So I finally got to fire up my own welding unit and experience it first hand for the first time after buying some consumables for the Parweld XTI 160 and WP9V tig torch, some Argon from BOC and a scrap piece of stainless from a friend. I hooked it all up and switched it to lift TIG mode and switched it on after setting up a small amount of gas flow (only just reading on the regulator flow reading which aren't the best I know!). Not sure if I need more or not but was aiming for around 11CFH 
. Unfortunately I couldn't find any ceramic gas lens cups at the store I visited today so I ended up with gas lens bodies in both normal and large sizes and no ceramic cups to use with them.
I ended up putting on a No. 7 cup, ground a 1.6mm 2% thoriated tungsten (red) electrode on a dremel with some difficulty to a point and placed the tip down on the material. (It wasn't the cleanest and I was just eager to try the machine as i've never personally welded before up until this point, i've spent a fair bit of time watching youtube videos before hand to try and familiarise myself but today was the first time to see a weld pool with my own eyes with a reactive clarke welding mask of my dads).
I was under the impression that with lift tig the arc would start upon lifting the tungsten off the work, however this didn't seem to happen. Instead I had to tap start. I was in ore of the pretty colors although i'm not sure they're really meant to be there.
Initially set at about 30 amps on 2mm stainless and then upped it to about 40. I then let the weld pool form for a couple of seconds to a width of about 4mm and then slowly moved along with short pauses. When coming to the end of the run I read that to try going back and lifting away slowly but I found that the arc seemed to go pretty stray and large with plenty of heat going into the work causing a nasty charcoaling. I think perhaps just a swift flick of the wrist would be a better option. As the torch is valved the gas flow will continue until I turn it off on the torch so I guess if I can get it back on there as quick as possible while the weld is cooling it may help.
I am unsure on whether the arc was getting brighter at some points when I was running the arc along, I only really noticed this after my dad had a go and I reckon he definately contaminated the tungsten, I was pretty careful to keep my distance and move slow... He was trying to be creative and draw a letter G lol. Perhaps it was the mask but i'm unsure, it definately seemed like the arc getting brighter... I thought maybe I was possible touching the tungsten in the pool when this was happening but i'm not sure. It was still green when it went brighter.
I wish I cleaned up the stainless steel a little before hand really. It was complete with tea stains from the friends garage workshop!
Does this lift arc tap starting sound like normal behavior being as though the circuit is live all the time with no switch?
I attached a couple of pictures of a couple of runs, I think the first one here was possibly moving too far a distance and not waiting quite enough, ran slightly less gas flow with this one:
This one I think went better and feels real nice and smooth, I think I was moving slower here:
Total area of heat affected area on both is around 15mm and the weld pool around 4mm. Torch angle around 20 degrees. I'd appreciate any pointers from people. I do have a bit of copper that perhaps I could use to finish off the weld, by moving the arc onto that... if a second person isn't available to "tail off" the weld with the amp control knob. Unsure on the penetration on the other side and what is most desired.
Now I need some training exercises to go through but i'd appreciate any pointers. I'd like to eventually weld up some exhausts and turbo manifolds. hopefully i'm not dreaming
. I haven't used any filler rod yet as I just wanted to see a weld pool really, i'd like to know what I really want to see from my welds... you can see a little pinholing where I came out of the weld and possibly where the tungsten may have touched near the start. I didn't increase the amps to see how it affected the pool, what would I expect to see? . I think the arc was pretty tight, but only having the tungsten out about 5-6mm did make it fairly difficult to really see well so I had to get pretty close!
. Unfortunately I couldn't find any ceramic gas lens cups at the store I visited today so I ended up with gas lens bodies in both normal and large sizes and no ceramic cups to use with them.I ended up putting on a No. 7 cup, ground a 1.6mm 2% thoriated tungsten (red) electrode on a dremel with some difficulty to a point and placed the tip down on the material. (It wasn't the cleanest and I was just eager to try the machine as i've never personally welded before up until this point, i've spent a fair bit of time watching youtube videos before hand to try and familiarise myself but today was the first time to see a weld pool with my own eyes with a reactive clarke welding mask of my dads).
I was under the impression that with lift tig the arc would start upon lifting the tungsten off the work, however this didn't seem to happen. Instead I had to tap start. I was in ore of the pretty colors although i'm not sure they're really meant to be there
.Initially set at about 30 amps on 2mm stainless and then upped it to about 40. I then let the weld pool form for a couple of seconds to a width of about 4mm and then slowly moved along with short pauses. When coming to the end of the run I read that to try going back and lifting away slowly but I found that the arc seemed to go pretty stray and large with plenty of heat going into the work causing a nasty charcoaling. I think perhaps just a swift flick of the wrist would be a better option. As the torch is valved the gas flow will continue until I turn it off on the torch so I guess if I can get it back on there as quick as possible while the weld is cooling it may help.
I am unsure on whether the arc was getting brighter at some points when I was running the arc along, I only really noticed this after my dad had a go and I reckon he definately contaminated the tungsten, I was pretty careful to keep my distance and move slow... He was trying to be creative and draw a letter G lol. Perhaps it was the mask but i'm unsure, it definately seemed like the arc getting brighter... I thought maybe I was possible touching the tungsten in the pool when this was happening but i'm not sure. It was still green when it went brighter.
I wish I cleaned up the stainless steel a little before hand really. It was complete with tea stains from the friends garage workshop!
Does this lift arc tap starting sound like normal behavior being as though the circuit is live all the time with no switch?
I attached a couple of pictures of a couple of runs, I think the first one here was possibly moving too far a distance and not waiting quite enough, ran slightly less gas flow with this one:
This one I think went better and feels real nice and smooth, I think I was moving slower here:
Total area of heat affected area on both is around 15mm and the weld pool around 4mm. Torch angle around 20 degrees. I'd appreciate any pointers from people. I do have a bit of copper that perhaps I could use to finish off the weld, by moving the arc onto that... if a second person isn't available to "tail off" the weld with the amp control knob
. Unsure on the penetration on the other side and what is most desired.Now I need some training exercises to go through but i'd appreciate any pointers. I'd like to eventually weld up some exhausts and turbo manifolds. hopefully i'm not dreaming
. I haven't used any filler rod yet as I just wanted to see a weld pool really, i'd like to know what I really want to see from my welds... you can see a little pinholing where I came out of the weld and possibly where the tungsten may have touched near the start. I didn't increase the amps to see how it affected the pool, what would I expect to see? . I think the arc was pretty tight, but only having the tungsten out about 5-6mm did make it fairly difficult to really see well so I had to get pretty close!
