Hello, Please see the following link for the pictures of the welds and project:
The problem is the welds. I've got cracks, blown holes, ugly surface. The welds didn't break when I beat them with a hammer, so that's encouraging. I wait about 2 to 5 minutes after welding before banging on the tubes.
The details: TIG welding, 110Amps, 1/16" 303 stainless steel filler rod,
1/16" thoriated tungsten, 15cfm gas, 75%Argon / 25%C02 mix. The tubing is 1 1/4" diameter pipe, wall thickness is about 3/16" to 1/4".Questions:
- When I turn the machine off, I hear some hissing where the gas line connects to the machine. Is this a leak? (If I wiggle the cable the noise changes, so that's probably a leak. Can I put teflon tape to seal this?)
- Why do the weld surfaces look like solidified lava / slag? (See S1 in weld2)(C02 in the shielding gas?)
- Right after I'm done welding, the weld surfaces spit out little pieces of metal. Why?
- Why are there so many cracks? (Cracks C1,C2,C3 in weld1, etc)
- Why did I blow a hole? (See weld1)
- Does E1 or E2 look good in weld1? (filler to base joint)
- Why did hole H1 occur in weld 3?
- Why am I not getting the neat "stack of coins" look? (Inexperience, right?)
Thanks! Tom.