Welding Tips and Tricks

Hey just had a question on when to use lay wire and when not too.. at my current job I have been the only tig welding just learning as I go.. I mostly do some outside corner joints in #4 finish stainless and if fit up isn't perfect I like to lay the wire in and just weave it in.. we recently hired a guy who has more experience tig welding and he uses lay wire for every thing except aluminum thennhe dabs.. I find lay wire easier but I don't want to use it all the time if I shouldn't be.. so when should or shouldn't I use this?

There is no "should/shouldn't" with lay wire. Do it if you can, don't if you can't/don't want to. Mostly its about heat control versus anything else. Lay wire can also lead to a weld too large if you just keep jamming filler in. So you do need to be mindful of a proper technique to control your puddle regardless of the option you choose.

For outside corners in thin stainless, I use pulse TIG and mostly won't use filler unless the added strength is required or the fit sucks.

Thanks for the input I usually fuse my corners as long as fit up is good but most times the parts get to me with abit of a gap..

I find if i have a more heat tolerant piece i can get away with lay wire alot better than something im running on the edge of melting through. So ya if you can get away with it go for it. but if you need the cooling effect of freezing the puddle with the filler wire then dont do it.

Awesome I will keep that in mind.. I don't do to many parts that require filler only one so far that I do is some stainless steel hinges which I use lay wire to weld the knuckles on and it works awesome and fast but the plates are 1/4" and the knuckles have a 3/16 wall thickness.. but all good things for me to keep in mind when more jobs come around.. the other guy that started welded some 14ga SS doors and he used 3/32" filler and laywire and it didn't turn out very good