Thread: Very first TIG welds. please advise

Ive started the journey to learn to TIG weld tonight and im really struggling. Any help and advice is most welcome. im running 2.4mm tungsten, pure argon onto 5mm plate with 2.4mm filler rod. reg is set at 17 lpm what do you guys recommend? the metal i used to weld on was not the cleanest so i understand the dirty look of the welds. The cone is a #7. please advise CAM00099.jpgCAM00100.jpgCAM00101.jpg

At first glance the welds look cold with little sign of wetting to the base metal. What amperage are you running?

17 lpm is too much, you should be starting around 6 or 7 lpm. Too much gas is as bad as too little as it causes eddies which drag the outside air into the weld area.

With TIG welding cleanliness is next to godliness, you must clean the base metal to have any chance of making a decent weld, use a flap disk in a grinder to get the base metal bright and shiny and try again.

Presumably you sharpened the tungsten (taper length around 2 to 3 times the diameter of the tungsten). You need to keep the arc distance as small as possible, preferably about the same as the electrode diameter.

Have another go with 7 lpm gas flow, short arc distance and clean base metal and lets see what they look like - we need to know the settings you used for the welds as well.

Thanks mate. I am using a unimig 140 inverter and the attempts were done at around 65 amps. stick and mig i can understand but tig is so different to me. tungstens are sharpened as you describe. i'll get onto it tomorrow and clean up the metal, slow the gas flow down and post again. Thanks again for your suggestions. this forum is invaluable!

65 amps is low for that work, a general rule of thumb to start with for mild steel is an amp per thou thickness. Do you have any thinner stock to practice on, I'd start with 1/8" or 3 mm flat if you can get some.

If you want to start with the 5 mm stuff then clean it up bright and shiny, set the gas around 6 or 7 lpm and crank the amps up to 100 or more and then see how you get on.

When you sharpen the tungsten, make sure the grind marks run along the electrode, not around it.

Good luck.

Miller weld calculator here http://www.millerwelds.com/resources/calculators/ will get you sorted. Even download as an app for your phone.

Cheers
-Craig

Originally Posted by Gavin Newman

set the gas around 6 or 7 lpm

+1. What you had was way too high.

Take your time and watch the weld pool develop. If it's taking too long to develop, up the amps a bit and try again. On steel you can afford to take your time when practising.

Once you have developed a weld pool, dip in the filler and move a little bit forward, pause briefly, dip, move forward. Take your time.

Having a nice clear view of the weld pool helps a lot.

As you start to develop your skills you can up the amps some more and proceed more quickly.

BTW, take your time, don't try and rush.