Welding Straight Is Hard To Do

hey what's up it's a beautiful Sunday here have been doing some spring cleaning I guess out here in the garage my beautiful wife's been kind enough to help me out I'm doing most of the thinking and the staring trying to figure out what stays and what goes she's hauling the heavy trash cans we were just having some lunch one she looked at me and said you know this old husband there just aren't enough getting started in TIG welding videos so I figured I'd volunteer my two cents now don't hang up the phone just yet or get too excited this won't be your classic step-by-step how-to at least I don't expect it to be anyway there's already a lot of great content out there on the subject from people frankly more qualified than I am what I'd like to do is perhaps give you a slightly different take on the matter my take share are some insights I think I've picked up over the years that hopefully shed some more light more different or light I'm not going to get into settings machine adjustments tungsten types shapes or flavors I'm not going to talk about torches or regulators this is sort of one step before all of that and really I suppose just about the big picture just about melting stuff [Music] now before we get into this allow me just two quick thoughts here first I'm not a welder so there's that I've been doing this a long time but I only play one here on YouTube although I do think you can teach yourself how to get metal to stick that won't make you a welder like you won't get that job welding pipe on an offshore oil rig by showing them a resume full of videos you've watched at least I hope you wouldn't anyway not that I'm not rooting for you second let's have a little heart-to-heart as we all know with great power comes great responsibility once you think you've taught yourself how to weld promise me that I won't be on the highway driving my family out to the lake and you pull in front of me towing for tons of cinder blocks and your buddy's bedroom set with a bumper sticker that reads taught taught me how to weld this trailer making a bench some planter stands maybe you're fixing a hole in your lawn mower deck that's one thing but if you want to build a mile-high catwalk for your local mall weld broken elevator cables or your neighbor's iron lung just do me a solid and think long and hard about it all right I'm not saying that you can anyone hear me say that you can't I'm not saying that you can once word gets out that you weld no one's gonna know better than you if you're actually up for it and getting it over your head is easier than you might think this knot nose kid with a loud stereo from down the street shows up with a cracked rim asking you to weld it come on man it's just a tiny crack losing a little bit of air and these things cost me a year's allowance or you're one neighbor who seems like a sweetheart but never makes eye contact and gives you that nagging feeling they keep the childhood pets in their freezer they show up with a mower blade broken into can you please help me out on this close to finishing then I'll buy a new one I swear well my suggestion is to just walk away that ten bucks are hard to resist offer to cryogenically store your cat just isn't worth it and I know I know cryogenic storage ain't cheap you don't have to tell me but resist the urge you'll sleep better at night and no one will die at least not because of you anyway let's get started this this is the business end and in addition to a TIG torch you'll also need a welder learning to TIG weld gets a heck of a lot easier if you actually have one now as you may know I'm using an HTP 221 this is a relatively new addition I don't have a ton of hours on it but so far I'm over the but if you're just getting into this just getting into TIG and you just kind of want to try it out have some fun on the weekend the 221 is likely a bigger hammer than you need again those sort of recommendations are hard to make I don't know what you plan to do what your budget is but if you just want to learn a basic machine can be had for almost any price really now we'll only be talking DC welding here on steel probably at average amperages not too low not too high and in that range especially in DC and just to feel the process out really any TIG welder will do heck if you already have a DC stick welder you can get a TIG conversion kit like with a torch or regulator or a power lug that kind of stuff and be up and running for I don't really know but probably under a couple hundred bucks now that would just be scratch start not the most convenient way weld but it does work people have been take welding that way since the Middle Ages now the sensible recommendation I feel to make is to buy something of quality you know a name-brand that won't cause you a lot of headaches me personally I snuck up on TIG over the years started with a DC conversion kit then a DC only machine then an AC DC machine the more I was welding TIG the more I liked it the more I wanted to explore other features and functionality or found the problems with the equipment I had so it seemed like I started cheap but really I just kind of upgraded slowly over the years and probably spent 10 times more than I would have if I would have just bought the Machine I wanted outright and although I think that's reasonable like a reasonable recommendation I know it's not always easy to justify