Tig welding

[mikeandike]

Today i just attempted tig welding... Man is it ever hard. it's way easier when you're just melting the two metals together but when you add the filler rod it gets really, really hard (for me anyways). I talked with the guy who had the tig machine and he said that oxy-acetelyne is harder because you have to screw with the gasses and get the right mixture. The cool thing about tig welding is you can go over your welds and fix them and also you get very nice clean results.

Go kart update:

I added a rear bumper and support for a 3rd bearing. Going to turn and key the rear axel soon and rig up the front end (I finally decided to go all aluminum). Then i have to make up the steering and the pedals. Add a seat, a tensionner and a steering wheel and im done.

p.s. next week im going to that shop almost every day

 

[RobertD]

Cool that you have access to TIG. Talk about expensive setup! Get as much experience as you can with all methods and you'll be glad in the future, for sure.

 

[mikeandike]

Yup, im basically working there. i help the guy out a lot with all the dirty jobs like cleaning up the shop and stuff. One more thing about tig is that you have to control the amperage with a foot pedal so you dont burn a hole in the material you're welding. Thats another thing i find tricky. With some more practice i'll catch on soon.

 

[Crabapple]

In my welding class we have a tig, but the teacher dosent know how....
A guy i used to work for came in and helped with some projects that needed to be done in class.
He knows tig.
On Wednesday he taught me how to tig.
On Wednesday i passed my first set of Oxy-Acyteline welds (just a bead pad with no filler rod, just running a puddle) Today i finished my Oxy-Acetlynine requirmemnts. (which included using filer rod, and more welds) SO next class i will hopefully learn Tig with filler rod. Then when i get tha hang of that, i will try Aluminum with Tig, then Alum with Tig and filler rod.
And i agree, Tig is very nice, i like it alot, and it prodeces ver nice welds if done right.

 

[RobertD]

awesome accomplishments! good luck passing them all. TIG sounds awesome if you have access to the equipment.

 

[mikeandike]

By the way, i started tig welding on aluminum. i havnt tried steel yet. i can make faily decent beads every once and a while

 

[Crabapple]

try some steel!
its much easire to learn, then once you get the technique down, you can perfect aluminum!

I belive that you need a diffrent tip (electrode) and i know that you need a diffrent filler rod.

But try it, you should be good at steel if you try it.

 

[mikeandike]

For aluminum welding, i know that i used a pure tungsten electrode on AC (you need to use AC on aluminum because of the oxide layer. The DCEP part of the AC wave cleans that off) Im going to that shop almost everyday this week so i'll probably try it.

 

[Crabapple]

Over the past week i have done some aluminum welding, its pretty tough.
Im getting better though!

 

[mikeandike]

I tried steel much easier except the fact that the amperage was set on 30 (i think it means 30 percent not 30 amps. Its usually at 60. The machine is a syncrowave 350) and the guy that was using it before me was doing some small welding cause he had a really small filler rod. I didnt realise untill i finished welding 2 parts for my spindles. The filler rod kept getting stuck in the puddle. That was annoying. It seems fairly easy though and my aluminum tig welding is coming along. Ill get those pics on soon.