Who,s the daddy.....on TIG welding?

[staceyl200]

Hi
As the title says ,, I,ve just got a tig welder for the company I work for and need some tips ,I can stick ,mig and gas weld and had a go when we had a demonstration for the TIG set we bought.. Its ac/dc so it will weld aluminium and its being delivered this friday so I got all weekend to play with it ,, but need a few pointers :p
Cheers

stacey:D

[Billy Golightly]

Get a foot pedal for arc start and remote amperage control, Its harder then hell to weld without one. Don't ever let the tungsten touch the base metal or the filler rod, it contaminates it and will ruin the weld quality. If it does, get a dedicated grinding wheel just for re-grinding tungsten past the contaminated area. DO NOT use a grinding wheel you use for everything else. You'll embed pieces of steel an aluminum and grease and God only knows what all else into the electrode.

And the number one rule of TIGing aluminum, absolutely most important, positivly cannot bypass, is to make sure the surface is CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN. Clean enough to eat off of is not good enough, clean enough to operate on a family member with is. Clean all area 2-3 inches wide on each side of the welded surface. Use a dedicated stainless wire brush until it is shiny. Whipe with acetone and a brand new clean rag, allow to evaporate without rubbing dry. The #1 thing to get a nice good looking weld is cleanliness. Clean weld surface, clean fill rod, and clean electrode. This applies to steel as well, but more so aluminum.

I wouldn't consider myself a "pro" welder but I think I get along pretty well.

[SpeedBump]

The guy who did my Swinger...his best advice when I was askin bout it....(besides clean good like Billy said) was once you start....keep going. Makes a much better looking weld if you get it going....and keep it going. It isn't the starting and stopping so much as the HEAT. The metal needs to be hot and stay that way. You can change your GAS ratios and mixes for different types and gauges of metal to get the best temps. I don't know nearly enough to explain that, other than knowing it is done. Good luck, and Billy, BTW that weld looks good.

[84honda200s]

danm billy nice welds. i can only stick weld. lol but im getting danm good at it.

[Billy Golightly]

Yeah definetly on aluminum heat is also a main issue. I welded that above picture (3/8 to 1/4inch 6061) on I'm gonna say about 210-220 amps (Kind of hard to tell exactly where your at when you have a pedal) And it took an insanely long time for it to get hot enough for me to realy get it to fuse good. I could have cranked the amperage up higher but then it kept blowing away my filler rod before I could get it to the weld pool :lol:. Some guys like to pre-heat their pieces if they are small enough in an oven before hand, it also helps to cook some of the impurities out from what I'm told.

[SpeedBump]

Preheat....yep, that also works. I got a Mig with alum wire, and I had to use the torch with a small tip to preheat my swingarm when I tacked it together to tkle for the final welds. Not enough heat...had it cranked and even used Helium/Argon gas...(hottest, I was told)

[BIG_RED-ICULOUS]

I do alot of plasma welding where I work. I only work with stainless. Plasma and tig are similar but is harder to work with. I would suggest for gas that you use Alphagas for the shield gas and blueshield for the backing gas, if you are doing fusion welds.

just thought it might be helpfull!

[staceyl200]

Cheers for the replies fellas!!! I,m actually looking forward to working this weekend:crazy: There are a few things I need to get ,,as Billy said , a stainless steel wire brush and acetone etc ,, The guy who gave the demo said that its best to preheat aluminium first as you wont have to crack the amps up I,ve got a heat treatment oven I could use for smallish stuff but will have to use the gas bottles for bigger stuff :naughty: I think my first project could be a set of IMS Roll pegs for my 250R !!!! ;)

Thanks :beer

stacey

[staceyl200]

Get a foot pedal for arc start and remote amperage control, Its harder then hell to weld without one. Don't ever let the tungsten touch the base metal or the filler rod, it contaminates it and will ruin the weld quality. If it does, get a dedicated grinding wheel just for re-grinding tungsten past the contaminated area. DO NOT use a grinding wheel you use for everything else. You'll embed pieces of steel an aluminum and grease and God only knows what all else into the electrode.

And the number one rule of TIGing aluminum, absolutely most important, positivly cannot bypass, is to make sure the surface is CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN. Clean enough to eat off of is not good enough, clean enough to operate on a family member with is. Clean all area 2-3 inches wide on each side of the welded surface. Use a dedicated stainless wire brush until it is shiny. Whipe with acetone and a brand new clean rag, allow to evaporate without rubbing dry. The #1 thing to get a nice good looking weld is cleanliness. Clean weld surface, clean fill rod, and clean electrode. This applies to steel as well, but more so aluminum.

I wouldn't consider myself a "pro" welder but I think I get along pretty well.


BTW nice stack o dimes you got going Billy :drool:

[Billy Golightly]

Few other pointers I just remembered.

