GTAW TIPS

Date 02-09-2008 05:19

You will get better advice from some of the others, but here goes... You manipulate the arc to make the puddle go where You want, it will follow the heat. Don't fight gravity untill You get pretty good with basic puddle controll. aluminum is harder than steel & stainless, don't try that untill You can handle steel. In the old days they taught gass welding [with a torch] first, so You learned puddle controll.

By Flash Date 02-09-2008 05:24

Hi nra
GTAW is different for a variety of reasons
first it is is two handed so you have to have better eye hand coordination that other processes
second the wire feed / consumable burn off rate is independent of the amps, make sure you have enough amps,
I start teaching people by getting them use to feeding the wire through their hands first, do not even strike an arc just play with the wire until you can do it with out thinking about it
then you can concentrate on the torch and not worry about the wire
a few other tips include - keep a sharp tungsten, welders usually have a few/many pre sharpened ready to go,
have about 8-10mm of tungsten stick out so you can see what you are doing
make sure you have the right tungsten for the material you are welding
when people are learning I tend to get them to use 2.4mm diameter, so they do not bend them up
thoriated or ceriated alloyed tungsten is what most people use for carbon and stainless steel,
practice on carbon steel until u get it right then move to other materials
GTAW is al about consistent movement and deposition of wire, it is much like oxy welding, and often it is likened to electric oxy
remember melt the base material and add the wire to the molten puddle
keep the end of the electrode about 1 or 2mm away from the surface of the material
to start with you will feel like you spend more time sharpening electrodes than you do welding, but keep them sharp because it affects the arc
every time you dip your wire you create a ripple so try to dip it at a constant rate if you want it to look good
point the electrode in the direction of travel slightly
remember practice makes perfect
hope this helps
R
Flash
www.technoweld.com.au

By Lawrence (*****)

Date 02-09-2008 12:01

Hey NRA

Welcome to the forum.

From your discripiton it sounds like you cant see what your doing.

Soooo..

1. Get a very low stool so that your eye level is almost even with the work bench top.. Many folks beginning GTAW struggle because they are used to being high atop a Mig gun. You MUST be able to see the end of the tungsten while you are welding without disturbing your proper torch angle. There is nothign at all wrong with getting your faceplate very close to your work when you are beginning.. It will get toughter as you move along.

2. Try working from side to side rather than moving the arc toward you. This will also increase your ability to see what is going on.

3. If your tungsten gets contaminated... YOU MUST STOP. clean it up and continue.. No quality GTAW weld will be made with a contaminated electrode. This is a real annoyance for beginners, with lots of time spent going back and forth to sharpen tungsten... it's worth it.. trust me.

Try those three things... Bring back your new questions.

By nra2877 Date 02-09-2008 17:03

Thanks for all the advice gentlemen. I will certainly try all the tips beginning Monday.

By JMCInc

Date 02-10-2008 06:13

Very good advice from Lawrence... I got the same advice from a learned welder when I was learning tig. Part of that advice was maybe you need a pair of glasses. I was 35 at the time but let me tell you I went and bought a pair of 1 power reading glasses and my whole world opened up. If you can't see every little thing when your learning it's hard to get good. After you find your stride the glasses won't be needed, that was my experience any way. Second the tungsten advice too, if it gets contaminated your wasting your time. I would keep three or four at the ready so I wasn't always dinkin' around with preparation. I would prepare my tungsten with wheels that had only been used on tungsten. My teacher would go berzerk if someone put the wheel to mild steel. Luck

By Tommyjoking (****)

Date 02-13-2008 09:00

above is all good...

as before: Eyesight you must see under your cup, your tungsten, your puddle, the joint and your filler coming in....if you cannot adjust accordingly.

Slow down: this is not SMAW or GMAW your not laying it down according strictly to a heat setting. You add material when you see its needed...after a while it becomes habit.

focus: focus on where you are laying down your arc/heat with your torch....is it in the joint? Is it enough? Whatever you see melted under your arc is where the filler will go.

Work it: if you see you have too much material due to mistake...you can blend/force fusion with more heat and working your arc. Break this habit...you want to end up with your material sucking up into a well heated prepared puddle area. I mention this because you can work your torch and fix minor feeding mistakes, undercut, overfill, lack of tie in on toes etc. with experience. TIG has the unique ability to correct material deposit mistakes in process unlike any other.