but maybe you got a friend with a TIG welder a makerspace you could try paying your local welder for some one-on-one time get some hours on a machine see what you think about it and then make a decision but you do you just remember any TIG welder is better than no TIG welder if you want a TIG weld that is anyway none of that's really relevant to what we're talking about here I just want to show you what I'm using let's get down to business I'm gonna go through my hit-list in no particular order cuz I'm too lazy to think this video through ahead of time if I jump around a bit bear with me I'd like to start this off with the torch pointing straight down perpendicular at the work no magic angles for now and it'll be facing off with a very brave piece of mild steel now the Steel's been cleaned with an angle grinder and wipes down you here about having to clean your material for TIG welding and there's a very good reason for that reason is your materials got to be clean you can't get away with TIG what you might be able to with a stick welder and say some 6013 but don't take my word for it try and experiment yourself try take welding on some really dirty rusty metal see what your weld looks like though be honest with me you've already tried that experiment Avenue this material is grounded of course with the TIG welders ground clamp make sure your clamp is clean okay clean ish and in relatively good condition like frayed broken cable connections or just two wire strands holding on for dear life dirty pitted clamp faces just won't make for a good time probably not safe either now unfortunately this view is a lot closer than you'll likely be seeing in real life you'll have to be very attentive so get some cheaters in your helmet if you need them wear reading glasses or get a helmet like mine with a ten times digital zoom function I mean you can't weld what you can't see right here everything is already set up you can find all this other information out there already but I have the right tungsten in there sharpened to a point my argon is set to the right flow rate I've got the right cup size on for the weld I'm about to do I'm also holding a gap of about an eighth of an inch about three millimeters and I've got my helmet on and wearing proper clothing FYI TIG puts out a lot of UV don't weld in short sleeves a tank top your sexy short shorts lest you know the cancer at this point we're golden everything set up we're comfortable ready to push the button or stomp on the pedal if you're new to this this is where everything starts to go downhill so what are we looking at well the welder is pumping current through our electrode and the electricity is jumping that eighth inch gap to do that it's ionized the argon gas and created a plasma the arc you're looking at is plasma and plasma fun fact is pretty toasty it's hot enough to melt steel and in fact all that heat has quickly created a molten weld puddle when you're looking at a tag arc or any welding arc when you're staring at it on the edge of hyperventilating trying to figure out what to do next ignore the bright arc ignore the sparks and the sound of screaming children in the background what you want to do is keep a Hawkeye on that weld puddle is it big is it small did it take too long to form the only thing of any importance is that puddle under your hood you should make it the center of your universe when all is said and done that puddle is what will solidify into the weld bead you really want to put on Instagram if it doesn't look right now while it's molten it's really not gonna look any better once it's firmed up now in this shot that weld puddle looks like it's moving around a heck of a lot and keep in mind this is like 10 times magnification easy I mean maybe I've got my flow rate up a little too high but looking at it first-person it looks just like a regular old TIG puddle from here but we'll get back to this in a second for now notice my torch again is perpendicular to the work I'm pointing it straight down let's see what it looks like if we put the torch say at a 45-degree angle well how about that looks pretty much the same doesn't it it's roundish it's liquid huddled up just as fast so why all the hubbub about keeping the proper torch angle in welding the heat goes where you point the torch and of course with any electric welding I guess the current will jump the gap so even if you had your torch laying on its side given enough amps your base metal will melt but you're losing most of that heat puddle is likely much bigger than it needs to be you're barbecuing the part you want to weld and likely not getting the penetration you think bottom line point your electrode where you want your heat so ideally for a flat weld that'd be perpendicular I know I know don't jump out of your chair just yet vertical or overhead it's still the same principle but in a case like this you'll have gravity to deal with a flat weld the gravity is in your favor vertical or overhead you've got gravity fighting against you so the torque angle changes a bit but let's not go there just yet you've got a flat weld the torch would want to be vertical if it's say a last point it's still flat but vertical is gonna be a little awkward for you you want the heat in that joint so you're perpendicular sort of at that 45 degree line with the torch you want to get that weld bead in the lap joint but say you're trying