Another first welds thread

[Aesgarth]

ok, not really first, i had a bit of practice before i produced this. Any comments?

 

[Llama]

What settings/wire/gas/stock were you using?
I'm no expert but that information will be helpful to the people who do know.

 

[Aesgarth]

1.6mm filler, 2mm thoriated tungsten (i think) pure argon, about 100 amps if i remember correctly and i think the stock is 3mm thick mild steel. piece of 1" angle welded to a piece of 1" box

 

[biffa]

Looks like the top of the weld is just sat ontop of the box. When practicing this joint I would start of without the filler. Making sure you get good fusion in the joint then once you can achieve that I would then introduce filler

 

[Lawnmowerboy]

There isn't any point attempting a joint until you can lay good, consistent beads on flat plate and have the hang of torch angle and feeding the filler ect. Not the worst attempt at tig I've seen tho!

 

[Aesgarth]

Looks like the top of the weld is just sat ontop of the box. When practicing this joint I would start of without the filler. Making sure you get good fusion in the joint then once you can achieve that I would then introduce filler

The top of the weld is just sat on top of the box (though not as badly as the picture makes it look) I'll get a couple of bits of scrap and have a go without filler tomorrow, although my first attempt at that ended up with me melting far more than i meant to.

There isn't any point attempting a joint until you can lay good, consistent beads on flat plate and have the hang of torch angle and feeding the filler ect. Not the worst attempt at tig I've seen tho!

I would have continued with flat plate but I dont have any to practice on at the moment. hoping to resolve that issue sometime next week. My welds on flat plate aren't too bad, although they could be a lot better. My main issue with that is getting the hang of feeding filler rod through my hand and keeping the end of it in roughly the right place. Also found it quite hard to keep a straight line without an edge to follow... I'm hoping that will come with practice. Torch angle i think i have worked out (though i could be proved wrong on that too)

 

[biffa]

You could practice feeding the rod whislt watching tv. You can scribe a line or use a grinder to make a line to follow. Ignore what amps you should be using as everyone is different start down low and bring the amps up slowly till it feels and looks right. Then keep on turning then up to get a feel of what happens try different angles, speed distance from the work piece. Every one will tell you different ways and non of them may suite you.

 

[Lawnmowerboy]

Also keep the filler at a low angle and slide it back and forth flat on the material to keep the heat out of it and stop the end balling up, pushing it into the weld pool whenever necessary.

 

[Aesgarth]

BUMP!

Todays effort... Far from perfect but welding pipe seems to be a lot harder than flat straight runs It's a chimney on a gas bottle wood burner, i'd already mig'd it on but i decided to grind down the welds and tig over the top just for some practice.