Welding Tips and Tricks

Hello everyone I joined up here in November 2009...Ha! I'm not very good at hello's and goodbye's hence this tardy post.
I've spent almost all my life making things so welding was just another avenue to wander down. After many years using a stick welder in building work etc. I decided to try my hand at TIG so went off to a college for 2 nights a weeks to learn it. After a year and a half trying every body position I could manage and believe me the Karma Sutra has nothing on welding those pipes! I took the pressure test which here is 3.5 hours. I almost failed due to a gas bubble that developed in the 2G, that threw me and I almost gave up but instead ground it out, re-welded and passed. That was 2012. I then decided to do the full-penetration in MMAW and after a year of that I gave up. That overhead butt was just too overwhelming, plus I couldn't justify more time on something that might not in the end provide me with any extra work.

Cheers, Jeff

Hey Jeff, I hold the dubious honour of welding the worst over head butt weld my Tafe teacher had ever seen. Don't be too hard on yourself.

Jeff welcome to the forum.

weldin mike 27 wrote:Hey Jeff, I hold the dubious honour of welding the worst over head butt weld my Tafe teacher had ever seen. Don't be too hard on yourself.

Yes Mike it's diabolical and what's worse is the amount of time spent on the set-up only to destroy it all in a few minutes of welding.

Mike wrote:Jeff welcome to the forum.

Thanks Mike, like I said I've been here....But not here

"they" say, that once you get it, it's a very easy and pretty weld.