[EtronX]

I initially thought about using "My road to becoming a welder" in the title, but then I realized that would be an insult to all you proper welders out there

This is my little story following a life long dream into the magic of welding.

I do not know when it started, but I've always been facinated by welding. My father had a small shop when I was a kid, and I would hang out there as much as I could. I remember trying stick welding back then. He sold his shop when I was 8 or 9. Me learning to weld stopped before it started.

Fast forward some 40+ years. I now have a job, a house, a wife and mostly grownup kids. I also have some time on my hands, so I figured it was time to take up welding. Learn the tricks of the trade.

About 10 years ago I upgraded to Wife, version 1.2. I now know why a divorce is so expensive. It's because it's worth it

With the upgraded wife, motorcycles came back into my life again. After to many years without one. In my former life motorcycles did not suit "us".

With the motorcycles came the urge to do some longer rides. Long story short, I needed a purpose built bike for long distance offroad riding. I planned to ride from my hometown in Norway to Magadan in far East Russia. Crossing Siberia on the way. After doing some research on the WWW I decided on the perfect bike for my trip. It would be a modified BMW G650 X-Challenge.

The best guys in the world for this rebuild was located in Holland so I made contact with them. Bas at HyperPro and Erik at HotRod Welding did their outmost to help me. Bas made the suspension perfect. Erik did the rest. The frame that holds the fairing and the fairing. The extra tank, X-Tank and the luggage rack. Erik is a master welder and that triggered my "need" to learn welding again. I am proud to call both Erik and Bas my friends. We meet regularly and have much fun together. Below is the bike finished.



Fast forward again to last Fall. I decided to spend a week with my Dutch friends. Having a beer or two and try some TIG welding. Bas set me up for a day in his shop. There I tried my first beads with a TIG machine. Then I spent a few days with Erik in his shop. Getting my own welding table and lots of pieces to to practise with. I was hooked



Erik suggested that I should stick to my day job for a little longer



My first finished project was a pen holder for Erik. It is probably hidden somewhere in his shop now, but I'll bet he will have it on his desk when I come to visit next time

[EtronX]

Now, Erik uses Fronius TIG welders in his shop. So I figured; good enough for him, good enough for me. I contacted Fronius Norway and ordered a Fronius MagicWave 2200. This will weld 5 mm alu, which is probably the thickest dimension I will use for my bikes. For bashplates and the sorts.



I also bought a Siegmund welding table.



The long term goal is to start building my own cafe racers based on old BMW R80's. Something like this:



or like this:



or maybe modify the X-C to this:



Lots of possibilities.

But before I start to run I have to learn to crawl. Inches by inches...


Sent from my Commodore 64

[exnailpounder]

One day it will all click in your head and you will wonder why people think its hard. No one here invented tig welding and we all turned ot some goose crap welds but time in the seat and great teachers like Jody makes it go better. Learn from the best and then you don't have to unlearn any bad habits. You'll ge there. Trust me, and some of the other guys will back me up on this...even when you get good at it, you will still have days when you feel like you never welded before in your life. Good Ole Murphy likes to visit Tig welders Good luck!

[EtronX]

Sooo, now I spend my off-days in the garage. Enjoying every minute with my new toys. Every man should have a hobby and welding is now mine. It is fun and sometimes pretty frustrating. I stumbled onto Jody's page and sucked in all the information. It looks so easy...



But it is not. It is frecking hard. It is challenging. It is great



I watch Jody's videos and I try to duplicate what he is doing. And what Crummy is doing.



Right...



But every day I weld I learn something new. Sometimes when I have dipped the electrode one to many times, or got it stuck, or touched it with the filler, or burnt a hole, I have a home brew. Life is good then




Sent from my Commodore 64

[EtronX]

One day it will all click in your head and you will wonder why people think its hard. No one here invented tig welding and we all turned ot some goose crap welds but time in the seat and great teachers like Jody makes it go better. Learn from the best and then you don't have to unlearn any bad habits. You'll ge there. Trust me, and some of the other guys will back me up on this...even when you get good at it, you will still have days when you feel like you never welded before in your life. Good Ole Murphy likes to visit Tig welders Good luck!

