new in Marina del Rey

[ezduzit]

At 69 I'm about to try TIG for the first time. About 40 years ago I built a motorcycle and dune buggy trailer and a few small projects using a stick welder. My first career led me from draftsman to engineering designer. Mid-life crisis led me to customizing yachts.

Equipment I have purchased include:

Miller Dynasty 200DX (used/remanufactured) with the standard (new) kit of foot-pedal, torch, stick holder, cables, hose, Smith regulator...
250 cu ft argon cylinder.
3M Speedglas hood.
Light leather jacket, heavy and light gloves, stainless wire brushes. Already have mini grinders, etc. Ordered some lanthanated tungsten in .04, 1/16 & 3/32.

The welder is now wired to an adequate circuit breaker. I've setup a 3/8x36x36 steel plate welding table at low desk height and have grounded it to the outlet conduit (and to the welder ground). So far I've read through all the manuals that came with the equipment. And I've viewed a bunch of youtube videos showing various techniques and tips. Also bought a couple books which I have not yet read:
Haynes Techbook Welding Manual
Modern Welding Laboratory Manual--Bowditch
Gas Tungsten Arc Welding Handbook--Minnick

I am determined to learn this mostly on my own, without formal education. All help, tips, guidance are appreciated. My first project is here:
http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php...91#post2548891

[Doug_]

Hello and Welcome. It's never to late to learn something new. It sounds like you've got all the items you need to get started and the luggage rack is well on it's way also. Well like they say clean metal is a must and practice, practice, practice. Looking forward to seeing the finished luggage rack.

[killdozerd11]

Welcome to the forum

While self education is admirable a formal welding class will teach you a lot
and is usually cheap through the community colleges

[WeldorWes]

If you need any help
you can send me a PM
I am Local to you and am willing to help you out
welcome to the forum

[shovelon]

Welcome!

For books you might also look at "Advanced Automotive Welding" by Jerry Uttrachi.

Here is a look.
http://www.netwelding.com/Overview_w...t_Pictures.pdf

Your Dynasty200 is a magical little machine on alum. I have one too and love it.

[desertscout]

Howdy

[jlames]

Welcome. Welcome. Everyone's right. It's never too late. I'm 56 and just learning welding now and love it. Course we sold the boat when diesel went thru the roof and now are buying the things we'll need for the ranch we're finishing up to retire on. But we used to be neighbors. We were docked right outside the Ritz Carlton for about 10 years. As to learning, take a class and ASK, ASK, ASK here. These people are wonderful... and know their stuff inside and out. Between them and my neighbor who's a City Welding Inspector, the stool I'm building for my first project isn't falling apart!!!! I go the base and 4 legs cut and welded today. Oh, and we're putting together a "get together" for welders here. I posted it somewhere so please consider yourself invited. We're exactly an hour and 5 minutes away from the Marina. Drove that route every weekend for 10 years!!! Beer, soda, pizza, dogs, burgers, the pool and of course lots of welding stuff to do in the garage.

[ezduzit]

Thanks fellas. Hope you'll join me on my first project:
http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php...91#post2550491

Wookie--Very nice of you.

[Broccoli1]

Thanks fellas. Hope you'll join me on my first project:
http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php...91#post2550491

Wookie--Very nice of you.

Schedule a time with Wookie!!!!!!!!!

Just 5mins with someone with experience will help you out tremendously!!

Classes are great but not always convenient with work n family life.

[DSW]

Schedule a time with Wookie!!!!!!!!!

Just 5mins with someone with experience will help you out tremendously!!

Classes are great but not always convenient with work n family life.

I'd have to agree with this. Tig allows you more control than any other process. Because of this you have a lot more work to do and many times it's small changes that make a huge difference. Some things really can't be conveyed well in videos or by text. Having some one look over your shoulder and watch and make suggestions, whether it's someone who is skilled in welding, or an instructor, will get you farther faster.

[ezduzit]

After painstakingly carving a small welding area out of one corner of my shop, and equipping it with what I determined to be a good basic kit, I'm now feeling apprehensive about actually picking up the torch because I don't know what I'm doing. Not to mention its close proximity to my rather sawdusty workshop!

My electrodes have arrived and, although my first project will not require it, I have picked up a spare 330 cu ft argon cylinder and regulator/flow meter for inside/backside purging of projects which are only a little farther down my list. And I have begun reading Minnick. So I feel that I am close to being ready to turn the machine on for the first time, to set parameters and get the feel of the process on some very small scraps.

Please join me in my project thread. I welcome any help with getting started on the right foot.
http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php...91#post2548891

[DSW]

I wrote this a while back for someone else. It covers the basic steps the tech school uses to teach tig basics. Don't be in a huge rush. Take the time to learn and understand the basics 1st. It will save you time in the long run. I see way too many guys who want to skip ahead and then can't understand why they are having problems. Most of the problems come down to errors in the basics.

I've done so many "how to tig" threads here I've lost count... I should probably start tagging them with "new tig thread" or something like that to make them easier to find.


