Hey there, name is Bryan!

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Hey, as the title states, I'm Bryan. Bought a Millermatic 180 back in December to help me with my car project, welding up the engine bay, shaving everything off and removing certain stuff. Have lots more welding to do on it, here is some of the work i have been doing.Hood Vents, fitment was poor and had a lot of trouble, first time touching a welder and I decided on sheetmetal, lots of cursing, still sitting in a corner somewhere. *Hood was being scrapped anyways for a carbon fiber one, just wanted to practice doing something.Widened Fender, same as above. Was gonna scrap the fender, but wanted to mess around and see what I could do, this was the second project to start up, things went better because of the experiences with the hood. LOL.Just recently I picked up a Syncrowave 210, just got her hooked up and did some passes with it today. Here are some of the results of my first time with a TIG gun in my hands.The MachineI was welding 3/16 angle iron with 308L 1/16 rod, WP17 gun with a number 6 cup and 2% Ceriated tungsten on Pure argon at 20CFH. Welder settings were at 180, no pulse and 3 second post flow. I realize the 308 rod isn't ideal (price wise or on mild steel) but this was just to get some practice at getting technique down. I found circular patterns and dabbing the rod provided the best results. I felt that I had a lot of trouble seeing properly, not sure if there were certain settings I should be on with my helmet that could help. Not sure of the brand but it is shade/sensitivity/delay adjustable.Anyways that's about it, nice to be on board!Bryan
Reply:Hello Bryan and welcome. I felt your post better fit the projects are vs the intro section and that you'd get more feed back here, so I moved it for you.Over all your tig beads look very good for someone just starting out. The heavier steel though helped that. Move down to 1/8" and you'll find it a bit harder to get nice beads. 14 ga would be even harder. That's because you would have less material to soak up any excess heat and it forces you to have more puddle control. At this point less than 14 ga is pretty tough, so I wouldn't recommend you go thinner. As you drop down in amperage, you'll begin to find stainless filler a bit more of a PITA. The filler will want to stick if you get the puddle too cold. With thicker material where you can just blast it with amps, that's no problem, but when you start getting to the point where 5 or 10 amps is the range you have to work in between too hot and blowing holes and too cold, things get a lot tougher.As far as seeing well, cheap HF AD hoods are notorious for not working well with tig. The HF in many cases makes them flicker or simply not darken. Same I would assume with other cheap import hoods. Good optics are very important when welding. If you can't see and read the puddle, you can't weld well. With autodarks you get what you pay for. Most of the mid range  priced hoods are fair and will get the job done. However they have no where near the optical clarity top of the line hoods do. Once you recognize the puddle and learn how to read it, it will be night and day between a mediocre hood and a good one. However good optics don't have to cost a fortune. a good fixed shade hood with a good lens like a gold one can be as clear or clearer than an expensive AD hood. My backup fixed shade Jackson has the same if not better optical clarity as my $300 Miller AD does, at maybe 1/10th the price..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:Welcome to the addiction of melting two pieces of metal together Bryan, great group of guys here with tons of knowledge. Those tig beads look better then my first attempt at tig welding, still not the best at it but practice makes perfect.93 Bobcat 225GMillerMatic 135HF Tig 91811
Reply:Thank guys. I found out on major problem I was having with the helmet, my garage lights were shining directly into the top of the helmet, as soo as the light wasn't shining in there it went much better, but I still think I need a more quality helmet, will be going with a Miller Elite or a Speedglass. I started up on the 1/8 stainless as well, and boy it's fun but tricky. easy to overheat, I think I am overzealous with my amp settings. I also picked up a gas lens kit. Seemed like a good deal for 45$ and free shipping.Here's some more things I started playing with after the gas lens, basically attempt number 2 and 3 at TIG'ing. This was 2X2 Sqaure tubing. 1/16 thick mild steel, still using the 1/16 stainless rod, gas was backed down to 11-12 CFH, amps was probably around 140, but obviously not using it all the whole time. Still 3/32 ceriated tungsten ( thinking maybe downsizing it would help on the 1/8). The edge was extremely close and I even pass a second time to melt it into my weld, was trying to focus the heat away at first but was just for fun.My hand got super shaky here for some reason and the beads were really mis-aligned. Can't win em all. Thanks for looking.Last edited by Bryan Thorburn; 09-15-2014 at 04:03 PM.
Reply:What does the back of the inside corner look like? I'm betting from what I see in the front, you didn't penetrate enough to break down the root. Outside corner joints are one of the later ones we have students do. From what I see on those lap joints, you aren't ready for outside corners yet. You have a long ways to go on heat control and adding filler. The laps look like they need a lot more work on controlling the heat and fill..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:You're well on your way. Welcome to the Forum. What part of Mexico are you from?
Reply:Originally Posted by rdop2001You're well on your way. Welcome to the Forum. What part of Mexico are you from?
Reply:Originally Posted by DSWWhat does the back of the inside corner look like? I'm betting from what I see in the front, you didn't penetrate enough to break down the root. Outside corner joints are one of the later ones we have students do. From what I see on those lap joints, you aren't ready for outside corners yet. You have a long ways to go on heat control and adding filler. The laps look like they need a lot more work on controlling the heat and fill.
Reply:Welcome to forum!PlasmaCam CNC cutterLathe and Band SawClamps