TIG newbie trying to make it work

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Long rambling story ahead, with a question at the end.About 8 months ago after agonizing for weeks trying to decide on a TIG welder I decided on a PrimeWeld 225X TIG welder. 2 bottles of gas, bunches of drops of varying thickness and several pounds of filler rod later I got to where I can lay a fair to middlin' bead on mild steel. Unfortunately I sill give the tungsten a bath once in a while but nowhere as often as I used to. I've been practicing on scrap pieces for months now and thought I was ready for my first project. I've been needing a new set of steps to make it easier to get in and out of my boat for a while, but the price of steel has been holding me back. Recently I was able to salvage several hundred feet of 1 1/2 x 3/4 rectangular tubing from a local business that was throwing a bunch of display setups out. After a couple of weeks cutting it into usable sections and grinding the paint off the ends after work, I was ready to start. I was able to cut and tack the pieces into the initial frame. But that's where the fun ended. I used my MIG welder to tack everything together, but then the amperage control board took a dump. It's being swapped out under warranty, but it won't be back until next week. So I though "what a great project for my TIG". That's when the real fun began...NOT.The problem is that it is very thin walled tubing as in 0.06" thick wall. One of the clues that my MIG welder had problems was that I was blowing holes through the metal immediately on the last few tacks...even on the lowest amperage setting, not matter the wire speed. So when I set up my TIG machine, I used the old rule of thumb of 1 amp per thousandths of an inch. So with high hopes I set the Amps to 60 grabbed the torch, put a Furick #8 cup on and inserted a 3/32 tungsten, hooked up the ground, set the gas flow for about 15 SCFH (7 LPM), grabbed a 1/16 rod, got in position, hit the pedal, ignited and arc and promptly blew a hole in the metal!

OK, time for some research.All the articles that I read said to do exactly what I was doing. All the videos that I watched showed people happily running perfect beads on 22 & 24 gauge sheet metal with nary a problem. They were using the same torch (CK #17) with the same Furick cup, same sized tungsten and the same basic settings. WTF??!?!? Finally after watching many, many videos of the pros (Jody from Welding tips and Tricks and Justin from the fabricator series just to name a few) I ran across a series of videos from a guy who's channel is called "weld [HAGOJIBI]" who seems to specialize in welding insanely thin pieces of metal together. In his videos, I discovered and excellent video discussing "pulse settings". After watching a few more videos about pulse TIG welding I went back out into the shop a few days later to play with the settings. Low and behold it worked just like they advertised!After cleaning up many, many pieces of scrap tubing that I had made the stair frame out of, and clamping them in place for a fillet weld and playing with the settings, I started running more beads than blowing holes through the metal. For several more days I kept practicing until I was able to crank out 5 or 6 "T" joints that had nice shiny beads with a hint of blue in them beads on all 4 sides and good penetration. OK I though, I 'm ready to tackle the rest of those welds, or so I thought.Turns out that welding a "T" joint clamped to the table in perfect position and welding them wherever they happen to be ain't quite the same. Yup back to booger welds, missing the joint and blowing through the metal no matter what I tried. OK, back to a practice piece...boom back to fairly decent welds.


So, after all that, does anybody have any suggestions as how to maintain a steady arc and feed the filler rod. I even cheated and used the "lay technique" but didn't have to much success. At this point I'm almost ready to say frig it and hope my new MIG is up to the task. However, being the stubborn type, I WANT to be able to  TIG that blasted set of stairs together!Last edited by Demented; 3 Weeks Ago at 09:32 PM.
Reply:Like Justin says, it's however it feels right for you.   We cant control your muscle movements for you, it is something you have to learn/ teach yourself to eventually learn.  It sounds like you have the basics down, now its just mostly practice for muscle memory/consistency.

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Reply:Planning , practice , patience. Things always look easier on youtube videos, Hard to master a trade in under a year.1) Find some thicker metal (10 ga. or 3/16") 2) Practice more with the steel filler3) TIG braze it.4) wait for MIG to come back5) MIG braze itSometimes getting cheaper materials makes life harder. (Think of the money you've saved, versus time, electricity, and welding wire.)Patience, your almost there. Finding things to prop your hands on to steady your feed, and torch hands will help a lot too. Any thing as simple as a cardboard box, to a piece of steel you tack onto the work itself, or even a pipe stand can help .Good LuckAirco 250 ac/dc Heliwelder Square waveMiller Synchrowave 180 sdMiller Econo Twin HFLincoln 210 MPDayton 225 ac/dcVictor torchesSnap-On YA-212Lotos Cut60D
Reply:You're trying to learn how to juggle while riding a bike before learning how to juggle while standing normally.  Nothing is going to replace practice.  You'll make faster progress if you take a step back, practice those joints on thicker material, then thinner material and then work on welding in odd positions.Check out my bench vise website:  http://mivise.comMiller Syncrowave 250DXMillermatic 350P with XR AlumaProMiller Regency 200 with 22A feeder and Spoolmatic 3Hobart Champion EliteEverlast PowerTig 210EXT
Reply:

Originally Posted by G-ManBart

You're trying to learn how to juggle while riding a bike before learning how to juggle while standing normally.  Nothing is going to replace practice.  You'll make faster progress if you take a step back, practice those joints on thicker material, then thinner material and then work on welding in odd positions.
Reply:Thanks for the quick answers folks!I looked over the welds tonight and I'm not 100% sure that they (and the tubing) will support the weight that they might have to support, i.e me @ 265lbs plus an 80 lb battery in each hand. I think I might have enough 1x1x1/8 wall square tubing, but I'' have to measure everything out to see.