bullfrogg0

After realizing I have the equipment to TIG weld aluminum I figured it was time to learn how to do it. Since I'm a welding inspector I know what the characteristics of a good weld are I had a good place to start. Not to mention I've spent many hours watching welder position and technique. I also have a decent knowledge of machine settings. Anyways, I only worked for about 2.5 hrs at it on Saturday and another 2 hrs or so on Sunday. Saturday was just practice on a piece of plate and random thin wall exhaust pipe. I have pics from Saturday but not from Sunday yet as I'm not done with the fmic pipe I welded on.












Here's my cold pipe fabbed up just not welded up yet

future

I'm not a pro or anything, but the welds look like shit

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bullfrogg0

Welds pictured arent aluminum. No filler metal for practicing aluminum yet

blockedwizard

Tig welding is always fun for me, love the challenge of learning to lay down nice beads, the welding class i took was prob one of the best classes i've taking in any form of school i've been to.

The most important thing i find is the speed at which ur moving and which u add the filler rod. Once u get the puddle going when u get a nice comfortable speed you'll start laying down some nice welds.

Aluminum t-welds always was tricky for me though. The right angle and length of the tig rod is important, butt wleds/lap welds are easy, but those damn t-welds took me a while.

Practice is the best thing, the more time spent welding the better youll get, cant wait to get a nice miller tig machine.

bullfrogg0

These were done using a Lincoln Ranger 10,000 plus.

I know I need practice, I was just impressed by myself when I was able to make welds with good fusion/penetration after only 2.5 hrs

blockedwizard

Nice i use a lincoln mig welder at my job, i've always been a sucker for miller though lol.

Ya its definitely fun to see you get better with every bead you lay down!

Hellother

Hence the title learns...

On another note, hats off to you sir TIG'ing is not easy to just pick up and start cranking out production quality work. Keep dabbling and be hypercritical of your own work you'll clean the appearance up in time.

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DanDriftS13

Exactly, plus unless you can show proof that you could do better welds after 2.5 hours pro or not you shouldn't have even said anything imho...

To OP good job on your welds they are pretty good for the little amount of time you practiced.

bullfrogg0

Thanks man. I've got some more practice in and will be posting pics either today or tomorrow

bullfrogg0

Cold pipe welded up today






Down pipe welded up

pearl-s14

Getting closer.

Keep practicing, and get your welds like these....


Then you wont have to grind them down. Just leave them for everyone to see.

Not my welds btw

These are.

Wire feed / not mig

bullfrogg0

So far I've got about 8 hrs spread across 3 non consecutive days

ch1873857

it should be a long time before you do aluminum.. you are burning the shit out of those welds to the point it looks like mig welding.. baby steps. baby steps. stainless, mild, aluminum.

it was months before i picked up a torch. forced to weld oxy-ace torch, stick, mig, then tig.

good luck. impressed that you had the balls to put up those pictures. its good to be proud of yourself but your not in the clear yet. you need A LOT of practice..

pearl.... that pic is blurry as shit. you may as well just grinded them down..

bullfrogg0

They're not burnt, that's the galvanize coating thats black on top of the weld that I haven't brushed off yet.

bullfrogg0

Oh, some of the welds that look like there's soot on the base metal like mig is where it was tacked with a mig machine with flux cored wire

ch1873857

and your a welding inspector. jesus fuck..

bullfrogg0

Yep. I'm not trying to make xray quality welds, I'm not trying to weld for a living. I'm just playing around. The whole purpose of this thread was to share my amazement that I was able to get as good of welds as I have after such short amount of time.

bullfrogg0

Besides, there's no code against ugly. Believe it or not you can have a nice pretty weld bust xray and an ugly one pass. Seen it happen many times

bullfrogg0

Also, since everybody has been so hard on the appearance no one has noticed there's really not that much excessive reinforcement and each one has good fusion with NO undercut what so ever. Also, most of these were done with NO gap and they all have good penetration.

So ya, they're good welds for the most part, just not pretty

ch1873857

agreed. but you have to realise. you come in here saying your a welding inspector but NO idea how to weld.. it raises flags and is basis for major criticism.. this should have been in the fabrication thread anyway!! waste....

bullfrogg0

I have quite the bit of know-how to weld, just not the skill yet to make a decent appearing one. Oh and if you go thru the acceptance criteria that the AWS has, it says nowhere that being able to weld is a requirement of a weld inspector

ch1873857

understand that... buuuuuut your burnt to fuck welds on your down pipe are not because of soot.

you did shit for weld prep, yes.. but if you look at your downpipe. you can see the crystalisation of the weld. its burnt its burnt its burnt..

i mean what did you expect?! oh good job!! your a fast learner! WOO HOO

bullfrogg0

The crystallization you see might be one of the places where I ran out of argon and struck an arc and started burning up the tungsten. Yes, that happened quite a bit cuz I was trying to get all the argon I could out of the bottles I had before moving on to the full bottle

ch1873857

THIS THIS THIS . is how i know your an idiot.

when you run out of argon you get Porosity because theres nothing to sheild the weld.

too much heat looks like THIS

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which looks like THIS



h

bullfrogg0

It's not the fact u don't have any gas shielding the weld that causes porosity. It's the fact that you bring the weld to a liquid state and it reacts with the oxygen in the air as well as it allows the hydrogen in the air to get stuck in the weld causing porosity.

I sir am far from an idiot and would appreciate it if you would stop addressing me as one

ch1873857

wtf you just defined porosity.. which is exactly what happens withOUT sheilding gas that DISPLACES OXYGEN. nothing you said made any sense. you completely negated yourself. tried to sound smart. ooh. done arguing. im going to let you continue to be an idiot.