Welding Tips and Tricks

What are some good TIG welding drills for a newbie trying to learn? Mainly with mild steel. I've done Jodie's drill with a 2 inch wide coupon.

Looking for something to help step up my game.

Here's where I'm at now.

Thanks!

When you pad beads, overlap them. This simulates actual large weldments.

MattA986 wrote:What are some good TIG welding drills for a newbie trying to learn? Mainly with mild steel. I've done Jodie's drill with a 2 inch wide coupon.

Looking for something to help step up my game.

Aluminium fillets Seriously though, they will really fine tune all the aspects of tig including and arguably most importantly arc length. I think as a base and regardless of welding process, as short an arc as possible and enough amps to carry that short arc is the secret to welding.

Al is lot less forgiving on bad technique than steel and Al fillets really show this up. I always find starting a steel fillet puddle much easier than Al, which takes a lot more 'encouragement'.

Clean your mill scale man looks like some contamination in those welds.

Thanks for the input.

sbaker56 wrote:Clean your mill scale man looks like some contamination in those welds.

I media blast the metal to get rid of the mill scale then hit it with a flap disc then acetone. There's no mill scale.