How to tig around a circle.

Date 06-20-2003 19:42

Hey up, its me the beginner again.

I am TIG welding flat 3inch dia circles onto flat plate for practice. The circles and the base plate are 3mm thick plate. Both pieces are aluminum.

The weld looks good and even but I can only do one quarter circle at a time. I can not go further as I go all wobbly and the arc breaks away from the top plate and concentrates on to the bottom plate thickening the weld.

What seems to be the problem is that when I weld from the rh side down towards me, I am pushing the weld toward me but as I get to the bottom of the arc and try to weld up to th lh side of the arc I can not see what is happening. If I try to change my body position I wobble and then loose the arc and I end up arcing on the job.

Could someone please help and tell me how to weld at least a half circle. The simplest of tips will help. Please remember I am a beginner and every bit of info will help.

By welder_guy2001 (***)

Date 06-21-2003 18:00

it's important to keep a consistent torch angle when tig welding. even a good tig welder would rather stop at the 1/4 point and move to a better position to make a good weld. the more comfortable you are, the better your weld will be. if you were mig welding it, you might be able to move around to weld the full circle. but tig welding requires 2 hands to be active in the process making it hard to move your body around.