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TIG welding tips
Tips and help for tig welders - application tips for safe, successful tig welding
What
tips to experts offer for tig welding? Below are various tips for tig welding...
TIG welding process tips
Use a good process for thin metals. It takes a clean process to produce perfect tig welds. Always utilize Argon shielding for steel, stainless, and aluminum.
Electrodes & Amperage TIG welding Tips
One good tig welding tip: choose the right type and size of tungsten electrode for your amperage. If the diameter is too small, tungsten can cause the tip to ball up. The ball might drop into the weld pool and contaminate the weld. Too large a diameter of tungsten can result in a non directional arc.
Tig welding tips: Never grind both ends of the tungsten.
Another great tig welding tip is to use the right size of ceramic nozzle. Too small, and it'll cause turbulence that could contaminate your weld pool. Too large and you'll waste shielding gas.
Tig welding tips: Once the welding arc is initiated, raise the torch angle to nearly 90%. This prevents elongated weld pools and reduces any chance of the weld not breaking through the oxide layer on the surface of the aluminum. It also gives you maximum gas cover.
Another good tig welding tip is this: when you add filler wire to the tig welding pool, don't draw the wire tip outside the gas shield. This helps you avoid contaminants.
Power source tips for tig welding aluminum
When tig welding, use DC-Straight Polarity (DCEN) for steel and stainless steel. Use AC for aluminum. Always use a push technique with the TIG torch to achieve the best tig welding results. Match the tungsten electrode size with the collet size.
More specific metal tig welding tips
Tips: When tig welding aluminum, use a pure tungsten, AWS Class EWP (green identifying band). When tig welding steel and stainless steel use a 2% thoriated tungsten, AWS Class EWTH-2 (red identifying band). Prepare a pointed-end for DCEN welding.
TIG welding tips from Murex
Useful Tips for TIG Welding is a new four page guide from Murex Welding Products which provides a useful insight into successful and safe TIG welding. It discusses both AC and DC TIG welding practice and gives full details of all the machines available from the company.
TIG Tips stresses the importance of selecting the correct type and size of tungsten electrode and nozzles for AC applications.
It also discusses practical points such as the importance of torch angle. For DC applications, aspects such as tungsten preparation, selection of filler materials and electrical current settings are stressed. Copies of Useful Tips for TIG Welding are available free of charge by calling Murex Welding Products Publicity Department.
Free TIG welding tips Poster from Murex
All welding departments or workshops should have a copy of Murex Welding Products' guide to the TIG (Tungsten Inert Gas) welding process. This wall-chart provides practical information on this technology including details of the process, equipment selection and modes of TIG welding operation. Split into easy-to-read sections with applications of the process and a guide to working with TIG proving particularly useful. Murex is currently giving copies away free. Contact Murex for more information.
Tips for TIG welding 4130 thin-wall Steel Tubing
4130 thin-wall tubing is used for sport aircraft, racing cars, and other serious home TIG welding projects.
There is an age-old debate regarding which is better for welding 4130 -- gas or TIG. Many experts believe that TIG is superior to gas welding. Someone with years of experience can gas weld 4130 just fine, but if you want joints with the same high quality (and a smaller heat affected zone) with minimal practice, TIG is the choice.
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When TIG welding thin-wall 4130 tubing, no preheating is required, other than bringing it up to room temperature and ensuring that no obvious moisture is present on the tubing.
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Likewise, no "post heating" or normalization is required either, but a draft-free work area is important.
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Keep the tig weld bead as small as possible to minimize the heat-affected zone.
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The best welding rod to use is ER80S-D2, ER70S-2, -3, or -6, in that order. Copper coated rods, which prevents the rod from rusting, are also fine.
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Wipe the oils (used in manufacturing) off of the rods before you use them
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045" diameter rod is best for thin-wall, but it's rare
TIG welding tips: Stainless Steel
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Use aluminum foil to enclose the backside of stainless steel you intend to weld
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Argon is flowed into the resulting volume, eliminating the "brown sugar" chromium oxide that normally results on the unprotected backside.
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Use the correct wire type for the base metal being welded. Use stainless steel wires for stainless steel, aluminum wires for aluminum, and steel wires for steel.
TIG welding tips: Aluminum
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The metal most often associated with TIG welding is aluminum, especially with metals of a smaller thickness.
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Many other processes can join aluminum, but in the lighter gauges the most applicable process is TIG.
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Mechanically strong and visually appealing, TIG welding is the top method for professional racing teams and hobbyists
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Aluminum has some characteristics that you must consider if you want to weld with good results
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Pure aluminum has a melting point less than 1200º F and doesn't exhibit color changes before melting - it won't tell you when it's hot and on the verge of melting
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Oxide forms fast on aluminum's surface, and has a melting point almost three times as high, over 3200º. Aluminum boils at a lower temperature than this oxide melts
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The oxide is heavier than aluminum and, when melted, tends to sink into the molten aluminum.
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Remove as much oxide as possible before welding.
Come back regularly for more tig welding tips.
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