to weld a thinner piece on this now you've got two thicknesses to deal with the geometry is still the same as that last one but if you keep your torch in this case of 45 you'll likely melt back the thin material long before you start to puddle the base metal so here you might be a maybe a little bit more vertical in this case the difference is so dramatic you may even be near vertical but you'll see all of that quickly in the puddle watch the puddle you see it start racing up to one part just adjust your torch angle let's go back to our flat felt if you try to weld this with the torch pointing straight down into the weld area you'll run into a couple of problems first it's hard to see what you're doing the cup here is blocking my view so naturally what you do is just kind of peek under there tip the torch back a little bit I think the official number is I don't know 15 20 degrees something like that but it's really just so you can see what you're doing perpendicular drives the heat right down into the weld joint but that's not much help if you can't see where you're welding the other problem of course is that sooner or later you're gonna want to get some filler material in there it's already crowded enough as it is if you hadn't have leaned your torch back a little bit you really wouldn't be able to see what's going on I don't know yet if I'm gonna get into adding filler material in this video maybe if this is well received we'll do a part two I'd kind of like to go through some exercises to just help develop a feel for assertive the rudimentary torch motion before you start adding complications like filler water but maybe so starting off is usually not that bad pumped primed and ready to go you're in your kung-fu stance with your 15 degrees and maybe your filler rod and you're sitting comfortable what I found is the problems usually start to creep in as you progress along your weld you start off great but it just starts to fall apart as you move three four or five six inches away from where you started so as simple as it sounds moving the torch is what I'd like to get into next [Music] instead of trying to explain how to move the torch let me see if I can tell astray to not to move the torch I think that way once you know what to avoid then you can do whatever else you'd like however you want to do it but then don't come crying to me if it does so if you're built anything like me your arms will be attached to your body at your shoulders so if you plant your keister in a chair and move only your arm your torch hand will want to move in a circle or like an arc more or less you ever try writing a letter on typing paper there are no lines to follow and your sentences might start to droop down the page or the farther they get away from you the farther you reach your arm and the same thing goes for your hand if you plant the heel of your hand keep a death grip on that torch and try to TIG weld with just the range of motion like your wrists hand and fingers might provide gonna have trouble welding straight lines it might work fine for short welds 2-3 inches maybe depending how big your hands are but after that your welds will either go off the rails or you'll have to suddenly reposition to catch up suddenly and TIG welding don't go well together what you should aim for is keeping a light but steady hand not planting all your weight in one spot now granted that's easier said than done but to prep for it warm-up your muscle memory it's good to take a few dry runs move through the length of the weld you plan to do without lighting the torch make sure you have the range of motion you think you have if you're dry run starts out well but you end up twisting yourself into a pretzel move yourself around a bit or reposition the work if you can often you'll see people welding towards themselves at a bit of an angle maybe it's exactly what I did here simply because that puts the work in your natural range of motion now if I were to light up here 16 20 inches away from my eyes I'm not gonna really be able to see what's going on so I'd be in here pretty close with my helmet in this case watching the line or trying to keep a consistent gap from the edge maybe it's inside of a Filat and you know I don't want to clip one of the two edges so since I'm in so close then it's my whole torso sort of translating across the weld and my weight will shift you know the longer the weld beat is again you don't need too tight of a grip on the torch you don't want to cut off the argon flow if you hold it as tight as you'd hold a pen or a big marker a little bit more because it's a little heavier enough so you can steer the arc where you need it without fatiguing yourself or compromising sort of that fluid motion through the whole weld bead now if you want you can just simply levitate your entire body and then slowly drift in the direction of your weld if you have trouble doing that take advantage of some nearby edge or set up something to rest your hand against that provides a guide and a reference for you in this case I could use say the edge of my bench if I set the weld joint parallel to that I can use the edge as sort of a track and right against it to see that weld through now of course you may not always be able to do that you might not be able to move your work or it might be at some strange angle in that case you could set up I don't know build up something