Old dog with a new trick

[Beezer]

I've been trying to get my head wrapped around learning tig welding for a few weeks. I've had to throw out a lot I've learned about melting metal together because this is different, somewhat. I do know I've never had to use both hands and one foot to run a bead. I swear I can actually scratch my belly, pat my head and tap my foot now. I think I'm making progress.
I was explaining it to an experienced professional welder the other day and he told me to stick with what I know best at first. Mild steel. I had already welded a lot of things in mild steel using other methods and I should concentrate on that at first.
I spent a night cutting good steel blanks and ran some beads I was very happy with. Actually I spent two nights welding strips of 10ga 1 inch together in every type joint I could think of. Little tiny beads I never thought I would ever see myself do. I swear it's just an electric torch exactly like a gas one, but more refined. Much more focused and controllable. None of the joints broke. I really gave them an honest test. I stressed the joints to their max. I'm loving this tig stuff!
The main reason I love it is because aluminum was always the sexy girl I was too ugly to even think about having a chance with. Now I'm welding aluminum pretty much the same way I've always used the torch and a coat hanger on steel. I think I'll be shifting to aluminum. People are bringing me projects and practice. You old time tig welders are probably laughing at me but I'm telling you that I'm fifty years old and will become a grandfather next week and have always wanted to weld aluminum just like I do steel. Yet never have been able to before now. Not sure which excites me the most. Welding aluminum or my grandbaby. Kidding of course. Liking this tig stuff!

[Jolly Roger]

I got my first Tig instruction in 1979 from the only school trained welder I'd ever met (he actually came here from Mexico and did nothing but TIG and alloy work, in fact I never saw him once touch steel he just stayed so busy there never was time). He asked me if I knew how to weld with a torch. I said yes. He said this is your torch and this is your rod, now do it. It was an aluminum boat and it turned out great. It was almost too easy. I don't know how long you have been welding, but welcome to my world.

[RAM1]

hi i know what you mean started life as stick welder moved mig now tig wich i have been on for about 6 mo. i also like aluminum and i get an extra i get to use a foot pedal positioner at th same time . good luck .

[Rojodiablo]

Funny, I started with O/A torch and brazing, went to steel welding with O/A, found mig, learned tig, and now, I would like to learn the basic stick welding. Stick to me seems like there is more to learn, as you have so many different fillers for the same steel material. Stuff for root pass, stuff for cap weld, stuff for single pass, hardfacing, on and on. Everyone thinks stick is so caveman, but I think it is highly underrated in today's world. Maybe one of the SoCal locals who stick welds a lot will give me a shot at their machine.

[Jolly Roger]

I learned O/A first, then went to sticks. Mig was strictly GMAW and very expensive back then and I am not sure Tig had even been invented yet. There wasn't one anywhere around for sure. Practically anything you can do with sticks can be done with mig. I've never seen a tig hard facing rod.

In field and repair work sticks are the money maker because they are so versatile and don't require the cleaning the other processes do. You just can't always get to it to do a thorough job. I am now set up for using flux cored wire in the field, but it still has it's limits. I don't care what they tell you wind does still have an effect on flux core.

If you have those other processes down moving to sticks should be an easy step for you. I personally feel that all schools should start the newbies out on mig and then move them to sticks. It doesn't have near the learning curve sticks do, and if you can do it correctly then it's an easy move to sticks.