Hand/Eye Coordination

[RCWelds]

Did my first ever TIG on stainless using a filler rod in tonights welding class. I can appreciate more than ever those who are very good at TIG welding. My hand/eye coordination definitely needs to develop, and also I found advancing the small filler rod was difficult to maneauver correctly with my MIG gloves on. Tried it without the gloves, and only burned my fingers, so put the gloves back on. My instructor told me about a tig pen for the filler rods, so ordered one from Amazon when I got home from class. Went ahead and ordered some gray and blue tungsten for my new mig torch, so I could do some practicing….I gotta get some 100% Argon gas too. That won’t be cheap, although I’m finding nothing about welding to be anywhere near really affordable.

By the time I got my TIG kit for my MM215, which was in stock at Cyberweld’s Arizona facility, and shipping & taxes made it almost $800! How long did it take you to become very proficient with TIG?

[Mac's Crew]

I ordered a couple of the EZ Dabber from CK World Wide. I don't use them well, but they made a world of difference for my kids learning to Tig weld.

[Sberry]

Should learn to feed it right, you got enough equipment.

[tapwelder]

That is pretty cool tool. Same motion I use to feed, except atop my index finger. I used to practice the motion while not welding.

Takes a while to get proficient at the technique.

There are other feed techniques for feeding.

Good luck, keep practicing

You can practice by aiming at stuff an you feed.

[SweetMK]

I always thought that they should teach you to TIG weld in a box that would hold some inert gas,,
so that you could concentrate on welding technique, and not have the welding interfered by poor gas flow issues.

A new TIG welder has enough to think about,, eliminating one aspect would seem to help ??

Heck, IF I was to TIG something small today, I would try to figure out how to weld it in a box full of inert gas,,,
(I haven't TIG welded for decades)

I learned to TIG weld within a couple weeks of learning to oxy/acetylene weld.
I felt they were so similar, that the O/A welding really prepared me for the TIG welding.

The US Navy knew what they were doing, and trained welders in a sequence that allowed you to grow from previous training to the next process.
Actually, we started with O/A brazing of cast iron, then solder/brazing of monel tubing into fittings,,
Then, on, and on and on,,,,,,,,,,,,

[psacustomcreations]

When I went to a TIG welding school it was out of state so I was staying in a hotel. I asked the instructor for a scrap piece of filler about 2 feet long.
Once I got home, I just practiced feeding the filler back and forth with one hand then the other. After a couple of days, that seems to do the trick.
I have to teach people to tig weld sometimes now. I sometimes have them hold the filler rod in the opposite hand. The filler rod requires the most manipulation at first. The torch just slides left or right if you are just practicing fillet welds.
I also use plastic palm gardening gloves when tig welding. They are thin enough to be able to feel the filler. My fingers don't get hot until the last inch or two of filler.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

[Thoriated Wolfram]

How long depends on what you define proficient as and the type of TIG welding you're doing. Pipe welding took me a few months to be able to make good looking welds without needing help. X-ray quality sheet metal on Inconel and titanium it was probably a year or so to make quality welds that looked halfway decent. To make nice looking quality welds on sheet metal it was a couple years before I could do it reliably. Before that I would just get lucky and make a pretty weld without having a clue what I did different.

It also depends on the individual person and their attitude as well. People who can learn from mistakes without throwing a fit, ask for help/advice from multiple people and accept responsibility for what they're doing wrong/accept feedback tend to gain proficiency faster than everyone else. I firmly believe that welders learn the most by making a mistake but all of that applies to every welding process, not just TIG.

I agree with Sberry about the TIG pen. Unless you have a compelling physical reason that limits your ability to feed wire, you are probably going to hinder your potential by using one of those pens early on. They dull the feeling of adding wire into the puddle which normally can provide you with feedback about the weld puddle. If you want to use the pen after you've learned how to feed by hand go for it, but get yourself setup with some reliable and versatile habits early. Being flexible and adaptable will make you a better welder than relying on aids at the start. What happens if the tig pen breaks and you don't have a backup on the jobsite? What if the job requires the use of a wire that doesn't fit in your pen? What if the weld joint is super tight and there's no room for the pen to fit? The guy who doesn't make a fuss and gets to work will do better at welding than the guy who goes to his boss and says he's having trouble welding that job because it doesn't work with his tig pen.