Keep the tungsten ground flat, or a natural round. Some people like the grind them to a point but it doesnt accomplish anything from my experience, it balls right back up the first time it gets some heat through it.

Don't let it (tungsten) stick out any further past the ceramic cup then half the diameter of the gas outlet hole.

And some people say not to remove the end of the filler rod from the gas coverage area once its been dipped in the weld pool, that it can inrease the impuritis from surface air. I've tried it but honestly its a lot harder to do that and keep from bumping the tungsten then it is to just wait a second for it to dry and then pull away from it while your moving along the weld line.

[mnnmaz]

So far what Im reading here is correct. I'm a NASA certified TIG welder, on the aluminum preheat is good! it cleans up impurities and there is alot less stress to the aluminum which makes the weld very very strong! If anyone need some TIG welding let me know, I'm cheep! and have to say pretty damn good at too! :)

[bigredhead]

Damn.. can't wait to be able to afford one.. I plan to build bike frames eventually and i'm told it's not an easy thing to do !!!.. but hey.. no one is born a pro.

[mnnmaz]

seeing that you can ride a trike (clutch, throttle, brake) you can TIG weld! It just takes a wile to get the beed to look good and to get certified you better have a real good understanding of TIG and LOTS of practice.... but again if you need anything let me know, I only do it for a hobby now :) but seeing that im certified i cna do anything you need or want! :)

[Billy Golightly]

Hey mnnmaz, I'm gonna have to get a picture of a piece (pieces) I'm having trouble with and let you give me some pointers on them. Will post pictures later on this afternoon/evening.

[Billy Golightly]

I went and head and got the pictures. I've been trying to figure out how to do this for a couple months now and its about to drive me batty, this is about my 3rd set of all the pieces in the pictures and I'm still not happy at all with the results. What I'm trying to do is weld on the little "tubes" with the 5/16 bolts in them to the larger diameter piece to work as a clamp. I'm having an awful time getting good penetration without melting stuff around the weld line that doesn't need to be. I had a very small gas cup but then I had problems with the surrounding areas not getting coverage. And, well you know what aluminum does when it gets hot and doesnt have gas coverage. It starts to look like mashed potatoes and its not pretty. Last photo is of the torch lens and tungsten. 3/32 green band (pure) with straight argon at about 17cfm flow. Filler rod is 1/8th 4043. Should I try pre-heating it with an accetylene torch, or fasten it all together and use an oven, or is pre-heating not even an answer?

[ATC crazy]

Im going to learn how to weld this spring. Im taking a class at college which starts tomorrow (no welding until next semester though...), and Im also applying to a local welding shop owned by a couple of firefighters that my mom works with (EMT). Hopefully I'll be able to learn something. I've never even tried to weld before, and only watched it done a couple times.

[mnnmaz]

Yes, heat the larger diameter with your torch not to hot just hot to the touch. Then tack you smaller pieces and then heat the larger size again to the touch....

Also, the tungston you should use a smaller size and a larger cup for better coverage. I'm at work now but Ill take some picts of what Im talking about so you can see the cup size.

Then so a small weld first, let the part cool down to the touch again and the increase the amps and keep you tungston / puddle to the thicker / larger diamater piece and when operating your foot peddle back off as you get close the the end of the weld so you dont cun the smaller material like picture #4 shows....

[KASEY]

hey billy,,, i did the same thing on a bottom triple clamp,,,, i left the parts altogether,,, welded it up then split it with a die grinder,,, it was way eaiser to weld it all around then split it,,,, just a thought
http://i3.tinypic.com/2iqmxld.jpg

[vegas250rr]

looks like some us acetone to clean their parts for prep... I was taught to use Muriatic Acid for prep work. tit for tat I guess, but its cheap and you can get it by the gallon for just a few bucks at home depot or lowes

[Billy Golightly]

That looks like a good idea Kasey, and I just noticed this afternoon, if I shorten the length of my tubes a little bit it will make it much easier to catch the ends also. I guess I'll go ahead and remake another set and try it that way

[mnnmaz]

Sorry for the delay! Had to weld up the steering stops on a quad and put my daughters to bed.... anyhow, Here is what I use 1/16 tungsten with 1" cup also in the picture you see i have few diffusers for the auxiliary argon. If you use the 1/16 tungsten and 1/16 fill rod youll do fine! If now send it to me and I can do it for you... shipping is cheep for aluminum Ill do it for 20 bucks you pay the shipping and I have to say it will look SWEET! But give it a try! Let me know how it turns out!? :D

OK how do you get a picture to only be 250k?! let me get a shitty picture GRRRRR!

[mnnmaz]

So did you get it welded? I hope so, if not let me do it:) Ill do it for free and you pay shipping :)