New to tig - progress log

[mac_man_luke]

Iv always been interested in welding and at school i did a fair bit of oxy welding and a bit of mig.

Till now the only machine iv had was a small ozito 130amp transformer AC stick welder

Recently peaked my interest again searching the web on welding aluminium
for a potential project i was considering to build and what skills it would likely take.

Started off searching MIG, watched a lot of videos (welding tips and tricks, weld.com, chucky2009 etc) and read plenty more.
Was seriously considering an entry level pulse MIG but as i kept searching it lead me to videos of TIG.
Iv been interested in TIG for a long time as i loved oxy welding and the controllability really interested me.

Started looking at cheap lift arc units with the idea of getting some experience before making the jump
but in the end i decided to buy a machine that i could keep and do all that i might need.

I ended up with a Tokentools Metalmaster 256 during the cyber sale last week.
Really only needed the 215 but was out of stock.

Also picked up so far:
Cigweld prolite auto helmet - rated for 5amp tig, 4 sensors, 1/20,000 etc all for $130 which i thought was decent
E cylinder of Argon from power10gas
Tig gloves
2x 2.4mm Thoriated tungsten (couldn't wait for my online order )
10x 2.4 and 1.6mm 2% Lanthanated tungsten (online, taking its time to arrive)

Still need to get some filler rods - Seems BOC are the cheapest place i can find locally.

Started off playing with stick mode a few nights ago.
Its so much better than the transformer machine.
Arc strike is super easy, arc is super stable and will run easy with lower amperages.

Hopefully tonight i should have all the gear to give TIG a go and ill get some photos up of my first beads...

Any advice welcome

[Gavin Newman]

TIG welding steel requires a good fit-up and, most importantly, clean material so if you are practicing on the usual hot-rolled steel make sure you get rid of all the mill scale, a flap wheel on your angle grinder is good for this.

Set the gas flow to around 5-7 lpm to start with, grind the tungsten so the taper length is 2-3 times the tungsten diameter and grind along the length of the tungsten not at 90 degrees. Start off with the current set to 1A per thou thickness or 40A per mm in the new money. You may need to set the helmet shade to 1 darker than you would for ARC or MIG as there's no fumes involved in TIG, I generally set mine to 11 for most steel work under 200A and 12 for ally.

Make sure you have a good earth, if not the HF starting current may try and find a ground through you and that really grabs your attention.

Good luck and post the results.

Depending on where you are in SA, if you want a couple of 1.6 tungstens until yours arrive I could drop some off to get you started. If you want to play with stainless I can give you some rods to play with as a full pack is quite expensive if you aren't going to do a lot of it.

[mac_man_luke]

thanks, i should have enough to play around with for now will see how i go.

Might take you up on the offer of the SS filler as i looked at some today and over $120 for a pack ouch!

[Michael G]

At the risk of way over simplifying, SS is a lot like normal steel as far as the pure welding part goes. The difficulty with SS is that it does not conduct heat that well and so will distort like crazy if you are not careful. Once you have the knack of welding steel neatly, doing the same thing in SS won't be all that big a change.
Al on the other hand...

Michael

[WelderMick]

I ended up with a Tokentools Metalmaster 256 during the cyber sale last week.
Really only needed the 215 but was out of stock.

Also picked up so far:
Cigweld prolite auto helmet - rated for 5amp tig, 4 sensors, 1/20,000 etc all for $130 which i thought was decent
E cylinder of Argon from power10gas
Tig gloves
2x 2.4mm Thoriated tungsten (couldn't wait for my online order )
10x 2.4 and 1.6mm 2% Lanthanated tungsten (online, taking its time to arrive)

Still need to get some filler rods - Seems BOC are the cheapest place i can find locally.

Nice work - you won't regret it. The 2.4mm tungstens are my go to size, hardly use anything else.
Look at Bobthewelder.com.au and see how his online prices are for filler rods, obviously depends on what you're welding, but but 2.4 and 3.2mm are good sizes for most average jobs.
Don't forget to do a write up on your helmet and welder once you've broken them in.
You will burn through that E cylinder pretty quick when practicing, but don't dismay, the second fill will go heaps slower.
Cheers
- Mick

[mac_man_luke]

Put a good few hours in tonight.

Started off pretty poorly, i was getting a lot of contamination. Lots of messing around with flow rates etc but didn't take me long to realise there was more of a problem but was about to give up for a break. I turned it off and shut off the gas and i noticed the pressure was dropping quite fast.
Out with the soapy water and leak checked all the connections. Found a sizeable leak between the regulator and flow meter. Much improved from that point.
Went and had tea, came back and the reg was still reading almost the same pressure (with cylinder turned off) so pretty much leak free now.

Took a few photos, ill go through them and post my progress shortly.

Lots of practice to go but I'm finally seeing something that looks like a weld.