Buy yourself some Tillman 24D Kidskin gloves (or equivalent) and learn to feed rod by hand, you can keep the MIG/Stick glove on the torch hand if you want. Learn to feed lots of different diameters of rod (go as small as you can, learning to feed 0.020" wire was one of the best things I ever did) and learn to do it from extreme or uncomfortable angles. Most TIG jobs aren't flat coupons on a nice height weld table. Sometimes they are but sometimes they're awkward leaning over a fixture, standing on one foot while trying to feed rod into a puddle from an angle that makes your arm start to ache.

[BaTu]

It's called "Muscle Memory" and just takes Time,,, you have to put-in the work instead of expecting to see results right away (w or wo a Pen, which you don't really need...)

[Roert42]

I think your biggest problem may be that you are wearing thick MIG gloves. Try some light Tig gloves. Also try and hold the wire back farther to keep your hand away from the heat, hard to do with real thing filler, but not bad with 1/16 or so.

[123weld]

u gotta be loose and relaxed. a boxer fights better when his arms are loose. golfer golfs better relaxed. so, relax, loosen ur muscles, and it will come easeir after lots of practice. i couldnt imagine doing it w/ regular weld gloves - need tig gloves like roert says

[Sberry]

You can move hand and fingers farther up the rod too.

[shovelon]

Just get a full length pencil and fiddle fart with it. You will feel the need to feed.

[smithdoor]

I first learned solder then with torch welding and brazing before I did tig welding.
It was easy to switch to tig. Most my welding was with stick and fluxcore. I can weld with my left or right hand. Helps on some jobs. But I have been doing since 1964.
It takes practice

Are doing for a hobby or making money,?

Dave

Did my first ever TIG on stainless using a filler rod in tonights welding class. I can appreciate more than ever those who are very good at TIG welding. My hand/eye coordination definitely needs to develop, and also I found advancing the small filler rod was difficult to maneauver correctly with my MIG gloves on. Tried it without the gloves, and only burned my fingers, so put the gloves back on. My instructor told me about a tig pen for the filler rods, so ordered one from Amazon when I got home from class. Went ahead and ordered some gray and blue tungsten for my new mig torch, so I could do some practicing….I gotta get some 100% Argon gas too. That won’t be cheap, although I’m finding nothing about welding to be anywhere near really affordable.

By the time I got my TIG kit for my MM215, which was in stock at Cyberweld’s Arizona facility, and shipping & taxes made it almost $800! How long did it take you to become very proficient with TIG?

[RCWelds]

Are doing for a hobby or making money,?

Dave

I’m hoping to get accomplished to a point that I can do repairs and light fabrication as a side hustle when I retire.

[tapwelder]

Welding tip and tricks recently did video prop and fixtures. Might be of interest. Seems like could be a good investment of time / money to obtain some if you wanna gig it.

[psacustomcreations]

Another strange but cheap way to practice. Get a piece of dry uncooked spaghetti noodle.

Practice with that to keep your fingers relaxed and hand loose

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

[Sberry]

I’m hoping to get accomplished to a point that I can do repairs and light fabrication as a side hustle when I retire.

There is some work for alloys like anything else but the light fab guy is a wire welder, band or chop saw and plasma guy with a couple 4 1/2 and a battery drill. Something I dont see and going to add myself is a 120V feeder and 80 bottle with 023 loaded in it ready to turn on. Need a torch on occasion, nice to burn paint. Some cuts. 020 in your 200 class machine for most stuff, gives it some punch for light fab but that little wire can go right down to foil thin.
If a guy lives in a world of boats and food equipment, another matter, room to specialize but tig aint even on my short list of setting up shop. Its not a bad thing just low return to start with unless you have some expertise. Steel lots of room for fixes, I do 5000 steel welds for an aluminum and I got a lot of stuff most people dont have. Got a neighbor has a 175, been down here once in 20 yrs to make a short alum weld. He has it all, cars, boat, plow, band saw, 4x4.

[Sberry]

This aint for you but to other new guys, you felt the 800 and when you get a new thing its easy to want all the accessories but over some time worth learning to resist a little. This is different than being an adopter in regards to costly labor but as I mention in other thread have been way along this curve, trannys, plasma inverters, all grinders and drills and if you would have said you were gonna be using a 50$ drill and 30$ grinder 20 years from now for 3/4 the work I would have said bull and all that probi type thing was junk compared to the 28 I had leading the way. Was different, the 28 was free in that case due to labor on big buildings but today I use equipment sooooo much cheaper than when I started and to tell the truth and come to find out like some of it as good or better.

