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I TIGged today! (OT for s.e.d, but you guys know I'm an idiot)

OK, cards on the table time. I got fired just a few days before last Xmas, and have been scraping by on charity and a little help from my friends. Well, it seems that the outfit that fired me needed me to do a little couple of things, long story short, I'm back, working for free, sort of indentured, until I repay in sweat what I cost him for my fuckup that got me fired.

Well, historically, I've been a computer geek, but there hasn't been much computer work; but he's in the middle of making a huge weldment, about the size of a cement mixer, TIGging together 2.5" slabs of aluminum. At 300 amps AC. Today, the office manager was at his welding area, and he was trying to show her how to weld stubs of filler wire together so they didn't have to throw away pounds of aluminum filler wire; stick it together and use it like new filler. Duh.

She wasn't able to get a good bond, and gave up in frustration, and when I looked at the boss wistfully,he let me try.

I did it!

The task was to lay two 8" to 10" stubs of filler wire end-to-end, and just fuse them. Lying on a steel table. Well, I wasn't lying on the table, the pieces of filler wire... Well, anyway, I was a real featherfoot on the pedal, and found that there's no (or imperceptibly little) pressure feedback on the pedal; but I got enough of a feel for it that I actually succeeded in joining a couple of pieces of 1/8" aluminum filler rod into a longer piece of filler rod. :-)

And he let me watch him use it, and it was beautiful. At 300 amps, it buzzed loudly as any well-behaved AC arc is wont to do, and the thing that kind of dropped my jaw was how he fed the filler rod into the puddle, like six inches at a shove, and then just held that perfect arc there, the puddle unchanging, while he choked up another six inches on the filler rod, and gave it another shove, making another little ripple in this perfect

3/8" fillet bead.

I think if I'm very very polite and subservient and toadyish, there's a possibility he might teach me to weld. I think that would be totally awesome - he's won awards for being the best welder on the west coast for certain tasks; watching him weld is like watching poetry in motion. After a pass, he said, "Looks easy, huh?" I said, "You _make_ it look easy." Anyway, it was way kewl, and I did, in fact, join two pieces of metal together today. :-)

Cheers! Rich

Reply to
Rich Grise
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Maybe he'll let you rub two pennies together some day.

Reply to
Buddy Beavers

On 10/2/2010 7:39 PM, Rich Grise wrote: (...)

Congratulations on your first TIG welds!

I like TIG a *lot* because it is so effective, quiet and controllable.

(...)

You can improve that situation by a huge factor. Adjust the maximum current on the welding power supply.

The foot pedal will then range from zero to that set value.

You can dial it so that 'full pedal down' means only a few amps at the torch, for example.

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

Agreed. Like having 140 on the speedo, and only being able to do 78 at tops due to road conditions and police. Don't let the amperage be able to get to the critical point. Absolutely no need to let the parameter controls be set that high. Steady and easy does it.

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

Let's keep our fingers crossed! ;-D

Thanks! Rich

Reply to
Rich Grise

Thanks for this, guys - the knob is right there, but the boss _is_, in fact, in the middle of a production weldment, and paying work is, of course, #1; but he's got two propane burners set up for preheat; it's only while the part is on preheat and the boss is in the office doing paperwork that I'm allowed to play with his unit, specifically joining filler rod stubs; Yes, it was set at 300, and I was trying to keep the amps to a sane value by the featherfoot technique.

But, I could dial down the amps, then when he says, "OK, gimme my torch back" turn it back up to 300 - it's a Miller Syncrowave 250, and 300 is as high as it will go - maybe tomorrow, on one of his breaks, I can get permission to turn down the amps; from you folks's feedback it sounds like there's some "magickal" amperage I could set it at and join filler rods like boom-ba-de-boom.

I guess I'll start dropping hints ... but, has anybody ever done this before, and if so, what would be a good amps range?

And is that also referred to as "heat", like "turn the heat up" is the same as "turn the amps up?"

Thanks! Rich

Reply to
Rich Grise

Congrats at being back at work. Hopefully you can make it a paying position. If possible, try to take a gas welding course, possibly vo- tech or trade school. My welding training went: soldering (propane), gas welding (taught by my step-father), then gas welding/brazing/ cutting/&c/&c at vo-tech, then on to MIG welding (steel/alum), and finally TIG. Never had training in stick welding, but learned a little on my own. Was fun teaching grad students to solder up copper plumbing this last year w/MAPP gas (and never set anything on fire!). If I wasn't into electronics/tech, I'd want to be a welder (most of the training was just for hobby).

Reply to
lektric.dan

(...)

For steel, the rule of thumb is 1 amp per 0.001" of material thickness. Aluminum requires more current because it cools very quickly. The oxide on the surface of the aluminum melts at a much higher temperature than the aluminum itself. *Cleanliness is paramount.*

For butt welding aluminum 0.125" dia. rod stock, I would set the max current to say, 70 A as a starting point. This will make the pedal much less 'touchy'. Adjust the max current for best results.

I would also look around for pieces of Kaowool ceramic blanket to place on top of both sides of the joint. The object is to trap the heat in the rod stock, to save time.

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It takes just a moment to tweak the max amps to the proper setting and just another moment to tweak it back to it's former setting when you are done. If you are the torch jockey, you have the *obligation* to set the equipment for best results.

Yes sir.

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

I initially read that "Maybe he'll let you rub his penis someday"

Reply to
Jeff Johnson

Perhaps that will come in time too.

Reply to
Buddy Beavers

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