walking the cup

In my experience, it was kind of a put down, as you set your electrode length, then just put the cup in the vee of a pipe joint, making it easier to keep a stable distance and obtain a better weld by just moving the cup along the vee. It is not usable in situations where you don't want the cup to contact the work. If you can TIG good, walking the cup should be child's play.

Steve

Practice the manuver using a drinking glass. When you get the hang of that then switch to a smaller diameter cylinder till you are down to the size of a tig cup. It is a peculiar motion that takes practice. No use wasting tig consumables till you get that motion down pat. Then try fillet welds next.....then pipe.. Some guys will use a finger stall instead, a spare ceramic cup stuck on one of your fingers to act as an anchor point and then you won't have to touch the torch cup to the work. It's good to know both techniques. phil kangas

-- The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

trying to learn to

accomplished in

Thanks for the reply!

For me it has been the opposite. I am quite good at freehand TIG. I have passed cert tests on pipe and tube using the the freehand technique (one on stainless pipe, the other on chrome-moly tube, both in the 6-G position). I find normal TIG to be the easiest welding process, but I have been trying to walk the cup for a LONG time, and have been getting frustrated by my lack of progress.

There must be something I am doing wrong.

I believe I have gotten fairly good at the basic torch motion. I can walk the cup about half way around a piece of pipe and make a beautiful ripple pattern, as long as I am not adding filler. As soon as I try to add filler, everthing totally falls apart. There have been a few times when I have gotten the filler to melt correctly, and have gotten nice looking results, but most of the time it does not seem to work.

Thanks! I will keep on practicing.

till

get

good

I believe I have gotten fairly good at the basic torch motion. I can walk the cup about half way around a piece of pipe and make a beautiful ripple pattern, as long as I am not adding filler. As soon as I try to add filler, everthing totally falls apart. There have been a few times when I have gotten the filler to melt correctly, and have gotten nice looking results, but most of the time it does not seem to work. matthew

So you are learning the technique called 'walk the cup and pull the string' , eih? You have the cup part but it sounds like you are not pulling the string. What that means is you do not remove the filler from the puddle, you must keep the rod in the puddle and allow the arc to 'pull a string' from the end of it. The tungsten will direct the path of the string as you walk the cup over the rod. If the string 'breaks' you've lost it and must start over. Good luck....;>) phil

We have several chillers. These are large air conditioning equipment, most are Trane.

They have an "end bell" which is a very large and heavy casting, I can't tell you whether they are cast iron or cast steel. As they are bombarded internally, they wear continually. We have lined several with Belzona epoxy which helps extend their lives. There are several threaded ports on the end bell to receive iron pipe nipples for attachments. The nipples are eaten on an annual basis as we run the loop system slightly acid to preserve the building loop piping.

Today's conversation. What about brass, bronze, or stainless nipples? What if we want to weld or braze these nipples to increase the hold as some of the ports are getting quite thin?

Thanks for the reply!

For me it has been the opposite. I am quite good at freehand TIG. I have passed cert tests on pipe and tube using the the freehand technique (one on stainless pipe, the other on chrome-moly tube, both in the 6-G position). I find normal TIG to be the easiest welding process, but I have been trying to walk the cup for a LONG time, and have been getting frustrated by my lack of progress.

There must be something I am doing wrong.

Try to get someone to show you. Maybe a teacher at a community college, or go to a steel manufacture yard, and talk to some people. Surprising some times what you can learn in a half an hour and a couple of cold ones. I have had several times I was ready to hook myself up to the machine in frustration, only to have someone show me in five minutes what I had been fighting for hours. One inch thick plate vertical travel up weave 7018 comes to mind...............

Steve

I have coated many chillers with Belzona Ceramic R-Metal (1311) and Ceramic S-Metal (1321). Looked at one in Wichita which was coated over 15 years ago and it is still in excellent condition. Industrial Repair Technology, Lee's Summit, Mo. (816) 795-1106, is where I buy my Belzona products. These people will treat you right. Mike Bruce is the distributor and is very knowledgable.