 8hrs lid time a day can do that in a few weeks). Don't call myself a TIG welder at all I don't even have anything over scratch dc here but the number 1 thing is lid time and remember it's a perishable skill if not maintained.

I 100% agree with that as well.
Even after a couple of months of been of the arc can show rusty school boy errors to come out while your getting your hand back in the game.
Take a year out and your starting all over again.

 

[Kent]

I 100% agree with that as well.
Even after a couple of months of been of the arc can show rusty school boy errors to come out while your getting your hand back in the game.
Take a year out and your starting all over again.

Well it comes back very much more quickly than starting from scratch but old eyes ain't as good as they once were