logical learning curve

[BrokenBiker]

what would you say is the logical way to learn tig, with the intent of getting good at it? not good enough that you need to rely on your skills to put food on the table, but good enough that you trust your welds and that your welds could get you a decent reputation?

my thoughts on it were its best to start off on 5-6mm steel, no filler and just run back and forth to get good with arc length, then move onto adding filler on flat welds, then onto butt joints, lap joints and fillets all in flat and horizontal positions, then vert up and down, and finally overhead if that sort of thing takes your fancy.

then after that move onto ali and do it all again, cut and etch test joints, destructive tests etc until you are confident

 

[Wayne.]

I read this on another site

Tig welding is just like any other technical skill. There is a lot going on at once, but after a lot of practice, you develop muscle memory that allows you to shut off your mind and just "feel it." The fastest way to master any complex task in my experience is to break down the process into single actions, practice each on its own, then start to add them back together one at a time until you can do them all at once. We already covered a filler metal hand drill, so let's move on to the torch hand.

Prep: Get two pieces of 16-18 gauge cold rolled sheet metal. Cut to similar size, one just 1/2" or so smaller than the other. Clean and degrease, then clamp them together on your clean welding table with your ground lead. Using the ground as a clamp will eliminate any risk of bad ground scenarios.

Torch Hand: Start by tacking them together without using filler metal. 65 to 75 amps should get you close to the point that you can stand on the pedal. Experiment, don't be afraid to screw up. Step on the pedal and make a puddle fusing both pieces together. Then try to replicate the same size tack every inch or so all the way around the perimeter. Consistency is the goal. Tack the whole perimeter, then start filling in the space between the tacks 1/2" at a time, leaving one 1/2" space between each weld. Remember, no filler allowed until you feel confident without it. We just want to get you used to using the heat from your torch to manipulate the puddle. After one pass around, cool off the piece with air (not water). Then go back through and fill in all the spaces you left empty. If you feel solid with your fusion welds (no filler) then start adding filler using .035, or .045 if you have it, 1/16" maximum.

Rinse and repeat! Keep each practice piece you do, number and date them so you can measure your progress. Relax, don't rush it, and have fun!

 

[hotrodder]

5 - 6mm is too thick, 16 - 18swg a bit on the thin side and whoever wrote that guide on another site is a bit of a sadist at best if that's aimed at newbies
2 or 3mm is the ideal starting point (probably what this sites tutorials recommend too) as it's thick enough to not have to worry about blowing holes in things and not so thick that you spend more time cutting coupons and grinding weld preps (when practicing butts) than actually welding
It's more commonly an MMA exercise but building up a pad of weld is a good exercise too and one that's more suited to some thicker material. Certainly more useful/less material waste than some random beads scattered all over a large offcut. For some reason that approach is often accompanied by using stuuuupidly small offcuts for practicing actual joints... buy a length of 50 x 3mm or whatever flat bar, cut into 3 - 600mm lengths and tack a bunch of them together to make two larger rectangular coupons. Lots of joints, minimal waste or coupon cutting time and making two of them lets you swap between them as they get heat soaked. Buy a clean 'n strip disc to knock off millscale quickly instead of pratting about with wire wheels and/or solvents on manky old bits of scrap too. For outside corners and fillet welds just tack 'em together like /\/\/\/\/\/\

Maybe not initially but when practicing butt welds sooner or later you're gonna want a root gap, width of the filler wire is a good starting point but worth practicing with larger and/or irregular gaps too

Fillets and lap welds are ideal candidates for macros. Nick breaks (somewhere in the tutorials) on fillets and outside corners waaaaay more useful than the BFH test. Bend testing butt welds... can grind a radius on some thicker bar or weld some round bar to some strip and then bend the coupon over it
When you move onto thinner sheet there's the weld cupping test which is one time the BFH is useful if you don't own a press and some suitable dies for example from when someone claimed ally TIG welds were nowhere near as tough or ductile as oxyfuel http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/media/albums/ally-weld-abuse.743/

Once you're happy with flat stuff in various positions then tube to sheet/plate fillets is a nice intro for repeating everything on round stuff. If you're really ambitious/a bit of a masochist then later on can play about cackhanded for those times when access is awkward with your dominant hand... similar deal to getting to getting to grips with 5 & 6g positions and then attacking a 5g that's only 6" off the floor

 

[Mr shiney]

Get yourself some lessons. I did a course at Tresham with a brilliant guy called Pete Eades which really set me up for self learning afterwards. Once you understand set up, choice of tungsten and even sharpening it you have the fundamentals. Having an experienced eye analyse and correct makes for a much shorter learning curve and after that it's just a case of practice.

I learnt on 3mm clean steel tabs and welded 100s under Petes supervision. After the course I kept (and keep) on learning from self teaching and the great advice I get on here and have done some quite difficult stuff. Guys like Richard and Hotrodder are always free with advice and real benefit to us lesser mortals seeking the right path.

Just stick at it and practice, it's an art form and requires dedication. Did I also mention practice......

 

[Richard.]

I believe (starting from scratch) it's always good to get the basics mastered to a fine art. A nice clean piece of 3-4mm flat plate 90-100 amps and run some 100mm runs straight down it. Keep a tight and consistent arc length, keep a slight torch angle (10 degrees off vertical) and try to keep the intervals the filler is added as consistent as possible into the leading edge of the pool. Once you've got those fundamental essential things down to a tee then transfer them to a joint.
Those basic key things are used in every tig weld you'll do so its good to get them nailed at the start. After that it's a case of making other changes to your settings, position, direction etc depending on the job in front of you but still keeping control over the pool with the basics of arc length, torch angle and filling. While you will soon Learn it's not always possible but try to be as comfortable in your position as you can. It's a slow process and requires you to be in a relatively still steady position for a good period of time. Once you gain experience you'll find out the luxury of doing it sitting down and relaxing doesn't come up that often in which case you'll learn to swap hands and support your torch steady in mid air while welding over head etc. 1 step at a time though get the basics nailed then move forward.

 

[BrokenBiker]

forgot to mention its not me thats starting from scratch, i have limited experience with good enough results that i didnt want to throw it in the bin. trying to explain a decent process to my mate with the cheap tig

all advice has been taken on board though and i will pass it all on to him (might even havea go myself while he has the kettle on )

 

[malcolm]

Is the TIG welding Tutorial of any use to him? http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/tig-tutorial.htm

Well worth spending a bit of time with someone who knows how to do it fairly early on. They will tell you that you are holding the torch too far from the work and that you need to get some reading glasses. I still only use my glasses for TIG welding.