New to forum and Tig

[MechEng]

After welding with a Forney 180 amp AC Buzz Box since I was ten I finally broke down and bought a real welding machine. I purchased a brand new Lincoln Tig 175. I am green as grass to Tig, and even DC welding. I tentatively fired up the Tig tonight after earlier playing around with DC stick on a welder cart project. After sticking a few electrodes to ugly puddles I think I managed to figure some of it out. I have done my share of reading and was almost scared to try it!

Below is a picture of a couple welds about 20 minutes after I started my Tig life. I will need some help and this seems a good place to get it. I am just a hobby type welder. Projects around the house, building motorcycles, welding razor blades together and that sort of thing.



Sorry, the 1953 vintage Forney buzz box has already been sold to my neighbor for a case of beer that he never did deliver!

Rick

[shovelon]

You picked that up right away.

Welcome

[weldermike]

Yeah bud hes right on, you got a good hand for tig it looks like right outta the box. Keep at it and youll be buzzing along in no time. Your bound to hit some obstacles, but looking good so far.

[Colt45]

I'm not a TIG expert, but thats a fair amount of undercut. Lack of or no filler rod?

[MechEng]

Yep, some undercut. I didn't use filler on the fillet so undercut was inevitable. The other part has a bit of filler in it. Since the picture is just a rack to hold my c-clamps the weld inspector passed it (that would be me).

I spent today welding up a rack for my truck to hold my new canoe. It is soooo nice to not have spatter everywhere and slag to clean up in the garage. Less warping and the welder doesn't buzz at 100dB too. I love this little machine. I am getting the hang of using filler rod too. I had some gaps to fill from my bad chop saw cuts.

Thanks guys, I didn't think it looked too bad. A neighbors welder buddy was over and he said my welds on the canoe rack look OK (except for sum undercut again). I used half of my little bottle of argon up already. I may develop an argon addiction! I was initially concerned about the low duty cycle but with all the fumbling around and flipping things over, clamping etc, the torch never got very hot at all.

Originally Posted by Colt45

I'm not a TIG expert, but thats a fair amount of undercut. Lack of or no filler rod?