First time TIG Welding.

[Airborne]

my uncle is amazing at welding. he tried to teach

me years ago. and i was ok. I'm sure if i asked him to give me a refresher i Would pick it up pretty quick. and i know it's allot more then welding wire..just like car audio is so much more then turning a gain all the way up.

i like most full grown 11yr Olds have a bad habit of playing with my new toy. thats all i was getting at. i know the skill,time and patience needed to weeld and weld good. its Art really

I hear ya man. I am an amateur EVERYTHING.lol

[Airborne]

had a chance to buy a nice little welder the other day. had everything you need to plug and play. i passed just because i know i Would spend the next 2 weeks trying to weld everything i could then never touch it again.

i can say your skills are much better then mine!

practice will make you better. i was Told start with the hard stuff. 2 different kinds of metal, rusted metal to new metal.. If you practice with the hard shit the easy stuff is well...easy!

to be honest, learning metallurgy and the process is better than just burning things together until it looks good.

Understanding how the process works, understanding and implementing your machines settings and knowing it's limits are way more important.

Exactly why I'm taking classes. Anyone can lay down perfect looking beads, test em' and they could have no penetration at all, just Sittin' on top of the metal all pretty. Won't hold very long..

I want to know the whole process and then some.. Honestly that's what I wanna do for a career haha

I love doing metal work. My current job has me doing real precise welds that require controlled heat.

TIG is great for gunsmiths. And you can use drywall mud as a heat paste;-)

[JP-12]

Adding the filler is the hardest part for me!

When It comes to doing things with my left hand it just feels soo awkward! I need to get used to it.

[Aj11]

I'm ambidextrous...my only good quality! I'm really odd tho. i write left handed (can do it right but always go left. i throw right handed (can do it

left but not as well, but still pretty damn good)

my left eye is dominate but i kick with my right leg and shoot a bbasketball left... I'm all Over the place. bowling pool and golf are the only ones where it doesn't matter what side i use They both equally suck..oh and darts.

I'm actually pretty good at pool tho.

[SMF93]

For one of your 1st Tig beads, that doesn't look to bad, when I first started learning how to tig weld I started with beads on flat pieces of mild steel. Try some Tig stainless, or aluminum once you really get the hang of it. I'm in my 3rd Welding class in college and currently have learned how to stick, and mig weld in all positions, can Tig weld but haven't tried it out of position yet, and can weld with oxy. I don't have enough patience for oxy acetylene lol

[SMF93]

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[JP-12]

Have been doing some stainless and aluminum. Once I went from the aluminum back to the stainless... Holy shit it seemed 100x easier haha. Aluminum is tricky.

[Blue]

Have been doing some stainless and aluminum. Once I went from the aluminum back to the stainless... Holy shit it seemed 100x easier haha. Aluminum is tricky.

Aluminum is tricky. I never got the hang of it. I would be pushing the peddle down and getting that puddle started and then I would blow through it. Freaking sucked. Don't think I was preparing the surfaces good enough was my issue. But stainless and regular steel is easy

[csermonet47]

Not bad for your first time. It just takes practice, you may never get it perfect, but you will definitely get better. I am about to graduate from technical school with a welding diploma, so I am by no means an expert. Not sure how much experience you have, but I may have a few tips.

When we started learning any of the big 3 methods(stick, MIG, TIG), we always started out on a flat piece of material and just laid the best, straightest bead we could. A t-joint is a little trickier, and if you are just wanting to get the basics down, I would definitely just practice laying beads on a flat piece. You will be surprised how hard it is to get a straight bead when you don't have a joint to follow.

Inserting the filler rod is one of the hardest parts to learn if you are not ambidextrous. I am not in the least bit and it was very frustrating at first. You want to make sure to establish a good weld pool with the torch and just aim straight for it, the pool will suck the filler rod in to an extent. If you hit the base metal surrounding the weld pool, the rod will want to stick. You want to touch the rod to the pool and only the pool.

The biggest thing when welding in any position or any method is getting a comfortable position. That takes practice as well cause you will constantly find new techniques and things that make it easier for you. The more you practice, the better you will get at being comfortable. Try different ways of holding the torch, routing the hose differently so it doesn't fight you. Learn how to feed the filler rod when it gets short without too much motion, its all in the wrist and fingers.

Another thing I have noticed TIG welding, when we first started learning we were using smallish diameter filler rods, forcing you to be more precise. If you can get dialed in with a small filler rod, moving up to the bigger stuff will be much easier.

Steel, be it stainless or mild, is easier to TIG for a beginner than aluminum. Practice enough with aluminum and you will be just as proficient as you are on steel.

Learn your machine settings. One thing I do is establish the weld pool I want and have someone read me the current output off the machine(we'll say 130v), I then set the machine slightly over, maybe 140v, so I have a little bit of headroom should I need it. But not so much that you are constantly trying to find the sweet spot on the pedal. Some people like to set the machine exactly what they need it at so they can just keep it mashed and not have to worry. I personally like a little head room.

[SMF93]

Have been doing some stainless and aluminum. Once I went from the aluminum back to the stainless... Holy shit it seemed 100x easier haha. Aluminum is tricky.

Aluminum is tricky. I never got the hang of it. I would be pushing the peddle down and getting that puddle started and then I would blow through it. Freaking sucked. Don't think I was preparing the surfaces good enough was my issue. But stainless and regular steel is easy

I know what you mean, on aluminum it's trickier, and you can't really see a puddle you just have to time everything right. Too slow= burn a hole. Too fast= no penetration.