Welding Tips and Tricks

I'm going to start a second semester welding class this coming week as I had a blast last semester. At 64 they let me do pretty much whatever I want and I love it! What I'd like to do is weld a couple stainless razor blades for show off time. Can anybody give me some basic parameter for settings? I can go down to .040 in tungsten. TIA.
John
BTW, I'm running a Square Wave 200

Hey John! A lot of people here I'm sure will refer you to Jody's video that you can find here regarding the blades:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSi5eRTIOa4

He covers your basic questions including setup. 5Amps is as low as his Everlast will go which seems to be a fairly common bottom Amp value for a lot of decent quality machines. He did the job each time and I've seen a few other members say 5Amps with razor blades is what they use as a test to see if their machines are worthy.

For some additional reference, and a chance to do a seriously cheaper class than even razor blades for all your students would cost, here's Jody's video that covers how to weld aluminum cans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX_sepp9T_M

Jody advises you can use 3/32 2% Lanthanated tungsten with a very sharp point and get great results. I'm pretty sure beyond advisement that's what he used in the videos too.

Thanks. I checked one of them out and will give it a shot.
One little correction,,,, I am one of the students. I've been welding since I was 16 around 1967-8 but decided to take class for TIG as I didn't quite have a grasp on technique. So, I'm the only one in the class who gets both a senior and student discount. Besides all that it keeps me out of the wifey's hair for a couple afternoon/evenings a week.

You're welcome John! You're only as old as you feel, and age is only relative to how many full revolutions this planet's made since you started breathing oxygen, and obviously you're still eager to learn

I think you already know this is the right place to ask questions! I'm 100% new to TIG and the guys here have been very helpful in shepherding me along as I ask my very stupid, and sometimes intellectual questions while bearing with long posts and my personality. So don't be fearful to reach out to the members when you're looking for help, they may skin ya a bit but they only mean to help and you'll be never feel bad.
Buy a TIG Finger from Jody too, it's worth more than how much he advertises it

John Chamorro wrote:I'm going to start a second semester welding class this coming week as I had a blast last semester. At 64 they let me do pretty much whatever I want and I love it! What I'd like to do is weld a couple stainless razor blades for show off time. Can anybody give me some basic parameter for settings? I can go down to .040 in tungsten. TIA.
John
BTW, I'm running a Square Wave 200

Get some vernier calipers and see how thick they are and adjust amps accordingly. I think I used like 18 amps or something,,,don't remember. You can grind 3/32" down to a llllooonnnggg fine point and use it no problems. And you can't use actual razor blades, you have to use the ones that come in a utility knife and you have to overlap the sharp beveled edges or you will just blow holes in them. Maybe someone else around here can actually weld actual razor blades but I never saw anyone that could. Send in pic...warts and all

HTP 221 set on 14 amps with .040 2% lanthinated. #20 flex head torch with a gas lens and #8 cup. 18-20 cfh. Blades leaning on each other. No filler. Lost a little bit of shielding near the end , probably could have compensated with torch angle.

Hey...thats cheating ...you have to do a lap weld with filler.

I'll give it a shot. Only been tig welding since November.

sedanman wrote:HTP 221 set on 14 amps with .040 2% lanthinated. #20 flex head torch with a gas lens and #8 cup. 18-20 cfh. Blades leaning on each other. No filler. Lost a little bit of shielding near the end , probably could have compensated with torch angle.

Fantastic! I'm going to use your settings and see how big a mess I make. If it looks decent , I'll post pix. If not,,,,,,,

OK so I welded them together but they are going to leak! They are only stuck together where the blobs start and stop. This is going to take some practice.

I haven't tried this in years decided to give it a shot...in the beginning I kept picking the damn thing up when I dabbed since it wasn't clamped or hot enough.

