Welding Tips and Tricks

Had some 1 inch pipe in the shed. Only made two passes. Didn’t do a good job fitting it and didn’t purge it obviously. Let me know what ya guys think.

Even for experienced welders, small dia pipe/tube is challenging. Did you rotate the pipe while sitting at a bench?

Plenty of undercut and contamination/inclusions, but that is to be expected from picking up scrap black iron pipe and using it for first time TIG. You will likely do a lot better (as would anyone) with better prepped material.

LtBadd wrote:Even for experienced welders, small dia pipe/tube is challenging. Did you rotate the pipe while sitting at a bench?

Amen! Get some 6inch if you can to start. If the cover pass is below flush then it’s an incomplete weld. For code work there is usually some allowance for under cut, but on a 1 inch sch 40 pipe that allowance is maybe less than 1/16 in depth and no longer than 3/32 long. Probably no more than one spot that size.

Thank guys. Yea i just grabbed it out of a bucket of pipe i had. I made this stand to hold plate to practice stick welding so i had it just sitting on the the stand i made and I did it standing up. My main thing was from that do you think if I continue to practice and go to school that I will eventually be able to pick it up or am i wasting my time.

also what i wanted to ask you guys was how many passes are you allowed to make on pipe when you are welding it any size pipe. Does it matter how many passes you make when you are filling it and than capping. I know you are supposed to go a lot more than i did just wondering for when i am practicing. Also what size tungsten should I use.

Number of passes is determined by the procedure you are using and the size of pipe and wall thickness. Usually there is some slack in the procedure to allow welders some preference.
Also there is a push on the keep the number of passes to a minimum for time efficiency, sometimes to the ridiculous.
Newbs tend to run more passes than the experienced welder, when they build confidence the experienced welder will encourage the newb to step up with kind and positive words and footwear.
Typically, for shed40 pipe up to and including DN50 (2"), 2 passes does it. Up to and including DN100 (4") 3 passes. After that 4 passes.
I've seen younger guys coming through doing 6" pipe fast in one pass and suggesting to the boss that us old timers are past it and to give them all the work. The bosses listen and are impressed and suggest to us oldies that we need to step up. I suggest to the bosses they they should review the procedures which specify root pass plus fill/cap passes and maybe x-ray some of these single pass welds or didn't you know they were single pass? I will stick to the procedure because I might be liable (the young guys don't have a house so don't care) or otherwise he can f@#! off.

But I digress. I think from your first attempt you will definitely pick it up well at school and achieve some tickets. Don't try and do this yourself, school teaches you important stuff that you will otherwise miss out on and avoid picking up bad habits.

thank you coldman I appreciate it. Your apparent knowledge is invaluable. Thank you for your advice. The school does not start until march 31st. I have a small landscaping and asphalt sealing business so I am trying to practice every day while I am not having to work. What do you suggest I practice in the mean time. Also I just purchased a new lincoln gxt 250. I also have the square wave tig 200 and my plan is to plug the square wave into the gxt 250 220v plug so i can have full power. Also I am a righty and the setup I have at my house is horrible. No where to sit wish it was possible to tig outside but always windy I was wondering how you guys do it in the field or is it strictly stick welding outdoors. I have also been using both right and left hands. I am right handed but seems to be a lot better when i use my left but seem to have the same result using either hand. I am definitely getting more comfortable. In the beginning even though ive only done it a handful of time I was scared about placing my hands or leaning on stuff afraid that I would get zapped. Now that I am getting more comfortable but still obviously respecting the dangers. Today I was trying to make a little platform to practice on which I will add pictures. It was 3/16 tube and plate. I know I was way cold but I couldnt turn the machine up past 100 amps without blowing the fuse and currently I only have a 50ft 220v extension cord and could not reach my shed where I was doing it and where my argon tank is. Was actually hoping to use a 25-50ft argon hose to held me with reaching where i need to reach but wasnt sure if that would waste all my gas. I also need to get larger tungsten bc i just couldnt get a large enough puddle going. Sorry for all the mixed thoughts just wanted to get everything in one post.

Only had 100amp . 3/16 steel. I assume I would need a larger than 1/16 tungsten which I only had available and prob what 120-160amps?

Ditch the 1/16" and set yourself up for 3/32" lanth 2% tungsten, gas lense.
If you are doing fillet welds the amps go up big time 125-180 amps so get your circuitry in order first.
Lots of practice to develop muscle memory is what you need. 200hrs.
Your welding school is unlikely to get you onto pipe straight away - straight butt and fillet coupons first and work your way up to pipe.
Ring them and ask what size pipe coupons they use in the various stages and get some pipe in those sizes to practice on.
A good prep right now would be to get some shed 40 pipe 3" to 6", whatever you can get cheap. Don't worry about butts just yet learn about that in school.
Just run beads around the outside one after another in the 2G and 5G positions to develop muscle memory and learn about keeping a tight arc and keeping a straight line. Don't stack the beads just yet just side by side to control undercut and bead shape. Then when you are confident you can stack them. Amps:
3" - 125a
4-6" 130a-150a

Get a tig finger. Definitely.
grind pipe to shiny
use 3/32" wire

When you stick your tungsten - swear if you must, sharpen, grind the spot off the pipe and keep going. Don't practice with a contaminated electrode.