Not wrong about the gas usage! reg is down from ~2000 to 1600 already!!

[mac_man_luke]

Also considering a new torch, included torch is quite bulky and the cable is really inflexible which is making torch positioning a little tricky to keep consistent.

[WelderMick]

Also considering a new torch, included torch is quite bulky and the cable is really inflexible which is making torch positioning a little tricky to keep consistent.

A heavy torch and bulky cable can be really hard on the wrist after a full day. Try wrapping the cable 1 turn around your forearm to take the weight of the cable. Also you can hold the torch neck like a pencil, which isn't particularly ergonomic in the long run, gives less flexibility and it gets hot too, but it gives you much more precise control for welds where you are in a good position.

[mac_man_luke]

thanks

I ended up having it over my shoulder and i did hold the torch by the neck about 50% of the time but it did get rather hot.

Cable is too stiff to wrap around my arm unfortunately, i reckon that would work well.

Torches like the CKs with flex lead look super nice and don't seem to be that dear around $150 delivered.

But then need to decided between 9 / 17 / 26, torch button or not etc haha.

Will persist with what i have for now but will get something better eventually…maybe a diy water cooler and torch.

[Gavin Newman]

Are you standing or sitting when welding? It makes it a lot easier if you can sit, at least while learning. You drape the excess hose over your lap then so you don't have a lot of weight hanging off your wrist.
The torch and hose on my EWM TIG is big and bulky as well as the torch has a couple of buttons for current control as well as operation but you do get used to it after a while.

[mac_man_luke]

Mostly sitting, was certainly easier.

[DocBug]

I did something a bit different with the heavy cable, tied a occy strap to my light chain and it holds up the cable so in effect I am just supporting the torch and about 1.5m of cable

Now days I use mostly a 9 or 17 torch, so it's not that bad.

Works well

[mac_man_luke]

Another few hours tonight, more progress.

Im going to forget yesterdays pics and just post todays - yesterdays were a bit messy and hard to tell what was what.

Playing with 3mm Aluminium plate for now as i have no clean steel and still waiting on my ER70 rods

Settings for todays run:
2.4 Thoriated tungsten (some won't agree with this, seems to be fine on my machine)
2.4 4043 filler rod
140-150amps with pedal, only close to max on initiation.
balance started at 30% and ended up at 40%
100hz Square wave
1 second pre-flow, 7 sec post.
7lpm argon (5lpm had obvious contamination, 7 was as high as i needed to go to stop seeing any noticeable difference)


Started off top left working across then down with some arc initiations, then some starts adding a bit of filler
and finally working right to left some beads. Few dips of the tungsten and getting used to the foot control.


Second piece i started off laying beads from top to bottom, each trying a few different things but all same setup.
Starting to get a bit more consistent. Certainly use less amps by the time you get to the last bead!


Then went over the second piece and filled in all the gaps then around the perimeter.

I think i have finally gotten most of my contamination issues sorted.
Got best results from new ally, cleaned with metho (didn't have any acetone), SS wire brushed (ally only) and then metho wipe again.
Still getting some slight graininess in some of the welds but pretty minor now.
Im still getting some discolouration of the tungsten, as per photo goes slightly blue on the tip straight after the first arc initiation -
does not appear to have any negative effects but I'm sure thats a form of contamination.






Overall feels like good progress and can't wait to try some steel

Nearly used up 2 tungstens from dipping etc but not doing it anywhere near as much as i was at the start
and normally when i do its the damn heavy torch getting snagged on something or pulling.
Got more comfortable with it but a super flex setup is very appealing.

Im also having an issue with tapering down the amps, around the 50-40amp mark the arc just goes nuts (same if i start at a low amperage)
Only on AC, DC runs fine down to minimum with a tiny stable arc.
With little experience it hard to know if its normal or if there is something wrong.
Looks a little similar to the arc strike problem Jody from WT&T had with his Everlast 256 which turned out to be HF point spacing was too wide.
Might send token an email and see what he thinks.

[Michael G]

The blue top on the electrode means that the tungsten is oxidising - try increasing your post weld gas flow time. The other thing pointed out to me when I started welding was the balance. Around an Al weld there should be a thin "frosted" profile. If it is wide then your balance can be adjusted for more welding less cleaning. On clean Al you should be able to go higher than 40%.
The arc will be unstable at low amps. You should be able to hear a difference when the amps are just right.

Michael

[mac_man_luke]

yea i think ill go back towards 30%, i was at 30% and couldn't always see the cleaning action frost but i think that was just technique and other issues.

Token machine is backwards to what some seem to reference is 30% is 30% cleaning and 70% electrode negative.

I will try upping the post flow, its generally stopped glowing by 3-4sec and figured 7 was enough but will try say 10 to see if it makes any difference.