Welding Tips and Tricks

Gonna have a hinge plate bolted up to this end. That will necessitate torquing the bolts down pretty good. So... figured it'd be a good idea to install anti-crush tubes to prevent collapsing the tubing over time....

20200616_142010 by Doug Wei, on Flickr

20200616_142019 by Doug Wei, on Flickr

20200616_142032 by Doug Wei, on Flickr

20200616_142040 by Doug Wei, on Flickr

20200616_142922 by Doug Wei, on Flickr

Wouldn't be me welding if there wasn't a dip or two in there....

20200616_143502 by Doug Wei, on Flickr

20200616_143527 by Doug Wei, on Flickr

I'm pretty pleased with the way it came out. No it's not 20 year experience quality but they are solid welds. Welding was done standing on my head, leaning over, free handing - whatever it took.

What probably helped more than anything was learning what grind to put on the tungsten for what weld. In this case it was a very short/blunt type angle 60-70 degrees with the tip just slightly blunted. That allowed me to focus the arc much better than the 15 degree needle point tungsten I started with last month. Thanks to everyone for being willing to help educate those wanting to learn tig welding!

It's just about impossible to freehand out in thin air without dipping. For my welding table I made an adjustable rest that's on swing-arms you can mostly position by hand, with an elevation part for height that needs a locking screw adjusted to set that. But once the height is set, you can reposition it laterally by just moving it around. You should consider something similar. Even for work closer to the floor, I can turn the elevation part upside down in the holder and reach down instead of up. It's just some tubing and steel angle, then painted so it doesn't rust.

BugHunter wrote:It's just about impossible to freehand out in thin air without dipping. For my welding table I made an adjustable rest that's on swing-arms you can mostly position by hand, with an elevation part for height that needs a locking screw adjusted to set that. But once the height is set, you can reposition it laterally by just moving it around. You should consider something similar. Even for work closer to the floor, I can turn the elevation part upside down in the holder and reach down instead of up. It's just some tubing and steel angle, then painted so it doesn't rust.

of course... ahhh hummm... if I had some pictures of the swing arm you mention....

Part of the problem was/is this thing, collapsed, is almost 8' long. I could'a stood it on edge, flipped it over, re-positioned it to make it a little easier but there wasn't much I could do, with what I have available to make it easy.

Ah ha! I re-read your post again and now I understand what you said. At first I thought you were talking about something to hold the work piece. You have a "rest" of a swing arm. That's a great idea. Might could even incorporate a welded on clamp on one end and make it portable. Way better than figure out where to put vice grips tongs to give you something to steady on.

Yeah, I'm talkin about a rest for your hands that you can adjust anywhere in three dimensions. I'll see if I can get you a picture tomorrow.

My $0.02:

Learn how to do it without the rests. Because you may (will) find yourself in situations, welding on expensive customer parts, where you simply can't use a rest.

I promise that you can TIG very well, and without dunking the tungsten, with your arms completely outstretched, with the torch upside down and in your weak hand, reaching over assemblies, barely able to see the arc, and feeding the rod backwards. You just have to practice it over an over again, every chance you get.

Build the rests to speed things up after you've developed the skill to do it without them.

Again, just my $0.02.

My rest

Thanks! I'll probably whip me up something similar!

I don't weld for a living or even for any kind of profit. If someone wants me to weld something for them it'll have to make it to my shop. And then they'll have to assume any/all risk associated with weld failure! I can glue metal together but I ain't a welder nor will I ever be. Because I don't do this every day any crutch that makes it easier and more consistent is probably good for me. With the exception of actually welding, on that I'd like to have solid fundamentals...

thats awesome

hey buggy, that's one heckuva rest. How did you mount it to the table?

There's a hole through the table and a big bolt comes up from underneath. The table used to be a big die-set, 2" thick, 4' square. It had a number of through-holes in it, so I chose one that was reasonably close to an edge. The legs are Sch 40 3" pipe and then on top of it there's an alum rotisserie that used to be the turntable for an MRI machine (don't ask... ). That's about 3' in diameter with nice bearings, then I have a 1/4" plate of steel on top which is visible. Add the rest and it makes for a pretty nice welding table.