Welding Tips and Tricks

Greetings. I am new to this forum and wanted to say hello. I have been mig welding for a long time and with my recient purchase of a lincoln 210 mp i though it would be fun to start tig welding. I have been practicing for about 3 evenings and this is where i'm at.

I am using 3/32 2% thoriated tungsten. Welding 1/8 in mild steel. With a foot pedal set @ 125 amps, 25CFH Argon, #8 cup

Any suggestions?

This one has some undercut (more filler rod?) The left end is a little weird, I was welding over another weld. I think a little porsity got into the weld.



The left half of this is my best looking so far. The right side has inconsistant movements? Advise?

Fillet size looks a bit large for 1/8" steel. You likely have too long arc length. That also causes undercut, not just a lack of filler metal.

Practice conscitant travel speed and focous on making even widths. That's the hardest part after that you can worry about the under cut if it hasn't cleared up by itself. Your second pic looks like your starting to get it. Nothing will improve things faster than lots of arc time.

Weld by weld, day by day.

That's looking better IMO. Also try bringing your argon down to 15-20 scfh. Remember to breath also... when I first started TIG I would hold my breath because I was concentrating on the puddle too much.


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Much better! In one pic, it looks like you cleaned your steel down to nice shiny bright metal but in the others it looks like you just kind of polished the mill scale. Its hard, if not sometimes impossible, to weld through contamination with Tig. Get it as clean as you can and you will see the difference. That scale likes to jump onto your tungsten and accumulate and then bad things start to happen. You definitely are getting the hang of it!

welcome
Just starting out one tends to want to weld,not so much on the clean and preparation.Ye--t clean and prep makes a better weld.
Then experience will teach one what minimum cleaning is necessary for the job at hand.
Looks like your on the way to collecting tig stuff,addictive and fun.
Edit post a location someone might be close to you with help offer.

I'm in gig harbor wa.

I think one problem is I weld both sides of the fillet joint. I grind everything clean before I start weld the first side and I'm finding that the second side tends to thebnhave contamination problems.

What size filler rod are you using? 3/32" should be plenty, you could even get away with 1/16" once you start getting the feel for it.

Zippo,
The back side of a fillet joint does have contamination on it from the weld on the front side. The backside oxidizes while you're welding and should be cleaned as well or better than the front side. Take it back to shiny clean with a grinder or flap disc. The other thing you can do to help is to use some form of backing to limit the amount of atmosphere that gets to the back side.

Len

zippo wrote:I'm in gig harbor wa.

I think one problem is I weld both sides of the fillet joint. I grind everything clean before I start weld the first side and I'm finding that the second side tends to thebnhave contamination problems.

I live in Port Orchard and travel thru GH everyday I head into work. Let me know if you need a hand... Teaching yourself fillets is a rough experience with TIG.

AKmud wrote:What size filler rod are you using? 3/32" should be plenty, you could even get away with 1/16" once you start getting the feel for it.

I'm using 1/16 filler.