else some other support structure you know clamp some tubing somewhere up at angles or different heights whatever makes you most comfortable and use that the same way you know again sort of just lean on it and it will guide your weld and when you just start now with TIG welding you'll want to be conscious so just how much weight you're keeping on your torch arm your torch hand even using a guide you don't want to get into the situation where you run out of space run out of range of motion and then have to sort of reorient yourself and pick up again once you're set up do a dry run just avoid any jerky moves in your weld you bet your bottom dollar you'll see where that happened when your weld is finished might not always matter depends what you're doing but if you're going for a decent looking weld just try to keep it nice smooth and continuous not long ago I picked up two sizes of these TIG fingers from Jody over at weld monger I haven't done a lot of work with them yet but you know what I like maybe even more than the heat protection it's just the fact that they provide a smooth sliding surface to ride on like that motion is silky smooth in fact it even lets me put a little bit more weight on say the guide or whatever I'm propping up on without adding any resistance to moving the torch and helping me keep my travel speed a lot more consistent now before these I used to use an old leather glove but inevitably it would snag on something and I'd lose it half way through my weld again I don't do too much these days that get so hot and so uncomfortable that I really need these but for consistent torch motion again they're really slick okay so let's bring those two things together on the one hand we want to keep a consistent torch angle with respect to the work so our heat is going where we wanted on the other hand we'd like to be set up so he get as consistent emotion as possible for the length of the weld we're trying to do now probably doesn't take much brain power to see how those two sort of compound each other it's really not that hard to lose sight of where your torch is pointing once you've made your way eight or ten inches across a weld joint especially when you're dealing with the additional panic of getting filler rod and they're fast enough I mean sometimes my torch ends up completely upside down by the time I get to the other end so here's what I propose do some welding without any filler whatsoever just use the torch to run some beads concentrate on maintaining a consistent torch angle and doing nice straight runs try to keep your weld puddle as consistent and width as possible so there were thrown in a little bit of heat control if your weld bead gets too thin it means you're either too cold or moving too fast if it gets too wide it means you've slowed down or are welding hotter if you have a foot controller that'll come in handy as your part starts to warm up it'll take less amps to do what you're trying to do again to compensate you'll need to speed up pick up your travel speed or again if you have an amp controller lighten up on the current oh and by the way here's what the difference is between clean material and well it's not really dirty but the mill scale was still on there you can see the mill scale sort of bubbles up and gets trapped in the weld bead in here the beads are not super shiny but very clean on this end it's very bubbly my heat was too low the amperage setting on the machine was too low so I had to go really slow and it really cooked that mill scale this is and it's more than 1/8 but less than 1/4 3/16 I guess 4 or 5 millimeters this was at 80 amps and this is a hundred and twenty I think ok well I think that's all I've got that was sure long-winded for all of two things I thought I wanted to share maybe that was pointless perhaps I'm projecting my own insecurities but I don't think I've seen these particular details get as much love as I think they deserve so you won't get any better at welding by watching videos especially not mine fire up your rig and practice practice practice learning to weld on your own is certainly possible you're at a bit of a disadvantage not having someone over your shoulder telling you how much of an idiot you are like my welding instructor did for me before you start worrying about dialing in settings or electrodes and cups flow rate try putting more thought into your form all this other stuff is certainly important but take it from my first-hand experience if you don't develop good habits early on they'll be harder to shake later and if you're gonna have much luck try stepping out of yourself maybe even recording yourself welding see that way you notice something different between what you're doing and what you see online you know like when you're at the dinner table and everyone's telling you about their day and your autoimmune system kicks in and self-defense and you actually protect yourself outside your own skin watching everyone talking in slow motion from above will do just that only with your welding and don't fret keep at it sooner than later you'll be welding circles around your friends in an airtight cage even Houdini cook thanks for watching

Channel: This Old Tony

Views: 577,893

Rating: 4.9585795 out of 5

Keywords: tig welding, torch angle, long tig welds

Id: svHI9nmV5nw

Length: 20min 22sec (1222 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 10 2018