Mike Pinches
Member
- Messages
- 125
- Location
- North Wales
Having had a good couple of months trying to teach myself scratch start tig about 20 months ago, I then had to empty the garage to carry out building work which over ran, then started racing motorbikes and had to prep them. Due to this other than a couple of small repairs I haven't picked up the torch in best part of 18 months.
I had decided it was time to start learning again a couple of weeks ago but found my welding helmet would no longer darken. I took the opportunity to upgrade to a Parweld true colour helmet, it has made it a lot easier to see the puddle.
The first picture is my first attempt of the evening, it was meant to be a butt weld but it stuck slightly as I initiated the arc and landed as a lap joint. I figured I may as well carry on and see what happened. Then I tried a bend test to see how it held up. Following that are the next couple of attempts at butt welds.
I think I am trying to hold too tight an arc which is leading to touching down a lot but also making it hard to feed the filler in. I also need to get some thicker filler as I only have 1mm at the moment.
A good point from tonight is that I have found an easier way of starting the arc. The little parweld claims to be lift tig, and I tried when first learning to touch the tungsten down and lift off but it always stuck so I reverted to striking like a match. This worked better but I was always inconsistent with it. Tonight I accidently tapped the torch straight down just before planning on starting and started perfectly. Repeated tries of this always started the arc consistently right where I wanted it. Should make doing proper work easier.
I had decided it was time to start learning again a couple of weeks ago but found my welding helmet would no longer darken. I took the opportunity to upgrade to a Parweld true colour helmet, it has made it a lot easier to see the puddle.
The first picture is my first attempt of the evening, it was meant to be a butt weld but it stuck slightly as I initiated the arc and landed as a lap joint. I figured I may as well carry on and see what happened. Then I tried a bend test to see how it held up. Following that are the next couple of attempts at butt welds.
I think I am trying to hold too tight an arc which is leading to touching down a lot but also making it hard to feed the filler in. I also need to get some thicker filler as I only have 1mm at the moment.
A good point from tonight is that I have found an easier way of starting the arc. The little parweld claims to be lift tig, and I tried when first learning to touch the tungsten down and lift off but it always stuck so I reverted to striking like a match. This worked better but I was always inconsistent with it. Tonight I accidently tapped the torch straight down just before planning on starting and started perfectly. Repeated tries of this always started the arc consistently right where I wanted it. Should make doing proper work easier.