Welding Tips and Tricks

After a long time welding stick I decided it is time to go the tig route but have a couple of questions for the veterans.

1: How do you assure that you`re not overfeeding the wire in relation to weld penetration so you don`t just overlap metal (cold welding)?

2: I`m having troubles getting weld buildup no matter the amount of wire I "pump" in, welding speed, back stepping before adding wire into the puddle. The weld pool gets overheated and the weld bead is too wide because of it, color is still good (mild steel).

Any tips are appreciated

Jody has a ton of great videos on this stuff and I'd suggest sitting through an hour or two of them.

For over filling... If you are adding rod to a melt pool than you will never end up with cold welds. That really isn't a failure that tig is prone to. You should be able to see the puddle all the time and ensure that you have melting down to the root.

If you are expecting the welds to be tall like mig or stick welds, they generally aren't. Aluminum gets filled a lot more aggressively than other metals and may well end up like that but mild and stainless are pretty flat most of the time. We are adding metal when it is needed not as a part of adding heat after all.

If you are trying to build up, you need to let the first pass cool a bit and then layer in again. For welding a pilar on something you can just feather low and high amps to melt and cool as needed.

Also, feel free to post pictures and ask if something looks wrong. There is a ton of experience here to tap into.

-Sandow

Re: the overheating, try increasing the current.

The temptation is to go easy and "sneak up on it"
But all that does in build heat in the job.
I find I need to put some more heat in to get it started, sometimes maxing out the machine - I only have a 160 amp welder- so on thick stuff, I have to get my foot hard down) but then back out a bit as I get going.

It's a bit counter intuitive at first,but a higher current means you get better penetration quicker but with a relatively narrower bead.

Jody has some videos on this - worth watching, and trying for yourself on a test piece.

Sandow wrote:Jody has a ton of great videos on this stuff and I'd suggest sitting through an hour or two of them.

For over filling... If you are adding rod to a melt pool than you will never end up with cold welds. That really isn't a failure that tig is prone to. You should be able to see the puddle all the time and ensure that you have melting down to the root.

If you are expecting the welds to be tall like mig or stick welds, they generally aren't. Aluminum gets filled a lot more aggressively than other metals and may well end up like that but mild and stainless are pretty flat most of the time. We are adding metal when it is needed not as a part of adding heat after all.

If you are trying to build up, you need to let the first pass cool a bit and then layer in again. For welding a pilar on something you can just feather low and high amps to melt and cool as needed.

Also, feel free to post pictures and ask if something looks wrong. There is a ton of experience here to tap into.

-Sandow

Great post!