[Sberry]

If I was chasing advamced features would be thinking import todaym if I was looing to hold on would certainly replace what I got if it died tomorrow with a 180 from Home Depot. We got guys here spend 3 or 4 large on some newer machines for "hobby" but,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, most of them know pretty much what they are doing before that and often work their way up.

[Sberry]

Most shopping is so much better than it used to be and now that some of it has moved closer or we have rides for it I let the store stock a lot more than I used to. I buy another socket even at hi single price if we need it but dont keep collecting and at some point doesnt matter how cheap it is, auctions etc, if I dont need it or didnt intend on buying it when I went there it stays. I am like a lot of guys bought some stuff early on and never really was as good idea as it seemed at the time. Happens to everyone that does this much but I am more aware today and cut a lot of it out. Still working at it.
I know some good sellers and they cut the losses at some point and will get rid of it.
Another one besides tig gets a lot of attn is flatness and accuracy. I make do as needed vs trying to prepare for every case way ahead and find I can do most of it with simple clamps which are hard enuff to get enuf of without resorting to special stuff, got a small shelf with flats and angles a few holes and when I need it resort to it but 99% of the time its a simple piece to the next with a square tossed on to keep it honest.

[RCWelds]

If I was chasing advamced features would be thinking import todaym if I was looing to hold on would certainly replace what I got if it died tomorrow with a 180 from Home Depot. We got guys here spend 3 or 4 large on some newer machines for "hobby" but,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, most of them know pretty much what they are doing before that and often work their way up.

After finishing this semester, and probably another, AND getting some experience under my belt, I think I will spring for an engine drive welder. Likely a Miller Bobcat 260 efi, which can do light carbon arc cutting, and is a full multi-process machine. I don’t forsee myself doing pipeline at my age, but they are getting ready to renew work on the mid-
atlantic pipeline coming thru W.Va. & Va. some only 25 miles from me, so one never knows. I said that because the MIller Bobcat 260 is a bit smaller than the Trailblazer, and might be fine for some pipe work.

I want the ability to go mobil, and tackle most light fabrication and most repair/structural work. Plan to build my own trailer rig too! I could then utilize my MM215 for TIG or MIG for light duty work, where duty cycle would not be in question.

[smithdoor]

Sounds great

dave

I’m hoping to get accomplished to a point that I can do repairs and light fabrication as a side hustle when I retire.

[Noviastar]

I am in a class right now. TIG is toward the end. I am excited to try it. Feeding a rod into a arc seems like fun. The SMAW sticks make me a bit mad when striking is being a pain. Starting MIG soon. That should be fun as well. Sounds like you have a fun plan for your mobile. Think ill be happy in a shop for a few years. Id like to get into repair shops for hev equipment or cars or whatever. Or parts making. Welding is just kinda a start. I am aware ill need to get experience in a lot of machine operation.

[RCWelds]

I picked up some Black Stallion TIGGIN gloves while I was at ARC3 yesterday, to send my MM215 for repairs. I used them tonight in class. The feeding of the TIG wire went better than last week, but man, I’m gonna need a lot of practicing to get good at TIG. I did get to use a foot pedal tonight, instead of straight lift-arc. More control of the amperage. I found I like feeding by hand rather than the pen.

[Willie B]

I picked up some Black Stallion TIGGIN gloves while I was at ARC3 yesterday, to send my MM215 for repairs. I used them tonight in class. The feeding of the TIG wire went better than last week, but man, I’m gonna need a lot of practicing to get good at TIG. I did get to use a foot pedal tonight, instead of straight lift-arc. More control of the amperage. I found I like feeding by hand rather than the pen.

I have big thick hands with short fingers. Need a large glove, but glove fingers are too long. I use OVE GLOVE. I haven't bought any recently, but order them on the internet. They stretch to fit. Made of Nomex & Kevlar, with silicone dots for grip, they stand up to 1200 degrees F without damage.

Weldmonger sells TIG FINGER in two sizes, they work great to protect my hands from actual contact with hot metal. Aluminum especially gets very hot. I'm always rubbing knuckles along some surface to steady my torch hand. Sometimes that surface is hot.

As for filler, pass it between your two middle fingers, then between thumb & forefinger. With a little practice you can alternate where you squeeze & advance the filler between dabs.