tig welding sheet metal settings and advice

[tech69]

Mike, you say you are dipping your tungsten in acetone? I'll start sanding my weld zones and using acetone. So are you attributing your nicer welds to cleaner metal or your new gas lens? I've watched a few things on youtube on Tig welding but nothing mentions anything about cleaning the metal or tungsten. Guess I need to look harder for answers.

[Mike Motage]

Sorry, i probably confused you. When I say dipping , I meant I dip the tungsten in the molten puddle. At times, my stiff hands and bad eye sight contribute to a lot of dipping. I'd get angry and would continue to weld, if the weld looked okay. My friend yelled at me and said "no wonder you have problems" Grind the tungsten and start again. He also told me I was contaminating the tungsten badly and needed to grind off the whole tip completely and then resharpen. Seems to be working, yesterday was another solid day of nice welds.

I am welding the a complete chassis and rollcage, so there's a lot of welding going on.

[tbody321]

practice practice just like all the above posts have stated...Wear a reperator if your indoors with little venilation....Ive been on a tig practicing run for about a month now, straight beads, both aluminum and steel....focus on what your doing, analyize the results, maybe post pics and others can help steer whats working and whats not..

back to resperator part....didnt even give it a thought ONCE....i was running beads everynight for about 45 minutes..over and over on stainless,steel and aluminum...well, experienced severe chest pains 2 weeks ago, ekg and other test didnt show much...the only thing i could think of, breathing all those fumes in a 2.5 car garage did something...has cleared up since, purchasing 3m repsperator this week...hopefully its easy to get used too.....saftey first....

[tech69]

Originally Posted by tbody321

practice practice just like all the above posts have stated...Wear a reperator if your indoors with little venilation....Ive been on a tig practicing run for about a month now, straight beads, both aluminum and steel....focus on what your doing, analyize the results, maybe post pics and others can help steer whats working and whats not..

back to resperator part....didnt even give it a thought ONCE....i was running beads everynight for about 45 minutes..over and over on stainless,steel and aluminum...well, experienced severe chest pains 2 weeks ago, ekg and other test didnt show much...the only thing i could think of, breathing all those fumes in a 2.5 car garage did something...has cleared up since, purchasing 3m repsperator this week...hopefully its easy to get used too.....saftey first....

for sure. I get my head pretty close in there so I can what I'm doing. Safety first, always.

[ojh]

A couple about the basics I'll add to what marty and others have mentioned; I find it helps a lot to support my hoses to keep the weight off my hand nd keep the tip pointed nearly straight down - the shortest path to the metal.
Expert welders will never admit to dipping into the puddle but in reality it can become a techique to keep your tip clean. It'll get goo on it and you can pull it off the toungsten by dipping it. I never told you that, ok?

[John Buchtenkirch]

Originally Posted by ojh

Expert welders will never admit to dipping into the puddle but in reality it can become a techique to keep your tip clean. It'll get goo on it and you can pull it off the toungsten by dipping it. I never told you that, ok?

???????? Any time I’ve ever touched the puddle it required a trip to the grinder to clean off the tungsten. Please explain further on this technique. ~ John Buchtenkirch

[ojh]

Originally Posted by John Buchtenkirch

???????? Any time I’ve ever touched the puddle it required a trip to the grinder to clean off the tungsten. Please explain further on this technique. ~ John Buchtenkirch

I don't think there is anything about welding that i could explain to you - you have me at a disadvantage.
But, I'll explain. When building the racecar chasis you'd wind up in a junglegym of tubing welding in all mannor of contorted areas operating the foot control with your knee. When you'd get a gob of goo on the toungsten instead of climbin out to dress it you can 'tap' the puddle and watch it pull the metal off the tip.
At least I can with an analog machine, digitals might be different.
In normal bench welding it is best to redress.

[crystallographic]

Originally Posted by tbody321

practice practice just like all the above posts have stated...Wear a reperator if your indoors with little venilation....Ive been on a tig practicing run for about a month now, straight beads, both aluminum and steel....focus on what your doing, analyize the results, maybe post pics and others can help steer whats working and whats not..

back to resperator part....didnt even give it a thought ONCE....i was running beads everynight for about 45 minutes..over and over on stainless,steel and aluminum...well, experienced severe chest pains 2 weeks ago, ekg and other test didnt show much...the only thing i could think of, breathing all those fumes in a 2.5 car garage did something...has cleared up since, purchasing 3m repsperator this week...hopefully its easy to get used too.....saftey first....

Hexavalent chromium is always a concern with welding stainless. Shops that do stlss have warning signs posted. Respirator highly recommended.

[John Buchtenkirch]

Originally Posted by crystallographic

Hexavalent chromium is always a concern with welding stainless. Shops that do stlss have warning signs posted. Respirator highly recommended.

+1…….. what Kent said concerning welding stainless. According to a union welder friend (whom makes sure to find the time to go to the union safety classes) the absolute worst is plasma cutting stainless. He said more than a few guys have had to leave the trade because of it and they never feel or breath right after problems with it . BEWARE, this is serious stuff guys. ~ John Buchtenkirch

[metalman sweden]

I will just fill in that nearly 100% of all the old mans that now is retired from the SS shop I worked at have huge healty problems like senile at pretty early age, got a angry nature, cancer related to lungs and breath ways.....and....

So be careful and have respect for this, even if the shops sure are better now than it was 25 y ago it still are very unhealty if you dont use the best gear you can find!