Welding Tips and Tricks

I had a few people ask me to update them on how I did in the welding competition on my post about why my tig welds looked bad. I went to the TCAT Pulaski welding competition today and had a great time, I got two free pairs of welding gloves one set was more for mig/stick and one was for tig which I needed and a soapstone holder. When I was called in to weld I was extremely shaky and got in there and completely choked. I stuck my tungsten in my puddle twice and overall laid a not so good bead. On both test, a tee joint and a lap joint. I got some scrap metal to practice on and noticed that someone had been walking the cup on it and quickly realized that I was in trouble. I knew I didn’t do good and wouldn’t get 1st, 2nd, or third so I didn’t even bother with getting my hopes up. As you can guess I didn’t place but I was totally okay with it. I knew that the people I was competing against had way more experience than me. I took it as a learning experience and enjoyed the day. But next year is my last year to bring home a trophy, so you can bet I’m gonna be practicing every chance I get and walking that cup to the moon. My friend did place 2nd in stick welding though and got a trophy. So I was excited for him. Thanks again for the people who helped me figure out my problem!