Ok Tig welders...

Who's got some TIG tips? Ive been practicing with our's and it' going great! Soooo much more control then with the mig, and a LOT nicer. Unfortunently I still dont trust my own welds, haha.

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Welcome to the cult of JVL drink the koolaid or be banned.

Clean, clean, clean. Especially if your welding aluminum. Closer fit the better too. Oh, and start going to yoga, especially if you ever envision trying to weld a jungle gym in 26 cubic feet, aka roll cages. Oh, and make sure you can get out once you've welded the next bar in. I've done that once, and thought I was going to have to dislocate something to get out.

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Grant Hughes

What Grant said, especially the clean part. Aluminum can never be clean enough. And take your time, pretty welds don't happen if you are rushing things. Practice, practice, practice.

You've got it backwards - so long as you saw a puddle and got some filler in it, you've probably got a reasonable weld. I'd walk on a ladder TIG-ed by a beginner but probably not one MIG-ed by an intermediate.

Ron Covell has a neat video on tig which covers a lot of the basics, but it sounds like you're beyond that now. Nothing but mindless repetition will help you improve now!

If you have a pulser on yours, its handy to help you get some rhythym going, set somewhere around 1pps. I also like turning up the stereo for a beat to dip to.

Yeah, the dynasty DX does have pulse mode. It was pretty crazy thinking about using a hand control, but having used it, its a lot easier then I remeber the foot control being!

Here's my latest weld. Its just some left over 1.5 x.095 roll cage tubing notched and welded.

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Welcome to the cult of JVL drink the koolaid or be banned.

Yeah, the dynasty DX has pulse control. We got a CK torch with a 360 degree swivel head and a hand control. It was pretty crazy thinking about having to use the hand control, but its not bad at all!

Here's my latest weld

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Welcome to the cult of JVL drink the koolaid or be banned.

Um, focus the camera please...

Wow, didnt know I double posted. And sorry about the pic quality. Thats my cellphone, im trying to find the manual for my Digital so I can make it Un-suck more. The flash is too light and reflects too much, and with out it its to dark and out of focus...

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Welcome to the cult of JVL drink the koolaid or be banned.

Ok, better pics, haha.

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Welcome to the cult of JVL drink the koolaid or be banned.

A bit more filler rod and you've got it. I wish all the welds I inspected looked this good...! I've found the pulse mode essential for thin stuff, like sheet metal.

Have yet to graduate to AL.

Regards,
Mark B.

Ok, I played around with pulse today. I really dont understand it. I tried it with high freq pulseing, and low. I did leave the fluctuation on 50% but i varied the high amps and the low amps.

Anyone help clue me in to this feature? All i did was get VERY annoyed at the buzzing noise.

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Welcome to the cult of JVL drink the koolaid or be banned.

You can probably get by without pulsing while you learn the basics, as it may get in the way of learning some fundamentals.

That being said, pulsing lets you vary the current between two set points (peak/background) at a given frequency, and the time spent at each point need not be balanced. This can be used to minimize the overall heat input to avoid blowing through thin material, by spending less time at the peak current, and also for controlling bead size - since the puddle can cool and contract at the background current (if set low enough), you can prevent the bead from widening out without having to manually adjust your current with the amptrol. This is very nice for welding in a fixture or out of position. Pulsing will also make the puddle more fluid in DC I've found, ie. you can push the puddle a lot more at 75pps than at 5.

The only reason I mentioned it is that it can be handy for getting your rhythym down in terms of when to move and add filler to produce the 'classic tig' bead appearance. Try something like:

Background: 50% of peak current for your material
Width/Balance: 60% peak
Frequency: 0.8-1.0pps

Add filler when the peak current is up, translate when you're in background. The real fun begins when you're in AC and want to start fiddling with the frequency...

The pulsing is not as useful for thicker steel materials like the tubing you're practicing on. Get some bits of thin sheet metal and try a simple butt weld of 2 pieces; without pulse, it's a struggle maintain a decent puddle without it falling through. The lower level pulse current allows the area areound the puddle to stay cool enough to not blow through, while keeping enough heat in the puddle.

That being said; I'm still a Tig student....Took a while to learn to work with a smaller puddle than with oxy-acetylene.

Regards,
Mark B.

That must be one of them there dials I've never fiddled with...

I've been TIGing on and off for close to 30 years and never even tried pulse!
I'm sure my old machine doesn't have it, but next time I'm on a fancy new machine I'll give it a whirl!

-Martin.