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TIG Welding - A Mature Stuudunts (iinit) Report


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i did a year at colchester institute last year,level 1,mig,tig,mma.all in the flat,this was one night theory one night practical for 36 weeks,did it with my son,thoroughly enjoyed it,passed all with distinction,tig was only on mild steel and stainless,cost me £960 !.my son is doing level 2 which as nige says is vertical,i couldn,t do year 2as i had an impending op on my shpulder which i knew was going to take 3 months to recover from,i would encourage anyone with an interest to enrol and learn from proffesionals.

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Clean the workpiece before you start Nige, fresh grind on the 'trode, keep your gloves clean, clean the filler rod - basically if everything its not clean enough to lick then dont tig it. Get some exhaust wrap as well and make a finger shield (of use a high heat robo glove on your torch hand), hum a tune while you weld.

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Hi Jez.... Great to see you back.. :)

You just covered a 10 week course for Nige in a few lines... Send him the invoice now matey....

He kneels near his Tig welder facing your direction chanting every day at the moment seeking inspiration.

He has no Chi and will never be a Welding God.. :)

Neil

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Probably due to your overlaps or weld profile, try slowing down. Have you got the choice of heating the ali before welding? As im sure you know the weld will get faster the closer to the end you get. And pre warming it means you get a better penatration.

Also spend some time doing just start stops. Once you get a hang of that no one will be able to tell where you start or end.

And dont get frustrated the more relaxed you are the better your welding will be. Try having a hang over next time you attempt to weld. Worked for me in the past and can give you a lovely natural weave. :hysterical:

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humming keeps you breathing - lots of people tense up.

random ramblings that may or may not help;

always try to get your body into a position that allows two things; 1 clear vision of the weld as it comes towards you , 2 allows your gun hand to travel the length of the workpiece in a single sweep (comfortablly and preferably with "off job" support if poss.). Once you leave a bench and weld in the wild all of those luxuries go out the window but with a bit of effort you can make your life a shed load easier and the results will show it.

Listen to the process; sound will tell you lots, fizzles, squeels and whines will help provide additional feedback as to whats happening, experiment with arc length, contaminated or dirty workpieces, poor earth, insufficient/too much gas and listen to the change in sound - it will help. You also need to play with balance and frequency and note the results, a posh rig with independant Pos and Neg values adds another layer of control that you need to fiddle with.

if you are on the pedal then dial up the lowest "max value" on the rig, this will keep the closest possible resolution between pedal travel and current.

Clean clean clean, dont just remove ferric oxide but also degrease using acetone (in a perfect world) or brake/carb cleaner (yes, I know the risks) in the cost driven world. A scotchpad buffing wheel on a cordless drill is a wonderfull thing for ally.

Ally is alive, it moves and has a character to it, you need to play in order to tune ya swede into its quirks

Best advice "off gun" is grab a 1mm or 1.2mm rod and keep it with you, practice feeding it while you watch telly or sit in traffic. practice practice practice you need to be fast and precise with it, start with precise - speed comes with practice.

Work up to partially conscious overhead welding backhand, wrong handed using a mirror later (ask fridge)

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Interested to know from those who have used the old and the new what difference comes in weld quality with thin aluminium sheet work (2mm for tanks and swirl pots etc) from using the modern square wave TIG sets over the older sets. I've got an old BOC ADR 300 set but without the foot pedal. I've womderedif it is worth seeking one for this or whether I am simply flogging a dead horse with the old set

Are the square wave sets that much better?

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Interested to know from those who have used the old and the new what difference comes in weld quality with thin aluminium sheet work (2mm for tanks and swirl pots etc) from using the modern square wave TIG sets over the older sets. I've got an old BOC ADR 300 set but without the foot pedal. I've womderedif it is worth seeking one for this or whether I am simply flogging a dead horse with the old set

Are the square wave sets that much better?

I started my level 3 ali with an older machine and half way through the year the college bought in new miller dynasty 200 inverters with all the bells and whistles. While I played around with all the pulsed features and what not I eventually just switched it all off again and went back to pulsing the good old fashioned way with a foot pedal. My 2 cents would be unless you are looking for real high end welds and lots of them or (very very) compact size, the cost of the new inverters wouldnt be justified and go with the foot pedal.

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Interested to know from those who have used the old and the new what difference comes in weld quality with thin aluminium sheet work (2mm for tanks and swirl pots etc) from using the modern square wave TIG sets over the older sets. I've got an old BOC ADR 300 set but without the foot pedal. I've womderedif it is worth seeking one for this or whether I am simply flogging a dead horse with the old set

Are the square wave sets that much better?

Ive got a 40yr old miller and a brand new miller syncrowave and I genuinely think unless your welding on minimum amps where modern machines have great arc control, weld cleanliness has much more effect on success than a fancy welder.

That said I learnt to ally weld with gas so any tig set seems easy.

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Hmmm

Update

Last night went in and walked toward the bay I have ben using.

I was then told to use "Any other machine except that one"

The reasonwas simple, I was there to learn to TIG weld, not learn the tweaks well on just one machine.

So, I picked a Nice Miller Invertor, which was interesting as everything was set deliberately wong for me to work out !

