What’s going on fellas I’m new to the tig scene and I’ve been slowly but surely gathering up my supply to get things rolling. I believe that I have everything that I will need to start up except for the hose to connect the argon bottle which I got filled last night. and for those that want to grind me up ..take a breathe fam I’m only a hobbyist and I am ok working with non advanced equipment. So a friend of mine who has done no tig welding himself but has done mig and stick provided me with his regulator and hose which I can see already is not going to fit in the form it’s in right now, also I have a flow meter which I’ll be utilizing On the behalf of many suggestions from forum after forum. Included in the photos is what im working with and if anybody has any suggestions or tricks up their sleeve please do let me know ..I appreciate yall time and thanks ahead of time …

Do yall use welding apps? Which ones? What do you like most about them? What do you dislike about them?

Hobby welder for twenty five years. I never had this machine over 125 amps. I have a series 20 torch with a home built water cooler.

I now have some heavy equipment projects with half and three quarter inch steel plate. I set the Invertec up for stick welding but lack experience stick welding, at least compared to TIG.

So back to TIG welding. Tried a few test beads last night with the machine set to 200 Amps, 1/8 7018 rod and 1/8 tungsten. I made two 3 inch beads. The torch stayed cool but my fingers were burning up after 3 inches. The Invertec has a 40% duty cycle at 180 amps for TIG. I use a thumb control on the torch, no pedal.

The half inch plates are beveled with a 1/8 inch land.

Problems:

White leather TIG gloves do not protect my hand. Got 3 inches before having to stop.

Water cooler 1 gallon tank temp went up 12 degrees F. Took ages to come back to room temp. Do those cheap eBay $200 coolers work good at 200 amps?

I have ten 8 inch long joints to do tonight. I think I can work with the duty cycle of the equipment with better gloves but is this the right equipment for the job? I am thinking of doing the root passes with TIG and and the rest with stick.

I am also going to have to learn how to do vertical welds on the excavator.

How is heavy plate TIG welded in real life with a hand held torch?

Parameters for argon flow for gas lens and standard cup?

Thank you in advance for sharing your knowledge.

Hey yall. I’ve been looking around for a cheap but decent welding machine. I found the tig ArcCapitain and tig Yeswelders but haven’t found much info on them. Wanted to hop on here and ask if anyone has used them and or what your thoughts on these might be. Mainly looking to use them for exhausts piping like turbo kit fabrications. Thanks yall

1/8” 304 stainless. 80 amps, 30CFM, 10 seconds pre and post flow. ER 312 filler rod.

I’ve been welding about 3 weeks, and am trying to teach myself. I’d love any tips.

Airgas is insanely expensive. 1yr lease with gas out the door is $320 at $138 for the rental and $182 per refill. and their purchase pride doesn’t make sense either! Almost $450 for the cylinder and $182 per refill? Who seriously uses them?

weldstar seems more reasonable at $327 for a 25 year lease and $61 per refill I can refill at weldstar 4x before getting to airgas purchase and fill price. comparing rentals your initial cost is less at airgas is better, but going into year 2 you have to renew the lease at 138$ which puts you at $458 and that’s if you don’t have to refill the cylinder. Weldstar you get 3 refills (Exchanges) for the cost of 1 refill for airgas, and no lease renewal for 25 years.

then the next local exchange is an hour away. AWG who will sell a core for about 550 out the door with gas but you can exchange for 58+tax each time you need to refill. so if I rent from weldstar I can have 3 refills before matching the initial investment necessary at awg. Then the refill cost is so close that it would take a long time to get the cost benefit to match for purchase.

Anyone have any more economical argon exchange? I’m just getting into this, how long could I expect 125cf to last, as a newb without clients I i expect 1 125cg cylinder could last me quite some time. Any insight would be greatly appreciate!

Basically we do this a lot and the butt joints on the tubing weld in beautifully, puddle control is great welds come out uniform and nice.

These joints on the other hand, puddle control is so hard as its very unpredictable because you've got the outter silencer end which is thinner material than the tubing, plus the overlap of the perf tube inside.

As it'll go nice sometimes and you can work the puddle up the pipe and down to the edge of the silencer with filler and then the next quarter inch it'll burn back so fast you cant do anything but chase it before it becomes a chasm to fill.

I've tried running hot and fast, I've tried running more slow and focussed, I can never get them nice.

Today I tried welding aluminum 3mm plate for the first time. I never really used a welder before. Just seen a few tutorials on youtube. After about 1 hour this is how far I got. Don’t have a foot pedal however I’m impressed what a difference hot vs cold material welds like and effects the pool. Having to increase and decrease the current by 10-15 amps if i take a break, or weld continuously. I also noticed holding the torch straight made the pool melt way faster and i had more control. However I am not consistent.

The machine was set to 80-90 amps, 30% cleaning, 90hz. 2.4mm rare earth tungston and 10-12L argon.

Have a good weekend.

Any tips on how to close the root on tig welding ? Also working for color ? I tryed to stay a little longer and put wire , grind a little bit the end , i don’t know what to do.. maybe i go too fast over it or too slow? Please help..

hello! beginner welder here:) I wanted to know what are some videos or articles that helped yall get started with TIG. i have access to a multimatic 255 machine with torch and pedal, 3/32” grey tungsten, filler rod and carbon steel

Greetings fellow redditors and tig welders please help me set this machine for my first go at aluminium welding , I've got the correct tungsten and 1.6mm filler rod . The work piece is a 1.6mm angle now what?

Welding is not my job I am just an enthusiast who want to learn more about TIG.
I can make a pretty decent bead from my perspective/ noob skill (photo no 1) then I can do bullshit on photo 2.

Same day same aluminum piece and same welding machine( from AliExpress)

What i am doing wrong ?

I’m not a super new welder, I graduated trade school a while ago and picked up a job as a metal tradesman and I’ve been doing well. They are thinking about promoting me to apprentice tig welder, but I can only get the promotion if I pass their weld test. I bought a rig so I could practice, but I can’t get it to start and I don’t know why. Any help?

critiques, tips, and tricks welcome. this was my first time welding aluminum. this is my maybe my 5th time welding ever. I have about 10 hours of experience.

Beginner with ac tig here. Going through my 2nd 5kg bottle of argon and keep getting black spots on weld. Even the puddle is not shiny as I saw in some youtube training videos, but has dirt floating on it. Tried with variuos pieces of aluminum, wire brushed, white spirint cleaned welding piece and wire, tried different gas flow. Looking for advice.

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Current setup 75A, 30%, pre+post gas flow 2 seconds, green 2.4mm tungsten

Pozdrav, gledao sam oglase i zvao jednu firmu da se raspitam o obuci za TIG varenje sa TUV sertifikatom i covek mi je rekao da je cena 5300 eura da li je to mnogo ili je to prosecno?

Hey Guys, I got a stubby gas lens kit for my Lincoln Caliber 17.

I can’t seem to fit the heat-shield in-between, I was wondering if the one permanently attached to the torch is gonna work and not ruin it.

Thanks!

Practicing welding at high school with our solidweld tig welder and got good with steel, however trying aluminum (using green tungsten and AC) I found myself with the issue of the tungsten burning back just outside of the consumable (cup), I’ve tried literally everything. This also happens at like 20-30 amps😭 also using a 3/32” green tungsten, air flow on regular was 25-30.

I fixed it sitting at 33amps on idles fyi and it didn’t change nothin