When things go wrong when TIG welding, its not a
hundred things you are doing wrong. Its usually only 2 or 3 things.
Sometimes changing only 1 thing can make all the difference. But if you
don't have any idea where to look, you will just keep on screwing up.
They say the definition of insanity is doing the same damn thing over
and over and expecting different results. Another way of putting it is:
"if you always do what you always done, you will always get what you always got!".
I
have trained quite a few welders, I have noticed that the ones that
learn the best and quickest are the ones that think about what they are
doing. Instead of getting pissed off and slinging their welding helmet
across the shop, they look at their weld and ask themselves what they
did wrong. They think. They make some changes. They ask for help.
The 3 things I see TIG welding Noobs doing wrong more often than anything else are:
- Too long an arc.
- Too much torch angle
- Not shielding the hot tip of the wire
Lets break it down a little more. too long an arc
will not pinpoint the heat. The longer the arc, the more TIG welding
becomes like gas welding. Gas welding went out with high button shoes,
TIG welding is better.(If you keep a close enough arc) . If the tip of
your rod is balling up and blobbing into the puddle instead of feeding
nicely into the weld puddle, you arc might be too long.
Too
much torch angle will also cause you rod to ball up and blob into the
puddle. Most of the time if this is happening, you have too much arc
length AND too much torch angle. You might need to position what you
are welding or your body so that you can lessen the torch angle and
still be able to see the tip of the tungsten electrode. You need to see
it. (How you gonna keep a tight arc length if you cant see the tip of
the electrode?)
Not shielding the hot tip of the
wire will make you cuss! It will squish all the fun out of TIG welding.
TIG welding is fun because it is clean and when things go right, the
puddle flows like honey. Take that away and the fun goes with it.
When
you take the hot end of the rod out of the argon shielding, it oxidizes
and puts corn flakes into the weld puddle. Sometimes a bigger cup will
help.
The main thing to remember when you are trying
to learn how to TIG weld is to think about what you are doing and don't
just keep doing the same thing wrong over and over again.
Good luck with your TIG welding.