Practice makes perfect.

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Our performance shop just recently acquired a Miller syncrowave 200, I'll be heading the fabrication department so I guess it's time to start practicing. I've done mig welding for a while, including taking college courses and also manufacturing powder coating ovens. The challenge is tig welding as I've never touched a tig welding machine before. I've been doing a ton of reading, I'll be posting some of my work on here to be critiqued and hopefully get some help along the way. I don't expect to be spoon fed, but getting better will definitely require help from those that are already great at tig welding. I've ordered a gas lens and a couple different size nozzles to see what will work best. Also, we have new material on the way as I know practicing on used/dirty material is not the best.Here is a quick cell phone pic I took of welding aluminum on a scrap piece we had lying around (1st day of tig welding). I'll be taking my good camera to the shop next time, so my next post will have better/more pictures. Let the journey begin!Last edited by TXnewbwelder; 04-30-2012 at 08:37 PM.
Reply:First day?You pay much attention I see..Looks good and post more pics with specs later......zap!I am not completely insane..Some parts are missing Professional Driver on a closed course....Do not attempt.Just because I'm a  dumbass don't mean that you can be too.So DON'T try any of this **** l do at home.
Reply:Originally Posted by zapsterFirst day?You pay much attention I see..Looks good and post more pics with specs later......zap!
Reply:Just a quick advisory lol don't weld aluminum with high frequency with your cell phone or key fob on your pocket it will burn them up. I've learned the hard way through experience of burning up 3 key fobs and a cell phone doing so lol.1973 Lincoln SA 200, Already replaced shunt coils, Idle board (SOLD)1984 Miller Dialarc 250HF, Miller water cooler, 250 AMP water cooled torch, you know the worx.
Reply:Practice does NOT make perfect-------Perfect practice makes perfect......keep it up6 Miller Big Blue 600 Air Paks2 Miller 400D6 Lincoln LN-25's4 Miller Xtreme 12VS2 Miller Dimension 812 4 Climax BW-3000Z bore welders Hypertherm 65 and 85Bug-O Track BugPair of Welpers
Reply:One way I practice and teach people is to get 1/8" thick 2-3" wide strips out of the scrap (i call them rulers) And practice tacking and welding outside corners then let cool and weld the inside. If you do enough feet of this you will get good real fast.www.performancealuminumfabrication.com
Reply:Sorry about the late update, I've been very busy lately and practicing welding on my free time. Here is some stainless practice, trying to focus on aluminum at the moment but gave it a shot:I'm able to lay down a pretty good bead on a piece of aluminum, the problem is welding 2 pieces together. That seems much more difficult. 6063 aluminum tube (14 gauge), Syncrowave 200, 75amps, argon roughly 20 on gauge:
Reply:Originally Posted by TuscanyJust a quick advisory lol don't weld aluminum with high frequency with your cell phone or key fob on your pocket it will burn them up. I've learned the hard way through experience of burning up 3 key fobs and a cell phone doing so lol.
Reply:Hard to tell someone just starting with tig what to do without being there looking over their shoulder....BUT.....I find that welding any tubing projects much easier if I use a smaller tungsten rather than a larger one   1/16 opposed to 3/32 or 1/8......You can control the heat easier and produce a smaller bead which is what you want for tubing since your working with thin wall thickness anyway (just need to bond the wall)   Stainless tubing typically needs an argon back up to produce a good weld.....Use Solar B or argon to weld Stainless always unless the material is thick enough to weld without over heating the back side.......you can use a larger tungsten after you get the feel for the temp control, but smaller is better for me especially on stainless........Good luck  Miller Dynasty 350Twenty Six HammersThree Crow BarsBig Rock
Reply:Thick stainless was welded with no argon back was thick enough to not over cook the back side......  Miller Dynasty 350Twenty Six HammersThree Crow BarsBig Rock
Reply:Welding this thin wall tube to a thick flange requires a little thought.....The customer doesn't want any bleed through at all and the wall thickness is so much thinner than the flange that you must make a heat sink......  Miller Dynasty 350Twenty Six HammersThree Crow BarsBig Rock
Reply:A chunk of copper did the trick and allowed me to weld 50 of these tube assy with no bleed through....  Miller Dynasty 350Twenty Six HammersThree Crow BarsBig Rock
Reply:Miller Dynasty 350Twenty Six HammersThree Crow BarsBig Rock
Reply:Damn, I mean DAMN!  That is really really pretty. Did I say damn yet?   Holy moley... On behalf of all the Bed Frame Welders out here, thank you, sir.
Reply:Dang B C your goodBacked my CATMA over your CARMA oops clusmy me  What would SATAN do ?? Miller Trailblazer 302 AirPakMiller Digital Elite  Optrel Welding HatArcair K4000Suitcase 12RC / 12 VSHypertherm PM-45Rage 3 sawRusty old Truck
Reply:ROD, did you just say HOLY MOLEY! funny stuffI hate being bi-polar it's awsomeMy Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys
Reply:Great heat sink idea. Thank you!
Reply:Originally Posted by B_CHard to tell someone just starting with tig what to do without being there looking over their shoulder....BUT.....I find that welding any tubing projects much easier if I use a smaller tungsten rather than a larger one   1/16 opposed to 3/32 or 1/8......You can control the heat easier and produce a smaller bead which is what you want for tubing since your working with thin wall thickness anyway (just need to bond the wall)   Stainless tubing typically needs an argon back up to produce a good weld.....Use Solar B or argon to weld Stainless always unless the material is thick enough to weld without over heating the back side.......you can use a larger tungsten after you get the feel for the temp control, but smaller is better for me especially on stainless........Good luck
Reply:Originally Posted by TXnewbwelderThanks for the advice, I'll be giving 1/16th a try this week and will post up the results.AWESOME work by the way.
Reply:Nice work!  Thanks for the idea of using a much smaller tungsten.  I'm new to tig, and the welding shop guys set me up with 3/32 after I told them I'd be doing mostly 16 gauge tube butt welding, as well as welding same sized tube to 3/8" flanges.-AaronJet 17.5" Drill Press1942 South Bend 16x84 Lathe1980s Miller 320A / BP --- 2013 Power Mig 2562012 Jet 7x12 Horizontal BandsawVictor O/A Setup
Reply:hahahaha  yeah I didn't post what they came out like without the heat sink.....lol  Miller Dynasty 350Twenty Six HammersThree Crow BarsBig Rock