1/16" tung, jumbo lens, .030" filler l used blades out of our disposal bin lol not sure on amps, used my foot pedal

I'll put my attempt here too. 15 amps .040 2% lanth gas kens #8. .035 mig wire filler. #6 shade. I'm going to need to devise a stand or something to get the work area a bit higher. Maybe it's just inexperience at really low amps combined with middle age, but I had a heck of a time seeing the work area. Feel like I need to get my face right in there to see the puddle.

i have low amp issues (old eyes) and have found that more background light
and ligher lense shade helps but have never found
a need to weld utility blades together..
craig

John Chamorro wrote:OK so I welded them together but they are going to leak! They are only stuck together where the blobs start and stop. This is going to take some practice.

comes with time my friend.

I tried a couple more this weekend. Getting a lot of arc wander. I think at least partially due to difficulty sharpening the .040 tungsten. I'm using a 6" wheel on my bench grinder right now and that tiny little tungsten bounces on the surface of the wheel. Need to try a dedicated tungsten grinder. I also feel like the .035 wire is chilling the puddle too much so I'm going to look for some .025. #1 is my original compared with 2&3 from yesterday.

If you want to send me some .040 tungstens, l can sharpen them for you and send them back. It makes ahuge difference

You guys are really giving me drive to accomplish this. I think we need some "rules". The first pix by sedanman look like a 90* weld. The rest look like flat but welds with filler and using the table as backing. I'll try that next. My un-backed 90* weld with no filler look like a bird crapped all over a couple razor blades. Maybe when you post more pix, we could also lay out the procedure?

I wasn't intending to be in competition with anyone.

It's a challenge because one probably cannot accomplish it without effort or a lot of experience. Figuring out how to make the weld is good experience. I rarely would set up to use a backer, but since the material is so thin, it made sense to me to try that. You can see on my last 2 welds that as I got closer to the end of the weld the heat was building up and I ended up blowing through (top to bottom in the pic). At the start of the weld I could hardly get the puddle going at 15 amps, after 1 1/2 inches the aluminum and razor blades had warmed up enough that even though I backed off on the pedal I still blew through. Same thing happens on thicker metal just doesn't present as acutely.

Pulling off fillet welds or outside corners is quite a skill level jump. With no backer even more so.

Clean top and bottom of both blades, then clamp them to a cleaned piece of flat stock. Now try just fusing them. if that goes ok do the same thing and use some really fine filler.

maker of things wrote:I wasn't intending to be in competition with anyone.

.

Competition is what drives me to become better at something. Even if it's beating myself. At my age I don't have many goals anymore. Right now my goal is to be as good a welder as I think I am.

John Chamorro wrote: Competition is what drives me to become better at something. Even if it's beating myself. At my age I don't have many goals anymore. Right now my goal is to be as good a welder as I think I am.

I think we might be saying the same thing. Getting better for the personal satisfaction of knowing you can. Seeing someone else's work that is better than your own gives you a goal to shoot for. Even if you don't participate in social media, check out the razorblade challenge on instagram if you need some inspiration https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/ ... nge/?hl=en

Last time I tried it I used safety wire if you have any. Smallest thing I had

My attempt. 14 amps, pedal, 3/32" thoriated ground to a lllooonnnggg fine point. Used tiny strand of wire from a piece of cable. I tried to keep the weld as small as possible. I couldn't adjust my hood down far enough to be barely able to see the bead and my cheaters won' let me see that small. My big old fat tacks on the ends is where I tried some .035 mig wire for filler and realized right quick that it was too big.

Try these blades. This a fusion weld as filler is not possible with this thin of metal. It blows out if you look at it wrong. I managed this weld until I dipped. 10 amps, thoriated, and you have to keep an extremely short arc length or these blades will just evaporate. They are .005 thickness. Tried pulse but my machine won't pulse at that low of amps.

Those look pretty good Ex. I think I might be too shaky to do the real razor blades. There sure isn't a whole lot of room for error when the arc is that small. I thought about trying pulse to help with using .035 as filler and maybe make some nice wide dimes, but I feel that might be a little cheaterish if the machine is doing some of the work, at least for the intent of this game.

My machine won't pulse at really low amps. You might check to see if yours does. If you can add filler in those little blades, you will be my hero I vaporized quite a few before I figured out what to do and then vaporized even more trying to repeat it. I found out that ,035 is too heavy to use, YMMV.