Welding Tips and Tricks

HI, Is there a quick reference video that shows bad welds and what caused them.
I have to spend lots of time looking for the video I think has the answer to my results.
Thanks for the help.

Welcome!

I'm not aware of a specific video for that, but I don't doubt it exists.

This is a unique community, where you can post pictures of "what went wrong" and ask questions, where no one will "flame" you for your efforts.

I'm going to move your topic into the "general shop talk" category, where everyone will see it.

Steve S

wish i could weld wrote:HI, Is there a quick reference video that shows bad welds and what caused them.
I have to spend lots of time looking for the video I think has the answer to my results.
Thanks for the help.

I too would like to see a video along the lines of "cause and effect" where we can see something wrong, why it was wrong and how to fix it. Jody has tips sprinkled throughout his videos already so it will be hard to single one of them out.
-Jonathan

what process. mig? jody has a video series on basic mig settings and what to do to achieve good welds. if its stick search jodys "welding with bubba" for stick tips.

It was tig on aluminum. The first few inches were fine and then it sooted up and quit puddling.

There is chucke2009 on YouTub that did a video similar to that. Don't believe it was about aluminum but just TIG on steel been awile since I seen it.

TIG Weld Troubleshooting: Common Problems & Solut…: http://youtu.be/CVAByfuZXIY

Kevin Caron does instructional vids. He's a good guy but he's been hanging out with with MR tig lately so who knows.

weldin mike 27 wrote:Kevin Caron does instructional vids. He's a good guy but he's been hanging out with with MR tig lately so who knows.

Heh, I wondered what was up with that too. ..

You guys are relentless.

I think Kevin is a great bloke, honest and never ever overstates his ability or knowledge. Haven't watched any of his latest videos , so I have no idea what the collaboration videos are like. Maybe he thought that other dude a few things.

wish i could weld wrote:It was tig on aluminum. The first few inches were fine and then it sooted up and quit puddling.

Two things come to mind immediately.

First is that your gas flow is dropping as you progress (or you're changing the torch angle as you progress). Aluminum likes a lot of gas flow relative to steel (30-35 cfh is not uncommon for a standard collet, 20-25 for a gas-lens), and at these higher flows the puddle is more sensitive to torch angle.

Second, note how far you pull the rod back from the puddle after adding filler. Aluminum is really sensitive to this. The rod builds heat as you progress, just like the parent metal, and if you pull the rod outside the shielding gas it oxidizes immediately, so the next dip carries that crap to your puddle. It doesn't take too many repeats of this to get enough crap in the puddle to disrupt your weld.

A third possibility is that your HF circuitry is mis-behaving as it warms up, but I consider this unlikely. Usually, it either works or doesn't.

The more information you can give us, the closer we can get to the root of the problem.

Steve S

In my limited experience, sooty looking beads are related to gas coverage.

As Steve said, the hi- freq could not be functioning correctly. Or may just be set so start instead of continuous as Ac requires constant to function.