Thanks a lot, mate. Hopefylly I don't have to unlearn to much. I try to work on the stuff Jody teaches. Trying to get the angle and the distance of the torch correct. Practising feeding the filler in my living room, in my car, in my sleep


Sent from my Commodore 64

[cj737]

A man after my own heart! Rides a BMW, loves old R bikes, and wants to be a TIG welder! Plus, you bought an absolutely fricking top end table. You love yourself!

I'll tell you a few tricks a professional friend of mine imparted to me that I find helped my welding immensely (note: actual mileage may vary, and I find every welder has their own technique which works best for them)

- When welding aluminum, keep the stick out very short, even just to the edge of the cup. This prevents touching the tungsten to the weld.

-Always make sure you can "see" the arc, the puddle, and where you are going. For aluminum, try a Pyrex cup, it really does help a great deal.

- Try laying the cup against the metal you are welding whenever possible. Supporting the torch and your filler hand really do help produce consistency.

- Move the big muscles, not the small ones. This really helped me. I was trying to "finger" the torch movements instead of sliding my forearm, thereby moving the cup. It helped substantially improve my travel distance and speed and make my puddle much better.

I had to make my own table since my kids are still growing and costing me 2 arms, 1 leg, and a kidney on a regular basis. So I am very jealous of your set up

[PeteM]

I think great welding, especially tig, is like watching a great guitarist fly through an amazing song. They just make it look so easy. Then you try. And try. And whoa, that was harder than it looked.

And I'm definitely no Stevie Ray Vaughn.

[Otto Nobedder]

I like the comparison to musicians.

Some days I weld just a great as the drummer from Def Leppard plays guitar.

Actually, I had an awesomely BAD Elton John joke I wanted to use there, but decided "not in public"...

Steve S

[LtBadd]

Actually, I had an awesomely BAD Elton John joke I wanted to use there, but decided "not in public"...

Steve S

That's Sir Elton John to you, he's been knighted you know...makes you wonder about that

You can PM the joke to me if you want, I'd appreciated it

[Otto Nobedder]

I'll probably get a dozen requests, now, and I've hijacked a thread...

I'm blaming the beer.

Steve S

[exnailpounder]

Send it to mee too...2nd...

[MosquitoMoto]

Bikes and welding. It doesn't get any better.

[Rupes]

Man, I'm so jealous. I want that table !!!!


I'm planning on a Demmeler table one of these days. I'm applying to rebuild the workshop so can't do much till that gets built. But I build 2/3's of my current table to take a 8x4 piece of MDF with a grid of CNC'd holes in it. I stole the idea off a Festool table I had. As its MDF its primarily for woodworking and cutting up sheet goods including aluminium.

Such a simple idea those holes, but make life so easy. You just need tall angles to support the head, engine mounts and swingarm pivot where you want them, a tube notcher and bender and start filling in the gaps.


EDIT: Send me the joke too

[electrode]

When I win the lottery I too will have one of those Siegmund welding tables. Nice!

[AndersK]

You have gotten a good start Geir. Rest will come in time. Just not being afraid to show early trials will speed up learning since you will get a bunch of good advice from this community.

Some days I weld just a great as the drummer from Def Leppard plays guitar.

Good one Steve, I totally got that one.
He would probably Tig weld better than playing the guitar too.

[electrode]

I like the comparison to musicians.

Some days I weld just a great as the drummer from Def Leppard plays guitar.

Steve S

Very good comparison. Some days are better than others, that's for sure. Usually when I make more than one of something, the first one ends up being the best one.

[EtronX]

A man after my own heart! Rides a BMW, loves old R bikes, and wants to be a TIG welder! Plus, you bought an absolutely fricking top end table. You love yourself!

