Any tips for 1/2" sch40 aluminum pipe TIG?

admin

I will be starting  part time TIG job soon where the guy is willing to show me the ropes and what not and is all on 1/2" sch40 aluminum pipe and using a Miller Dynasty 200dx. I happen to have the same machine so I've been trying to practice but am having a helluva time finding a good method to steady/balance my torch hand as the material is so small. It's also stationary so I can't change the position of it so I need to weld one half at a time.My right hand is my torch hand and I have short fingers.Could any of you shed some tips on what you guys do for small diameter pipe?
Reply:I normally keep my hand stationary on that type of small diameter pipe. I would rest my pinkie and rotate my wrist to get a full half in one movement.  Also you can set a slow pulse or manual pulse with a pedal to give yourself plenty of time to rotate around the joint. Good luck!!
Reply:rest your hand on an extra glove, with take up some space, and things are going to get hot anyways.'14 HTP invertig 221Thermal Arc 201ts'15 HTP 2400'13 Hypertherm Powermax 30Esab 875Esab 251Clark Metal Servicespecializing in stainless steel exhaust systems
Reply:Tig finger!!!
Reply:Jagger, I'm kind of old and not very steady even with both hands let alone free hand and I rarely do two handed TIG;  What I do for butt joints is take a small length of aluminum angle extrusion say 3"L x 3/4" in your case. Drill some small holes in it along the web, to allow some fine SS wire (0.030"?) through in a couple of places 4-6. Then I "sew" that to the cuff of the right hand or torch hand glove this mounts a metal V on the cuff of the welding glove.This allows my torch hand to ride the pipe and I can do better rotating around the pipe with lots less problem contaminating and keeping more uniform bead.This will work for saddles too, if you weld from tip to tip not cup to cup, but it means you'd have to be able to reorient 180 between the two welds to guide on the top of the T.  If you guide on the vertical of the T (using this letter as an illustration) then you'd only get the right side or strong side and have to turn the work over.Depending on your grip, some guys hold the barrel, other cup a stub cap in their palms, and others hold the torch kind of like a big pen; but the location of the angle will need to be where your hand/wrist can be guided by/on the angle on the pipe.  This won't work too well in too-close corners unless there is some 4-6" stretch of pipe to guide on.But it works better than me trying free hand and may help you?Cheers,Kevin Morin
Reply:pretty cool Kevin, if you get the urge take a pic of that deal and post it....  Miller Dynasty 350Twenty Six HammersThree Crow BarsBig Rock
Reply:Thanks for the tips fellas, I like that angle idea. I suppose a scrap glove would work so I could actually rest my whole hand on it. If it was a long pipe I could probably manage a bit better but it's right before a bend and is in a tight area.
Reply:B_C, here are a couple of images of the wrist supports I've used and discussed on the web (mainly welded boat sites) as this idea has been hashed around in other places.First, I had to cut and paste a rubber glove to get something to show, my tools are all in chests in storage and finding a right hand glove would be lot of heavy lifting. But to show the concept, this is what I did for the tiny tube railing I was doing at the time.  Torch grip is just one of many.This one is a sort of wire fixture that was originated by a German who was butt welding a bunch of sched.80 6061 and wasn't experienced enough in TIG so he built the fixture that allowed him to guide the torch, he could roll the torch in the cradle, and therefore put down some heavy welds in the deep V of that pipe.He liked it and the welds he showed looked fine, he triple passed the welds - too much heat for me, but the control this fixture gave him did produce nice welds for a low hour welder- this was especially helpful overhead as he was completely new to those welds with TIG.This last version is just a velco strap on a wrist support that a friend reminded me was his improvement on my dedicated glove idea.  I liked his idea better than mine but hadn't recalled that I had made a quick image of his idea years ago when in another discussion of aides to better TIG around pipe.I like the torch hand wrist to be more or less free, so my arm is based not my hand - that is, my arm is the wobbly part of my free hand work my hands seem to do OK if I can anchor my whole arm/upper body.  I tried to support on the heel of my hand, like using a folded glove but found the forearm/wrist support more workable for me.  I think torch grip may play a roll in what kind of guide/support would be most effective for any given welder?I think that I use the wrist roll a little in advance of the entire forearm coming up on a small bore pipe weld. Meaning as I pull the forearm up around the pipe, I'm rolling the right wrist a little in advance of that arm roll, so the torch angle seems easier for me if my guide is not the heel of the hand but a little farther back?Hope this makes clear what my original words maybe left vague?  Cheers,Kevin MorinKenai, AK