[Chips O'Toole]

I am still working on learning to TIG 1/8" steel. Today's big issue: the filler rod wobbles.

The first time I tried TIG, I used 1/16" rod, and it wasn't too hard to control. Then I moved to 3/32" (because I picked the wrong rod up accidentally), and I found that when I moved the rod out between my fingers, it wobbled a lot, making it hard to keep the tip in place. The added weight of the thicker rod makes it like to wobble.

Is there a secret to controlling this, or is it just a matter of more practice?

[Farmwelding]

Regardless, any prctice feeding filler will help. Sit on your couch and watch tv and do it. I have been tig welding for about a year now and still can't do it well. The next question is do you cut you filler rods in half? They come originally like 3 ft long, but cut them in half and they are fairly easy. This is what I do and I almost exclusively use 3/32". Just cut them in half. If you already do this, then...

Somebody else will have to help.

But practice feeding regardless-with both hands

[Chips O'Toole]

I was thinking about cutting it, but dang, that will jack up the effective price. I'll lose twice as much to nubs.

It seems to be going better now.

[exnailpounder]

I was thinking about cutting it, but dang, that will jack up the effective price. I'll lose twice as much to nubs.

It seems to be going better now.

Feeding rod is the last thing you will master..learn how to tig first and then learn how to feed rod...it's not that big of a deal.

[CanMoulder]

you can always weld the Nubs together LOL

[Chips O'Toole]

Things are going good. I am having some problems overheating the glove on my left hand, so I guess I need to extend the rod farther out. Also, figuring the TIG Finger out is taking some time. Hard to choose a finger. I think I might go for the XL and not worry about it.

I'm really glad I quit welding the tungsten.

[Farmwelding]

Things are going good. I am having some problems overheating the glove on my left hand, so I guess I need to extend the rod farther out. Also, figuring the TIG Finger out is taking some time. Hard to choose a finger. I think I might go for the XL and not worry about it.

I'm really glad I quit welding the tungsten.

Give it another minute... Yep there is a dip. You'll dip from time to time especially working on projects and out of posisition stuff. Not always a clean path. You'll catch and slip and stab your tungsten or push it into the puddle. And like Jeff said... Don't worry right now... Work in consisttency for now for 4-5 inch welds or so. Get dabbing down and work on arc length and angles. But keep feeding while you are sittin down and watching tv. Just don't hit the wife if you flip it around.

[exnailpounder]

Things are going good. I am having some problems overheating the glove on my left hand, so I guess I need to extend the rod farther out. Also, figuring the TIG Finger out is taking some time. Hard to choose a finger. I think I might go for the XL and not worry about it.

I'm really glad I quit welding the tungsten.

Give it another minute... Yep there is a dip. You'll dip from time to time especially working on projects and out of posisition stuff. Not always a clean path. You'll catch and slip and stab your tungsten or push it into the puddle. And like Jeff said... Don't worry right now... Work in consisttency for now for 4-5 inch welds or so. Get dabbing down and work on arc length and angles. But keep feeding while you are sittin down and watching tv. Just don't hit the wife if you flip it around.

You can practice feeding wire all you want but when you try to put it into effect when you're trying to do 5 other things at the same time you will realize why feeding rod isn't so easy and why it's the last skill you will learn in tiggeration. And it's a few years down the road too.

[PeteM]

The finer stuff does take a while to become fine. I started just doing the dip and will default to it. The feeding thing is probably a little more tricky after mangling my thumb with a hammer though. Disclaimer- I don't tig much. Just enough to say that I can.

[Chips O'Toole]

You can practice feeding wire all you want but when you try to put it into effect when you're trying to do 5 other things at the same time you will realize why feeding rod isn't so easy and why it's the last skill you will learn in tiggeration. And it's a few years down the road too.

Are you saying it's going to take me years to do a simple weld?

[Farmwelding]

You can practice feeding wire all you want but when you try to put it into effect when you're trying to do 5 other things at the same time you will realize why feeding rod isn't so easy and why it's the last skill you will learn in tiggeration. And it's a few years down the road too.

Are you saying it's going to take me years to do a simple weld?

Nope, just to make one over a foot long

[dirtmidget33]

Personally I found the thicker stiffer rods more stable. The 1/8, 3/32, and 1/16 doesn't osculate no where near as much as the .035 and .045 does. Your movements currently are prolly jerky when feeding the rod. As time goes on you will delvelope a method of feeding that will be comfortable, smoother and stable. Just takes time, try a couple of the different methods when practicing. When your in a tight spot certain feed methods work better than others.

[exnailpounder]

You can practice feeding wire all you want but when you try to put it into effect when you're trying to do 5 other things at the same time you will realize why feeding rod isn't so easy and why it's the last skill you will learn in tiggeration. And it's a few years down the road too.

Are you saying it's going to take me years to do a simple weld?

No! Tig welding takes practice but it's easy after you get the hang of it. The problem is most people just learning, hold the rod and dip it by just holding it and moving their hand forward...not actually feeding it in the sense we are talking about. This combined with watching your movement spacing, maintaining a proper arc length,maintaining a proper torch angle, controlling the pedal, dipping the right amount of rod...etc...most people learn this way so learning how to feed rod on a long weld usually comes last on the list of things to learn because you CAN sucessfully tig weld without the rod feeding skill. I'm not saying it works like this for everyone but it's a tricky skill to learn when you apply it with everything else going on. I remember learning to play the guitar and my mind telling my fretting hand to move and there was no connection but that connection came along just fine after LOTS of practice.

