Welding Tips and Tricks

Hey everyone spook I'm new here and have a few questions. I'm being trained and by that I mean given a torch and told to weld to do aluminum tubing with tig. I've never tig welded before but have always wanted to and I've finally gotten the chance and if I can get good at it then I've got a job. But anyways it is a pain in my @$$ either I'm too hot too cold stabbing my tungsten with the filler rod or the filler rod melting back every time I go to dab it. They've got me manually pulsing it with the foot pedal also. But if anyone has some tips it would be awesome!!

First a homework assignment; We need to know about it. What welder, what filler, what tubing size, thickness, joint configuration, etc. etc. Dipping is a mater of confidence. Unless you suffer from a disease, you can find a way to rest and steady your hand. I highly recommend a TIg Finger from weldmonger. Beyond that, few get good at TIG without lots of practice.

Watch Jody's videos, keep rod angle low and out of the way while not applying filler (dipping). Learn your machine settings. Your approach and technique are critical. Once you know these parameters, it's (more or less) smooth sailing.

LuRCoEshNto

One of my biggest problems with welding aluminum is I want to lean the torch over sideways so I can see under it. This causes the wire to melt into a big gray ball before I can get it to the puddle. You need to point the tungsten as straight into the weld as you can. This will help with dipping.

if you are welding around something like pipe or even square
tubing you must move your arm and body as you rotate around
the weld then you can see the puddle as you move with it.
craig

If you've never tig'd before, my first tip would be to start running beads on flat sheet. You need to start with the basics and develop the muscle memory. You will drive yourself mad if you try to start with aluminum tubing.

zank wrote:If you've never tig'd before, my first tip would be to start running beads on flat sheet. You need to start with the basics and develop the muscle memory. You will drive yourself mad if you try to start with aluminum tubing.

totaly true
you can tilt the torch a bit and push the rod in under the torch.

zank wrote:If you've never tig'd before, my first tip would be to start running beads on flat sheet. You need to start with the basics and develop the muscle memory. You will drive yourself mad if you try to start with aluminum tubing.

Zank is right on the money! Work up to the joint you want to do! From flat, work up to vertical; put your work piece at a 45 degree angle and slowly work up to the 90 ... go overhead from there. Then go on to your tube!