I'll tell you a few tricks a professional friend of mine imparted to me that I find helped my welding immensely (note: actual mileage may vary, and I find every welder has their own technique which works best for them)

- When welding aluminum, keep the stick out very short, even just to the edge of the cup. This prevents touching the tungsten to the weld.

-Always make sure you can "see" the arc, the puddle, and where you are going. For aluminum, try a Pyrex cup, it really does help a great deal.

- Try laying the cup against the metal you are welding whenever possible. Supporting the torch and your filler hand really do help produce consistency.

- Move the big muscles, not the small ones. This really helped me. I was trying to "finger" the torch movements instead of sliding my forearm, thereby moving the cup. It helped substantially improve my travel distance and speed and make my puddle much better.

I had to make my own table since my kids are still growing and costing me 2 arms, 1 leg, and a kidney on a regular basis. So I am very jealous of your set up

Thanks for the good advise, mate. These I will follow on my meandering road


Sent from my Commodore 64

[EtronX]

My next effort was to try weld some pieces of 1" square tube together. The thickness of the metal is 1.5 mm. I tried to butt weld them with no filler and with filler. Playing with different settings on the Fronius.



I probably should just use straight amps as a beginner, and not play to much with pulse and the likes. Try get a feel for the heat input to the metal. How I have to vary the speed of the torch when the metal heats up. I do that to, but it is fun trying different stuff after some focused practise.




Sent from my Commodore 64

[EtronX]

The first proper project was a stand for a metal band saw that I bought. The original stand was pressed sheet metal and rather flimsy. It was also to low for my liking.



After demounting the original stand I did some measurement and decided on the height. I also decided, in order to make the saw stable, that the legs had to be angeled both sideways and forward/aft. On the saw there is the option of angeling what you are about to cut in one dimention. I had to get the same angle in two...



I decided to do the frame that goes inside the base of the saw first. That went fairly OK. I was using all the attachment posibilities of the welding table.



Then came the time for the legs. I did a lot of thinking. Even refreshed on the old Phytagoras, Sinus and Cosinus. Made some angle calculations and started cutting. When done cutting four legs they looked pretty OK. As a note I had to get the inverse angle on the other side in order for the stand to stay flat on the floor. When done I tacked the legs to the frame. It looked something like this:



I had to regroup and re-think. Something was wrong in The Garage. New calculations was done. I decided to put a piece of the square tube on the end of the saw. In effect lifting the piece I was about to cut on the no cutting edge. Then I measured the angle of that with reference to horizontal. I came up with 10 degrees. I angeled the saw to 10 degrees and cut one leg this time I measured it and it looked OK. After this I did the other three. Then all was welded to the top frame and stiffeners welded in at the bottom. I was a happy camper.




Sent from my Commodore 64

[EtronX]

I drilled some holes in the top frame for the attachment screews that goes into the base of the saw and threaded them.





Finally I welded some flat pieces on the bottom of the frame and painted the whole thing red. Same color as the Fronius.



The next thing was to put the whole ordeal together. I was pretty happy with my new stand and learnt a lot doing the work.



Wheels on the frame was concidered, but since it is going to be stationary I decided against it.

Sent from my Commodore 64

[EtronX]

After the frame was done it was back to practising again. Playing with the spot function on the welder. Jody recomends double the normal welding amps for the piece you are welding and .5 seconds when using the spot function. This worked like a charm, but the two pieces has to have a very good fit. If not they will not join. I really enjoy trying out this stuff.

The pulse function is also tested extensively. Using 1 Hz and but welding it looks pretty nice. With a hint of the "stacked dimes" look.







After playing with this for a while I went all out and welded all the pieces I had together. Without and with filler.