Tungsten: you bet keep a lot ready and do not hesitate to change at the first mistake. I have been doing this for many, many years and I have a block drilled with 10 holes for every size tungsten I use.....why? Cause I muck em up and I change them out right then...less trips to the grinder and more time welding. Everyone dips or touches off ....I do not care how long you have done it. you just do it less with time. So don't worry bout it just make a habit of taking care of it if you mess up. Grind that tungsten out if you leave it in your puddle!!!

Aluminum: its not harder in my book then anything else...but it is definitely much different then steels. You move much slower and methodical on steel...Aluminum likes FAST hot travel....so learn your steel well first...if you have those habits in place it will be easier to transition into Aluminum. Also you will hold longer arc length on AL.

My $.02
Tommy

By devo

Date 02-13-2008 13:39

As a rookie tig weldor who has only recently started to be decent I can offer these tips that worked well for me. Don't drink too much coffee before you weld. If you have a tendency to get low blood sugar and the consequent "shakes" snack on stuff throughout the day. Spend as much time as you need manipulating your work, your torch hose(especially if it is a stiff air cooled hose), your hands, your feet, your elbows to get comfortable. I have found certain positions that are very good for seeing the joint, feeding the wire etc., yet muscle fatigue quickly sets in and you get the shakes. experiment with where your foot is placed on the pedal. I have found that if the pivot on the pedal is just on the front of my heel, I have the smoothest control. When the pivot is too far forward, under the arch of my foot, my foot shakes when i try to steadily back off the heat. I have a range of blocks and scrap of different heights that I use to rest my hands on for different sizes of work. Even the pros use improvised rests (see cover of the Jan. welding journal) . I tried the method mentioned above about feeding the wire without using the torch to get the feel for it. Unfortunately it is hard to really replicate the true hand motion of feeding, because when you weld, the rod is always melting off. If you feed the rod alone, pretty soon you've got a whole bunch of rod sticking out, the end starts getting heavier, and it's really an unrealistic practice. The thing you need to teach that hand is to feed the rod accurately into the edge of the puddle, WITHOUT touching the tungsten, and without removing the hot tip of the rod from the warm, comforting bosom of the inert gas envelope. It's a pretty tall order for your brain when you are already trying to control your torch angle, lead angle, arc length, travel speed, and amperage. When welding on work I have just spent hours cutting and fitting, work that absolutely needs to be done right, I will sit down at the table, breathe deep, relax, think mellow thoughts....and then start my arc, jam the tungsten so far into the puddle that I break off the whole tip, curse loudly and profusely, and then calmly unscrew the back cap, pull out the tungsten and think "I Love Welding"

By JNEcnh Date 03-04-2008 06:49

Welding with TIG was difficult for me aswell when I first started. I would accidentally dip my tungsten into the molten metal and contaminate it. Ugh. Anyway, keep grinding the contamination away until you get the hang of it, it will come, as long as you stick to it. Remember that (generally) you can keep an arc going on TIG and yet not really do much with it, other than keep it alive. This comes in handy for working on your hand/eye/foot(if applicable) co-ordination. Once you get that down, your set, just like oxy fuel welding, except with electricity. :) Also, TIG is not meant to be fast, take your time and enjoy the peace and quiet.

By mechan

Date 03-04-2008 09:42

Make sure who ever you are learning from takes the time to show you how to walk the cup. For some reason there are a lot of places that do not really apply the practice of walking the cup, but without it can pretty much forget pipe welding. Also get use to using scratch start with a portable rig, peddles are great but in the field you don't really have such luxuries.

If you ever get to Ti T-Joints in school just be patient, haha. The rod has a horrible tendancy to stick to parent metal once it is out of that nice hot zone. Once you get the hang of it though Ti is really a pretty looking weld.

Aluminum can be tricky to get the hang of but it is all about getting the parent metals as clean as possible and making sure not to use any item to clean it that could impregnate the metal. Using a wire brush you used on another metal will most likley cause you to pop an x-ray. Another thing with Al is proper venting of the backing gas, making sure it is contained well enough while not so much it will cause it to blow a hole in the weld. Making sure you are using large enough diameter tungsten is another really important point when doing x-ray joints. Even if you are a hair below the limits of the tungsten it is better off the next size up otherwise you will have parts of the tungsten breaking off into the weld and will pop you test because of it. Everyone is different in what they like however. I use 2% tungsten on my Al welds and have yet to pop an x-ray on my tube tests, but other people swear pure or whatever.

Like anything else it is all about being comfortable and how ever you can get the joint to come out right is going to be the best way, regardless of the pointers everyone will give you, you just have to find your spot that you can be in for hours and be comfortable while welding the joint. Just my input I dunno, good luck with the studies!