If you get the muscle memory going and get some of the above practice in before you start school you will be way ahead and do well.

Tig welding outside is always a challenge but must be done because much pipework is outside. What we do is put on a No.5 cup and crank up the argon heaps to blow the wind away and keep some argon shield over the weld pool. Also use weld flash screens, tarps, welding blankets draped nearby to keep the wind away, whatever it takes. Try doing that up a ladder or in an awkward position and you'll find out why tig welders swear alot and are grumpy and drink lots of beer.

Coldman wrote:Tig welding outside is always a challenge but must be done because much pipework is outside. What we do is put on a No.5 cup and crank up the argon heaps to blow the wind away and keep some argon shield over the weld pool. Also use weld flash screens, tarps, welding blankets draped nearby to keep the wind away, whatever it takes. Try doing that up a ladder or in an awkward position and you'll find out why tig welders swear alot and are grumpy and drink lots of beer.

Yup, yup, and yup! I used a 2 ft square of cardboard, cut a slot from the center to one side, then trim a hole the same diameter as the pipe. Snapped it on the pipe and pray that the wind stops blowing from 2directions at once.

Appreciate all of you guys very much. Thank you for not making fun of me and encouraging me to proceed and get the training. I love welding. Got a buddy who’s father in law is the boss at a welding company/construction said he will get me all the pipe I want for practice. Will def get those sizes. How do you guys cut the larger size diameter pipe? I think with my chop saw I can prob fit up to 4 inch in there. I am looking to buy a band saw just haven’t found one yet. Was looking in classifieds

Don't go cutting coupons yet until you reach that stage at school. Just put a few feet in a vice and run beads.

FYI. Cutting Pipe.
Put pipe on two pipe stands.
Get you a pipe wrap, small and/or medium https://pipefitter.com/store/tools/wraparounds/ and learn to use it properly
Mark pipe with chalk (engineers/french/soapstone) ground to an edge
5" grinder (smaller ones are too slow) that you can grip with one hand, plus thin zip cutting disc. I prefer Pferd.
Have at it, cut straight and square on waste side of line.

Plus running passes on flat plate or even just the outside of a pipe without a joint is good practice to build muscle memory. Tip the pipe try keeping your passes straight around at different angles. Vertical, horizontal, 45deg.

Thank you poland. Any time you guys have suggestions please keep them coming. working on getting the right stuff and tools to be able to practice successfully

okay guys your favorite time. more questions lol. We all know that pipe is expensive and not easy to come by. I have someone who was supposed to be able to give me all the pipe i wanted but looks like that wont happen for another 3 months or so because they sent him to another state to work to finish up a large contract they got and he is my only connection to getting the pipe. Looks like I will be buying some for now. What is the shortest length that I can make each piece of pipe for welding them together. Looking to buy 20ft sections or something in that general range. Wondering how many practice sets I can get out of each pipe. Thank you

Ring your school or go see them in the shop and ask what size and length of coupons they use in shop class. Get that pipe and cut to that length. You need to practice what you do in class so you get good with their coupons because that's what you will be tested on.

But remember don't cut them up yet until you are at that stage because you haven't been taught about prep angles, lands etc nor how to run root passes and other passes. You'll just f it up, waste the pipe and get into bad habits. Just put a piece a couple of feet long in the vice and run practice beads around the outside of the pipe in the 2G and 5G positions to develop muscle memory. If you do just that you'll be in great shape for class. Don't get ahead of yourself.

UniqueTouch wrote:okay guys your favorite time. more questions lol. We all know that pipe is expensive and not easy to come by. I have someone who was supposed to be able to give me all the pipe i wanted but looks like that wont happen for another 3 months or so because they sent him to another state to work to finish up a large contract they got and he is my only connection to getting the pipe. Looks like I will be buying some for now. What is the shortest length that I can make each piece of pipe for welding them together. Looking to buy 20ft sections or something in that general range. Wondering how many practice sets I can get out of each pipe. Thank you

Welding pipe sections doesn't require the sections to be very long. you could chop them into 4-6" lengths, butt them together, and weld them. That's 3-4" sections per foot x 20 feet = 60 sections.

Once you weld them together, cut them back apart 2" offset from the weld and weld them all back together again. A portages-band works great. 4-6" pipe is all you need, Sch 40 or better for practice.

Even test day coupons of 2inch heavy wall, sch 160, are only 4inches long.

Thank you fellas appreciate all of you

My brother bought me a optrel e684 helmet which I love but I only want to use it for tig welding. I just bought an outlaw leather welding helmet which will be here today but it says they come with a shade 10 lens. Wondering what number you guys use and also I have been reading about the gold colored lens bc I was thinking about getting a number 11 and def 12 shade lens. I heard you have to be real careful though and make sure more than usual that there are no hidden scratch there. I hear the ones on amazon are cheap which is expected if they are only $10-$20 each I guess right.