1st go on line to Miller and download their tig handbook as well as the manual for your machine. Read thru them and they will answer most of your basic questions on this.
http://www.millerwelds.com/resources/TIGhandbook/



As suggested, get some 1/8" steel ( we use 3" wide 6" long pieces) and grind/sand off the mill scale, both sides preferably. If the steel is oily, you'll also need to wipe it down with acetone ( do not use brake cleaner!) You can skip the grinding if you buy cold rolled rather than hot rolled, but CR is more money. It's usually cheaper to grind. Note a wire wheel will not remove rust or mill scale, only polish it. You need to grind sand to prep.

Grind your 3/32" tungsten to a pencil point and set the machine at roughly 125 amps on DC, argon at about 15-20 cfh. Extend the tungsten out of the cup about 3/8" roughly. This will let you see the arc better.

1st drill I usually have students do is to just run beads with no filler on flat plate. Try and get comfortable and set up so you can maintain a consistent arc length and travel speed across the piece. You will be using the pedal to manipulate the amps in this drill. As you run the beads, play with the pedal to get a feel on what happens as you depress the pedal. Make the puddle smaller and larger at will.

Remember the plate will heat up and if you don't keep cooling it down, it will act like you are upping the amps. I tell students the pieces are cool enough when you can handle them with your bare hands. A quench bucket and several pieces to work with will allow you to keep practicing without having to wait all day for coupons to cool between beads,

Next reset the amps to say 90-95 and floor the pedal. In this drill you will now vary either the distance you have the tungsten from the work, or your travel speed ( drill #3 is to vary the one you didn't do in this drill) Get a feel how these changes affect the arc and puddle. Don't worry too much about these right now, the idea is mostly to get you to understand that varying these will change and effect the puddle. For most of the rest of the drills, you'll want to try and maintain as consistent travel speed and arc length as possible and just change your amps with the pedal.

After these drills, say maybe an hour of "play time", try to run a bead by adding filler. 1/16" filler is a good size to work with. I usually suggest the students start with a lay wire method where they keep the filler in contact with the plate, and bring the puddle to the filler. Remember you melt the filler with the puddle, not the arc. You can slide the filler along the plate and into and out of the puddle as needed. If your amps are on the low side, some times the filler rod tends to be "sticky" and want to stick to the plate using this method though. Add a few more amps with the pedal if this is the issue. You can also "tap" the filler in like a drum stick or "stab" the filler at the puddle. I usually don't suggest new students stab the filler at the beginning as they usually will constantly hit the tungsten and foul it. get used to grinding your tungsten and get in the habit of stopping to regrind as soon as you foul the tungsten.

You also will want to practice feeding filler with your left hand ( assuming you are right handed). Get yourself a length of filler rod, and practice feeding it thru your hand while wearing your tig glove when you are watching tv to help develop the muscle memory for doing this.

Once you can run consistent beads the full 6" length of the plate, try overlapping the previous bead by 50%. Once you can consistently do these, you can move on to lap joints, followed by T joints, outside corners, and finally but joints in that order.

Then you go back to the beginning for horizontal joints and start the whole process all over again with beads on flat plate... Then the same thing for vertical followed by overhead. After all of this, you can move to thinner material and start all over again with say 1/16" and then finally start on round tube.


Post up picts of your practice pieces along with your settings etc and we'll help you with this.


One other thing. Because tig allows you the most control over the weld, it means that there are a lot of things you will have to manage all at once and keep the same to get good results. Best way to learn is to take a class so that someone can watch as you weld and pick up on many of these small changes that you are not aware of. There's only so much that can be done with picts. It's much easier to pick out a lot of this stuff if someone is watching you though.


Good luck.

[WeldorWes]

If you are free this weekend i am more then happy to come over and help you out

[ezduzit]

DSW--Thanks for posting that.

Wookie--How could I possibly turn that down?! PM sent.

[ezduzit]

If you are free this weekend i am more then happy to come over and help you out

Expressing my gratitude could/should perhaps rate a thread of its own but it still would not be adequate.

Last night Wookie drove from Orange County all the way out to Venice just to help me get started in TIG welding. When he arrived I had an ice cold beer waiting for him and I gave him an extra pin vice I had, just a small token. He proceeded to virtually shower me with gifts, some I couldn't duplicate anywhere. And he spent the evening with me, first making some equipment adjustments and testing my machine and setup, then with me practicing my very first TIG welds.

This photo shows my first (top of photo) and subsequent weld (about 3") in a small scrap of 1/8" 304 stainless using no filler (my first attempts with filler rod were quite pathetic). This was after I had practiced a few feet of weld on some thin stainless. The color is gone because the weld was wire brushed.



It might take me days of practice to duplicate those results but I was totally stoked! This was a cause for great celebration. Wookie even got to try out some of my woodshop machines. I just can't say enough about the generosity of this outstanding WeldingWeb member. We need a hall of fame. I will think up some way to get even.

[jlames]

EZ- That looks great

Wookie- Are you still committed to bringing your TIG up for Weld-o-Rama. It sure would be great to have all the folks coming up see what can be done

[Broccoli1]

EZ- That looks great

Wookie- Are you still committed to bringing your TIG up for Weld-o-Rama. It sure would be great to have all the folks coming up see what can be done

Shoveln is bringing his Dynasty 200

[jlames]

Great. Can't wait to see. Great thing driving all the way to Venice on a Sunday night and all. Great people here.

[WeldorWes]

no real need for thanks just doing my duty of passing on what i have learned over the many years
Glad to get you started on your tig adventure