My First Tig!

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So I picked up a Miller Syncrowave 180 SD that had been only used for a few minutes.  Shop bought it for an employee who quit 2 weeks later.  I mig welded many years ago, and bought a tig because the process seems neat, and I want to weld 16ga stainless at some point down the road for a few homebrewing projects.  I attached a pic of my first weld.  it's ~1/8" mild steel T bars.  Leftover from a garage door install.  Machine set to 100A, about 60-70% on the foot pedal.  clean vs penetrate was set to 7(penetrate) using 3/16" 2% lanthanated tungsten, 1/16" filler rod (ER70s-2) The long weld in the middle on the joints is my fifth tig arc i did...just wanted to see if I could do it that long and get it to work.  The short puddles on the right was my 4th one.  The long bead i can see the points that from what i've seen indicates i'm moving too fast, however the biggest thing I noticed is that the bead sits in below the surface of the metal.  It really went in deep vs being on the surface like i've seen in other folks weld.  The picture is from my phone and probably not the best angle, but if you can derive anything from it that will be good constructive criticism for me I am all ears.  Thanks to everyone on this site who posted tips and tricks and pointers, was a great help in at least knowing what i was supposed to try to do.Cheers Attached Images
Reply:If the steel is 1/8" 100 amps is a little low. For your first tig it doesn't look too bad. With welding steel you don't need to use the clean/penetration at all, it only helps with welding on AC. Try setting the welder to about 115-125 amps and use all the pedal on the 1/8" steel, it will form a puddle faster and you should be about to control it better. Don't be scared to push some filler into the puddle, looks like the long weld is lacking a little filler (Or maybe it melted through).Airco Ac/Dc 300 HeliwelderMillerMatic 200 (stolen)Miller Maxstar 150STLMiller AEAD200LE (welding and generating power) Hobart MIG
Reply:The A/C "Clean/Pen" knob does nothing for steel..."DC - is what you want for tig'n steel.... I would stick to 3/32 tungsten and 1/16 or 3/32 filler. I also suggest running stringers until you have the rhythm down and you're consistent and straight..then work up to a lap joint, then a true fillet,and repeat in vert up and overhead... Your long bead is either to hot or too fast or both... push your pedal down until you form a puddle to the size you want it to be.... then dab a small amount of filler move forward dab filler...repeat...etcLincoln pro mig 180Lincoln Square Wave Tig 300/wp 20/home built water cooler Victor, Purox, Harris, O/A welding/cutting setupsVintage Craftsman drill pressVintage Craftsman/Atlas 12"x 36'' lathe7''x 12'' w/c band saw Everlast 140 st
Reply:Thank you!  I didn't notice any difference with the clean/penetration setting so suspected it didn't matter on DC tig.  I was afraid to turn the heat up much more thinking it would've caused it to be even more of a gash in the metal.  I guess it makes sense that more amps would melt the filler rod better/more consistently and i'd be able to puddle it up on top.  I felt like when i'd try to add more filler too fast it sometimes would get stuck because it would cool down.  Now it makes sense why!  My argon i had set to 15cfh - looks like i can turn that down a little?  I'll try a few more things this weekend, I'd like to weld up some scrap angle I have into a table of sorts.
Reply:15 cfh is fine. Too big a filler will suck more heat out of the puddle, I like a small filler, just lay it in the puddle and keep a bit of pressure on it.SqWave 200Millermatic 190Airco 200 ACHypertherm PM45Boice-Crane Band SawVictor O/A