Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi I'm new here. I am a silversmith. I have been using TIG ( a lincoln with pulse) for a few years now. Silver is such a brilliant conductor that you have to floor the foot pedal to start a weld then back off to tiny amperages to run the weld. It is plain difficult. When it works it is great. when you make a hole its expensive. ( Gold is easier ) I wonder if ther are some of you out there who can help me get this to work better. I use a some Copper too and although dirtier it seem mostly to behave in a similar way. Love the videos I've caught so far thanks for making them.

I have a suggestion, though I've never tried it. I'd suggest testing this on some "junk" first. Let me know what you think.

Hold another sharpened tungsten (perhaps slightly rounded to avoid melting an inclusion into the silver?) against the point where you wish to start your weld. You should be able to establish an arc at low current, then discard the tungsten. If this works, it may take some practice to hold both a tungsten and filler, discard the tungsten, and get the filler where you want it before you have too much heat at the joint.

Good luck,

Steve