As soon as filler comes into the equation everything tends to go sideways. Especially if I have to feed the filler with my left hand. Pisses me off. Time to practise some more using the good advice I get amongst this great group



Sent from my Commodore 64

[exnailpounder]

Try doing short runs and just practice dabbing in rod. And weld towards yourself so that you are working your way towards the filler, that way you can hold a longer length of rod stick out and make a longer bead.. Feeding rod is the very last skill to come. Once you have the muscle memory and skills for tigging developed then worry about feeding rod. For what it's worth...I rarely do a weld long enough to have to feed rod anyway and can do at least a 6" bead without stopping because I can't feed rod worth a damn. I am great when I practice feeding it but when I am welding and doing 5 things at once, my rod feeding falls apart, especially on aluminum.. Short welds will entail most welding situations. Plus the duty cycle of home welders isn't very long and there is no shame in starting and stopping a weld. It's common to get out of position when welding and having to re-adjust. Notice other welders work and you will see stops/starts. There's a lot going on when your tig welding so trying to rush any skills will only lead to frustration. Do short beads, and when they look good do a little longer bead and when they look good....etc...build on those little successes and you will have it no time. It's not hard...just takes practice.

[EtronX]

Another day, another dollar spent. Yesterday I emptied my first 11L Argon bottle. Here in the land of the Vikings you have to buy bottle sizes up to 11L. One bottle will set you back something like $ 500. When the first one you bought is empty, you exchange it in for a new full one. In principle just paying for the refil from now on. This will set you back $ 140 every time.

There are larger bottles, like 50L, but those have to be rented from one of two suppliers. Renting a bottle is somthing like $ 300 a year. Plus the refil. Not worth it for a hobbyist like me.



The angle indicator on my band saw is not correct. When I allign it up to 45 degrees, cut two pieces and line them up, they do not end up at 90 degrees. I noticed this first when I welded together the stand for the saw. Some modifications were due.

I did some test cuts today. Checking the angle every time and making small adjustments. I also noticed that the angle would shift slightly when I tightened up the clamp. My initial thought was to mark the base of the saw, but this would not be enough. When I finally got it correct I drilled a hole, tapped it and fitted a screw. From now on it should be on the mark every time.



With the leftover pieces I did some more butt welding without filler. Tacking at 140 amps for .5 seconds. Then welding at 80 amps with pulse, 33% on time, 33% background current and 1 Hz.











When I look at the welds I realize that I need more support for my torch hand. My movements are not smooth. More to take into the equation...



Sent from my Commodore 64

[EtronX]

Try doing short runs and just practice dabbing in rod. And weld towards yourself so that you are working your way towards the filler, that way you can hold a longer length of rod stick out and make a longer bead.. Feeding rod is the very last skill to come. Once you have the muscle memory and skills for tigging developed then worry about feeding rod. For what it's worth...I rarely do a weld long enough to have to feed rod anyway and can do at least a 6" bead without stopping because I can't feed rod worth a damn. I am great when I practice feeding it but when I am welding and doing 5 things at once, my rod feeding falls apart, especially on aluminum.. Short welds will entail most welding situations. Plus the duty cycle of home welders isn't very long and there is no shame in starting and stopping a weld. It's common to get out of position when welding and having to re-adjust. Notice other welders work and you will see stops/starts. There's a lot going on when your tig welding so trying to rush any skills will only lead to frustration. Do short beads, and when they look good do a little longer bead and when they look good....etc...build on those little successes and you will have it no time. It's not hard...just takes practice.

Roger on that one, mate. Thanks for the feedback. Will try this tomorrow. I have the same thing with the feeding. Works like a charm in the living room, but when I have a torch in the other hand it goes South


Sent from my Commodore 64

[AndersK]

If you are sliding your hand at the table it is good to cut a piece of fire blanket, fold a few times and put that between hand and table. Makes movement soo much smoother.

Seen the pipe support I and others have built?
Great help when you can't slide right on the table.

When fusion welding I like to set pulse between 0,8-2 Hz.
Most people would probably advice to skip the pulse until more experienced to have fewer parameters to muck around with but that's your call.