I then yet again worked on my upright T welding test, and did multiple fails, these all looked "OK" but had undercut and a wobbly

TIG and Rod hand showing in the finished result, as the instructor said, "you would have been happy with that a few weeks back- but thats not now"

A number of demos, discussions and guidance later saw me reduce the power down from 48 to 40 amps, then again to 38, and then things got interesting

The arguement was the Under Cut was too much heat burning the edges away before I could get the filler rod in, and also too many amps saw

the reverse side "Burning" through neither of which is good practise.

Because I have "MIGged" for so many years I am used to moving the torch faster it the amps are too high and the same is defo not good practise for TIG

But making me drop the amps down it seemed an absolute age before metal edges started to form any weld pool, then I dipped the rod in and saw the pool "Harden"

I was again rushing, after several pieces and pretty much at the end of the evening I was now in his works doing some dmaned good quality welds, well on the way now,

he reckons another 1 maybe 2 weeks just on this with practise practise and more prcatise might see me crack it good and proper

He also pointed out the earlier version he had kept, the weld is HUGE and wide, but he wnated me to get the "feel" 1st and then move amps down and make me slow right down

one step at a time, now the weld is half the width, little to no undercut, better fillet and all in all "Nearly" OK. I also tried some of the earlier welds I had "Passed"

and yes the result was the same, neater and better ! Steel 1.2mm was at 50 AMPS now at 36 !!

3 weeks ago (on Right) vs last nights (on Left)

post-22-0-26726200-1329919085_thumb.jpg

Thats also some magnification - in real life they look far better than the picture shows them !

TIG is slow - in all aspects :rofl: but this is a great course !

Nige

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Nige;

Your plate still looks dirty as hell - the toes of the weld wont wet nicely and the bead will always look dirty until you learn hygiene before you strive for penetration..... filthy child.

http://www.millerwelds.com/resources/articles/common-TIG-GTAW-welding-problems-visual-guide-graphic

if the weld pool is hardening when you dip the filler then use a thinner filler rod, how thin a bead is he asking you to produce? tricky to tell from the pics but how thick is the plate you are working on?

Zoltan - Ive got a fully stacked Miller Aerowave and it makes tricky stuff almost childsplay although 90% of the time I just leave the rig set to basic, the 10% when Nasa is needed is still worth its weight in gold (to me anyway). The bells and whistles rock, but only in circumstances that call for them, high freq pulsing for very thin guage is the dogs mellons and out of position work, DC pulsing can work wonders with casts that leach. Pre-prog'd pulse is the lazy way to perfect bead formation and makes single handed stainless pipe welding something so easy our 16 year old workshop lurker can do it. I also have a tiddly Fronious invertor tig plant for little jobs but I still subscribe to the theory that welders should be bought by weight - Ive never been sold on the lifespan of an invertor unit unless it had the right label on the side. Gucci mask, Prada gloves, Galliano rods - welder by Miller

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Jez

Ta for the input

Re cleaning the metal he is saying absolutely, but if your blowing holes and getting it big time wrong makes little difference at the moment

I can take either 200x50,, plate cleaned (which are there for doing exam pass pieces or final practise) and am pointed to them when he thinks it will make a difference, at the moment he says "Just use this" for practise ?

1.2mm is the plate thickness, he is not saying "Do a bead X Thick", more "Thats Too Big, Too Many Amps, Too much undercut Too much burn through"

and as I get it "Better" the bead is smaller the Burn through minimal and the amps less and less

Can't get my head around how slow TIG can be made to go, and how its nicer and nicer the more time taken !

MIG is a different World - Pull squirt MOOOOOVE !

Rods are I think A15 1.6mm ? as thats what they have mainly for TIG lessons

Thoughts always welcome Obee One Jezobey :D

Chuffed with what I can do now, which 6 x weeks ago I would have dreamed of, and have 14 weeks yet to go

Ali here I come at some point when he feels it right :) In the meantime its learn learn learn and practise practise practise :D

Nige

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Re cleaning the metal he is saying absolutely, but if your blowing holes and getting it big time wrong makes little difference at the moment

I can take either 200x50,, plate cleaned (which are there for doing exam pass pieces or final practise) and am pointed to them when he thinks it will make a difference, at the moment he says "Just use this" for practise ?

But having it as clean as it can possibly be improves the control, and therefore the weld standard no end. It was drummed into me by the welders... clean clean clean clean clean clean clean clean! Even with my first TIG welds, the cleanliness made a difference :).

MIG is a different World - Pull squirt MOOOOOVE !

Yes, still an art to get great welds though... MIG seems to produce a lot of the pigeon sh!t as anyone can pick one up and squirt :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Learnt a very importnat leson last night at Tig Skool :D

ALWAYS put a loop on the end of the rod, this way you don't poke yourself in the eye - which I haven't

but also as when you put a rod down to adjust the workpiece when you pick the rod back up to continue

the Ferkin hot bit doesn't then touch your chin and whilst your welding then wonder why you can smell roast pork,

........and FFS why does my chin hurt ?

:rofl:

I now have passed all of Level 2 with the exception of the last piece, which I hope will be next week, then its 10 weeks of Alhellumnium

:D

Nige

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