[electrode]

You can always try the lay wire technique too.

[Chips O'Toole]

I'm learning a lot about the other parts of TIG, such as storing the torch when I take a break and finding gloves that don't start to char when I get too close to the heat. I ordered myself a magnetic torch stand, and someone turned me on to the Ove Glove, which is a fireproof glove that supposedly works really well for TIG.

I was pretty tired of trying to find a place to put that hot torch.

I also ordered some gas lenses and 1/16" tungstens, plus a Black Stallion TIG Finger knockoff that has a thing that keeps it from falling off.

I don't know what to do about the duty cycle. Seems like I'm lucky if I get 4" of weld before I have to rest the torch for 10 minutes.

People complain about the AlphaTIG pedal, but it has worked fine for me. As far as I can tell, I haven't reached the point where welding problems are caused by the pedal and not my total lack of skill. I feel like I can set the arc however I want. One nice thing about my cheap welding table is that the pedal butts up against one of the table's braces, and that keeps it from scooting around.

[Farmwelding]

Uh oh... We got us a traitor- a bsx fan

Other wise, about that foot pedal-it will get more critical doing more practical welding jobs and thinner material-that's when the pedal will start to give you issues.

And about holding the torch-always Jerry rig something the redneck way.

[Chips O'Toole]

Don't put me in front of a firing squad. Before buying the BSX product, I bought a TIG Finger. I can't keep it from rolling under the table every time I put the torch down, and I can't get two fingers into it, so I decided to try a bigger shield.

[Farmwelding]

Don't put me in front of a firing squad. Before buying the BSX product, I bought a TIG Finger. I can't keep it from rolling under the table every time I put the torch down, and I can't get two fingers into it, so I decided to try a bigger shield.

Yeah I feel you. I wasn't trying to make you feel bad too much. You still supported Jody so can't get too mad at you. I just got my first tig finger today actually and I seem to have the same problem. I'll have to play with it some and find certain gloves it works with or a finger combination.

[Olivero]

I don't even worry about the feeding, If your welding more than an inch to 3 inches at a time, your gonna warp the shit out of whatever your doing.

Get into aluminum and its even worse, I can make 2 plate butt welds look like a flying bird just by welding it.

[MinnesotaDave]

I don't even worry about the feeding, If your welding more than an inch to 3 inches at a time, your gonna warp the shit out of whatever your doing.

Get into aluminum and its even worse, I can make 2 plate butt welds look like a flying bird just by welding it.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no - on larger, longer pieces (steel and aluminum) it's not unusual for me to use the whole rod on one pass.

When I teach welding, I make them practice feeding rod from day 1 - doesn't take them long to get the hang of it.

[exnailpounder]

I don't even worry about the feeding, If your welding more than an inch to 3 inches at a time, your gonna warp the shit out of whatever your doing.

Get into aluminum and its even worse, I can make 2 plate butt welds look like a flying bird just by welding it.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no - on larger, longer pieces (steel and aluminum) it's not unusual for me to use the whole rod on one pass.

When I teach welding, I make them practice feeding rod from day 1 - doesn't take them long to get the hang of it.

Most of us hit the duty cycle on our machines or overheat the torch llloooonnnggg before we run out of rod but feeding rod for aluminum is useful as it eats up filler more than anything else. I can feed pretty decently nowadays but don't really do the kind of work that requires long welds.

[Olivero]

I never seen anything that requires looooong welds, maybe for pretty welds but as long as you can tie in and all that, I never run mine for too long. Like nail said, gets too darn hot

But hey, we all weld differently not a thing wrong with being able to feed rod. I just wouldn't worry about it when learning to TIG, as I go, sure why not practice it but I worry about so many other things when I weld, making sure its watertight, looking good and penetrating, rod just kind of finds its way.

Maybe I am just feeding it without noticing and I have learned it without thinking about it

Ill be darned. I will have to pay attention to that next time.

[Chips O'Toole]

I started practicing, with both hands, as instructed. If it's an unnecessary skill, it won't be the first one I've picked up.

[Farmwelding]

I started practicing, with both hands, as instructed. If it's an unnecessary skill, it won't be the first one I've picked up.

Not a useless skill...just depends on what you want to weld. If you are doing a bunch of smaller prices then not critical. If you are doing positioned work on larger diameter peices, then yes feeding rod is important. But you can get a lot out of your filler. Today I was running some horizontal stringers on aluminum about 7 inches long. Propped my filler hand and just dabbed along and never fed any through my hand. And besides you should learn to get good at starts and stops. I do it all the time on practice pads. Run out of filler and start to bake my hands-back off-add a little filler and stop-readjust and restart. Gives its own practice.

[MinnesotaDave]

Not a useless skill...just depends on what you want to weld. If you are doing a bunch of smaller prices then not critical. If you are doing positioned work on larger diameter peices, then yes feeding rod is important. But you can get a lot out of your filler. Today I was running some horizontal stringers on aluminum about 7 inches long. Propped my filler hand and just dabbed along and never fed any through my hand. And besides you should learn to get good at starts and stops. I do it all the time on practice pads. Run out of filler and start to bake my hands-back off-add a little filler and stop-readjust and restart. Gives its own practice.

When you start building things for money - do you really think you'll want to "practice starts and stops"?

Also, will every joint only require just the exact amount of filler that little dabs is all you'll need? Try that with 1/4" aluminum joints.