3/16" tungsten?! I think you probably mean 3/32" as that's what Miller usually includes with machines.


For 1/8" steel 125 amps DC neg is a good setting. You can pretty much hold the pedal to the floor and weld at that setting. I prefer to have students set their machine slightly higher, say 150 amps so they get a feel for what the pedal does. that way the machine is set just a tad too high at max pedal, but they still get the most control.

Filler usually we use 1/16".


I did this post for someone learning quite awhile back. It covers a lot of what we have new guys do when learning.

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.

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.

 

Great thank you! And yes, I meant 3/32" haha

 

Post some pics. Any experience tig welding before?

 

Miller has an App. You might want to check it out for your settings.

KRS

 

I'll post some pics tomorrow. I have no experience with tig at all. And holy crap is it hard.
But I was able to mess around on some scraps for about an hour today and hopefully can do some more tomorrow.
It will defiantly take some practice to get this down. I must have lost track of where I had the filler rod and arced to that and got a nice shock haha. That was new.
I'll check out that app too.

 

Alright, I got some pictures. I am having issues with the filler rod not really going where I want it to. It will either stick, or go really nicely, or just melt off before I get it where I want it. I am setting amps at 150 to try and get used to using the foot pedal and trying to kind of mess with the heat and see what that does. Also having some expected issues with being steady with just my right hand to make a nice even bead and havent mastered the filler rod movement in my left hand yet.
But no matter how much I suck at this for starters, its still a lot of fun!

Here is the regulator, look about right?

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Here is a pic with out filler rod, I of course find this easier because I really only have to concentrate on a couple of things.

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Here are some pictures with filler rod on some different kinds of welds.

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So as you can tell, I have quite a ways to go to get nice uniform welds, but like I said before, still fun!
Any tips or advice?

Thanks, John

 

Gas CFH is too high- back it down to between 15-20.

 

Yeah, you are probably reading the liters per minute scale. You want 15-20 cfh (the black scale).

 

Looking great though!

 

Oh haha, yea that's my bad. Thanks! I'll try and get some time with it tonight

 

If the filler is melting before you reach the puddle, chances are your torch angle is wrong. You want the torch not quite straight up and down, not slanted way over. The heat comes out like a hose in the direction the tungsten is pointing and you can quickly preheat the filler and get it hot enough so that it melts before it hits the puddle. If the filler is "sticky" that usually is a sign the puddle is too cold.


For just starting out you look like you are doing really well. Just keep practicing.

 

Ahh, I have been holding the torch at quite the angle. I'll try less of an angle tomorrow and see how that goes.

 

You want the torch tipped over at no more than about the 1:00 position.

If you can't see the tungsten well, extend it some, don't crank over the torch. If you have a gas lens, you can stick the tungsten out stupid far and still get good gas coverage. right now a small bit of contamination because you are out a bit too far won't make a big deal. With a standard cup you can easily be out 1/2" to 5/8" beyond the cup no problem, possibly even farther. With a gas lens you can be out even farther than that if need be.

 

Yes, and with your torch at a 1 o'clock position your gas will stay put. More of an angle and your gas blows off to the side and possibly dragging air in behind to wreck your weld.

I have a rule of thumb that I use is tungsten stickout to be half to one distance of the orifice of the cup. A gas lens cup can have tungsten stick out 1.5 times the orifice. That would mean a #8 gas lens could have a stick out as a as 3/4" with the correct flow of gas and torch angle.

 

Another rule of thumb I have been pondering. Argon and argon blend gas flow 2 times cup number minimun to 3 times cup number maximum.

Using this rule of thumb, a #4 cup for instance would have a gas flow of 8cfh to 12cfh.
#5 cup, 10cfh to 15cfh.
#6 cup, 12 cfh to 18cfh.
#7 cup, 14cfh to 21cfh.
#8 cup, 16cfh minimum, to 24cfh maximum.
#10 cup, 20cfh minimum, to 30cfh maximum.

Does this make any sense? These are the levels that I found work pretty good to me. Of course YMMV.

 

Thanks for the info guys. I have been holding the torch at a 45 degree angle about. I have the tungsten out about 3/8". I'll try and hold the torch at 1:00 and see if I can have alright visibility, if not I'll extend it out a little bit and see how that goes.

 

You don't look right down on the weld. You have to look off to the side. Crook your neck and get your face right in there. Put a cheater in your hood if need be. That way you can judge your arc length, which you will develop a sense for after a while. You will get it.