Beginning of my TIG experience, tips?

[Fastest1]

Today I had a friend ask me to make a mount for a basketball goal to be mounted on the soffit and eave of his house. He wanted it made from 4 x 4 x .125 square tubing. I told him if he cut it the way he wanted it, I would weld it up. Instead of really close scrutiny, I let him cut a 45 on both pieces with my grinder. Straight was not in the cards and wanting to weld more than grind. Like an idiot I went ahead and tacked it together knowing the joint sucked. The first side as you will see was alright however when I flipped the part over the reveal of the large gap (maybe up to 3/4" in 1 place, kind of a bowed gap) was discouraging to say the least. My fault. I tried to run a bead across the gap to no real luck. My friend who was a welder years ago was there (he has no TIG experience) and he ended up doing better than I but not by much. Preparation here like anywhere else is imperative to a good result. I am sure there are welders who can bridge that gap in no time. My opinion is if proper prep would have been done the results would be admirable. Unfortunately I know the truth and a lesson was learned, I took a shortcut and the results show it. I was able to clean it up and with a little filler and paint it will look beautiful and it will be structurally sound for a basketball goal but I know it sucks underneath the paint. Anyway this is a link to the first sides weld and then a link to the bracket after grinding.


Btw on the 1st tack, I had inadvertently changed the ground cable to the - of the machine on DC. This doesnt seem to be a good thng to do as the tungsten was consumed pretty rapidly though the tack was OK. I need to print the set up page and place it on the welder cabinet. This was filmed with an Iphone. I will work on some better quality photography as the arc does wash out the cool stuff in the weld but also we only had 1 hood. Mild criticism would be great.

[tigqk]

Don't bother to weld it if it isn't right, tig would not be the first thing to learn on if it was me, as their is to much for the beginner, but at least it is not aluminum your learning on.You said someone finished the weld for you, are they marginally better?Or a night school welding program available.Is their anyone that can watch and advise?I never watched the vid as I am on dialup.
That being said start off with mild steel running beads, 3/32 tungsten on at least 1/16th mild steel, your penetration should be visible on the bottom of the plate as scale.Make some chits 6 inches long and learn to run bead without breaking through the metal, sparks fly off when your at the right temp.Drop by a local trade school and get some tig welding books or google for pdf's in learning to weld.You have to know what the controls on your welder do for you.EN/EP controls, frequency and leave pulse alone for now.I would not use the pedal I would set the heat with the machine and put the pedal away at first.After you master running a bead without filler then start adding filler.You may be better off learning stick first. Watch some vid and copy the repetition.Maintain good housekeeping,your arc will wander if you don't.
Good Luck

[Fastest1]

tigqk, Regarding "if it isnt right dont do it" is great advice. Unfortunately I knew the correct procedure and chose to ignore it. I could have used the stick weld option and considered it. Another person in the garage at the time of the welding kept wanting me to use the stick like it had some magical ability. He kept saying that "he had seen many guys on the rigs weld gaps that large with a stick". I dont doubt that he was right about being able to fill the gap with stick. I do doubt that stick is any better or more capable of filling the gap. I think they are just different techniques. From everything I read it seems like stick is better for dirtier metals and or outdoor situations where a gas shield might be harder to maintain otherwise the results are the same. Am I wrong on this? The only real difference I see is that the shield is coming from a gas bottle in one technique and some burning powder built into the rod on the stick technique. My friend the ex ironworker (not who the project was for) would have been very comfortable in that mode but I wanted to tig. I think just because he is more aware of and knowledgable in puddle control techniques he was able to save the wide gap, but it was foolish to not fix it first. I was having great luck running beads on plate (flat only) and even in aluminum it was coming along. Though aluminum is interesting in the way it dissipates so much heat so quickly. I have not been using the foot pedal at all after my first experiences with it and its settings. I see it (the pedal) as being beneficial for aluminum whereas on steel I seem to have more time. On the video (which isnt worth your time if your on dial up) the first short weld after the tacking was very satisfying, not the best I had ever seen but it had very good penetration, even in width and height and the stacks looked equally spaced overall. I would have trusted it in any situation my welds would be in. It went downhill from there as I tried an uphill weld and then when the part was flipped the wide gap was revealed. I do have another friend who is great with stick and mig who is willing to coach. I will definitely take him up on those techniques when the time and projects arise. I have thought about asking a welding shop if i could pay to sit in on a few sessions of their work. With 3 kids under 11 and their sports, classes and hobbies schedules are hard to adjust for classes but an hour or 2 here or there is alright. Fortunately my abilities with a grinder are pretty good and steel is shapeable Thanks for tips and as I do more I will post pictures too not just videos. I will say I wont be trying to cut any corners in the prep.

[Gadget]

Fastest1, You can embed the videos by clicking on the film strip icon in the toolbar of the post window and pasting the link in there. Just an FYI.
Dan

[Fastest1]

Gadget thanks. I have had those same results before on other forums but I didint know how it happened! LOL. Isnt there a way of doing that directly with the YouTube information? Much easier for the reader.

[Gadget]

Click the youtube share button and copy that information. Then click on the film strip in the post tools and paste that info into the popup window.

[Fastest1]

OK something weird happened here. Gadget, I had edited that post and embedded the video just as you stated. I then saved and closed it. I then reopened the page and commented how I had done that before correctly but didnt know how I did it. Then I watched the video from the screen right on the page. Then I went to lunch, came back and checked the site and the thread is like it was. I swear I watched it on a refreshed screen after saving it?

---------- Post added at 05:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:47 PM ----------

I am not sure why but apparently it wont let me save it embedded now? I can preview it fine but as soon as I hit save, it now has a blank space where the video links and or attempted embeds were. Maybe because it was after others had posted?

---------- Post added at 05:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:02 PM ----------

It didnt work when I used the embedded info they want you to copy, how about with the share info?[video=youtube;DTXnzpfdj4c]

[Gadget]

You have to click on the share button and copy that code.

[Fastest1]

That is what I did on this last post. Before I was using the embed feature of youtube, Same process, hit embed, copy address in dialog box and paste it in the dialog box here under the film roll in the toolbar. Works great until I hit save. Then all disappears?

---------- Post added at 09:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:30 PM ----------

Btw has the site been down today at all? I have a laptop that has issues opening this site pretty regularly, a Sony Vaio running Win 7.

[Gadget]

The site has been down at least twice for brief periods today. The server had to be rebooted this morning, I don't know what was done this afternoon to resolve the issue or what the issue was.