Tip stick out

[Mid Wales welder]

Hello all! I have recently watched one of Jody's mig welding videos on weldingtipsandtricks.com about tip stick out. He basically says to always have the tip protruding from the shroud, I tried this in work today by grinding down an old shroud & although it welded marginally better the fact that I had to turn the gas up an extra click, was stopping to clear out the spatter & the wire sticking to the tip more just made it more anoying! I would be interested to hear people's thoughts about this. Thanks.

Regards

Dave.

 

[stew]

i weld very slightly recessed, reduces stickout but seems to save spatter a little bit. thats on a mb25.

 

[Ed.]

I almost never have the tip sticking out, mine are usually about 4-5mm recessed, the only time I do go the other way is if I have to go into a hole or a very tight spot and the shroud would stop the tip going in close enough, but that is the only time.

Over 40 years of doing this and I have used a variety of torches and welding machines and never stuck the tip out for general welding apart from what I mentioned before, it works for me.

I had a quick look at that site and this is what it said so here is a cut and paste of it.

"...Keep your wire stickout to 1/4 to 3/8" (stickout means the distance the wire is extending from the end of the contact tip.) "

However he did say a bit about extending the tip past the shroud a little bit further down the page which I have never had to do. It might have something to do with technique but you shouldn't have to in my opinion and I would disagree with him there.


Cheers

Ed.

 

[gavuk]

I modified an old shroud ,to try this a while back and found i was reducing my wire stick out and had problems with sticking the wire to the tip,rather than persevere i went back to a standard shroud ....I have kept it in case access is an issue at any time,maybe the acute angles of a roll cage or something

 

[malcolm]

I don't go for contact tip stick out (risk of touching the tip against the work, much prefer bouncing the shroud off the work) but for thin metal especially I reckon there is a big advantage in having the gap between the contact tip and the work very small. Makes things much more controllable, can turn the wire speed down without all the popping you would normally get, and can have the torch at more of an angle so you can see what you are doing. Play around and see what works for you and especially your welder.

 

[Mid Wales welder]

Thanks for all the reply's everyone. Yes I will have to agree that tip stick out just gives more hastle than worth, the only thing I have found it usefull for is on thin stuff on outside corner joints! I'll just keep a few shrouds on my bench & swap over as needed! I'm not shore why Jody is so insistent about tip stick out as he is usually spot on! Anyway thanks again for the replys everyone!

Regards

Dave.

 

[Ed.]

Just goes to show that what may work for someone might not neccessarily work for another, in the end, try what ever it takes to make it work for you.

On a side note, Bernard make a reduced shroud and tip for pipeline work which enable the shroud and tip to go into a much thinner bevel for doing pipe root work, I have been meaning to get some for quite a while now but have never got around to ordering them, they are mainly for the Bernard range of torches but they do have some adaptors to fit a couple of other brands. Also they have the centrefire range in case anyone is interested.

They are the "TT series" that are reduced.

http://www.bernardwelds.com/products/replacement_parts/centerfire/conversion_chart.html

http://www.bernardwelds.com/products/replacement_parts/centerfire/documents/Centerfirev1.4-WEB.pdf

They would be great for doing pipe roll cage work as you would be able to get into the corners, they are about half the size of a standard shroud.

 

[backpurge]

Only time I have every had the contact tip sticking out past the gas shroud was for rooting heavy walled pipe (as mentioned in Ed's post) vertically down about 35 years ago. Never had the need to do it again, even on material less than 1mm thick.

And as Ed correctly states, what works for one person doesn't for another

 

[Seano]

I use it quite a lot at work, where we use a lot of small od tube and getting into angles can be a pain with the shroud on, took about 12mm off on the lathe, and just liberally apply anti spatter to the tip, I am a firm believer in a particular method of doing things as taught by college or apprentice establishments is not always the one and only way to do something, but then this is something that only comes with experience, and as long as it accomplishes the correct end product who's to say whether it is the right or wrong way.

 

[backpurge]

I use it quite a lot at work, where we use a lot of small od tube and getting into angles can be a pain with the shroud on, took about 12mm off on the lathe, and just liberally apply anti spatter to the tip, I am a firm believer in a particular method of doing things as taught by college or apprentice establishments is not always the one and only way to do something, but then this is something that only comes with experience, and as long as it accomplishes the correct end product who's to say whether it is the right or wrong way.

Exactly, if it works for you do it

 

[pedrobedro]

On my Binzel torch with my last welder I had a shroud set aside which I modified for tight corners. It was cut down and squashed in at the end and helped a lot building chassis from square tubing.