I've been practicing Tig welding almost every day and was finding myself getting frustrated sometimes. Some days I felt like I was getting somewhere but then there would be a day like yesterday where I was not happy withe my progress. So you sit there and try to figure out what you did wrong but when your new, it's not so easy.
Today I improved BIG time! Last night I was watching some welding video's (big surprise huh?) and a guy was welding a new eyebrow into a 55 Chevy fender. I noticed how s-l-o-w he was going which really surprised me on sheet metal. I was under the impression you got in there, got the bead done and get out quickly. That's what was messing me up.
So I researched travel speeds with Tig welding and some more videos and today I decided to test out my new found knowledge. WOW! What a difference!
One of my problems was inconsistency. One weld would look good, the next not so good. Thick beads, thin beads, tall beads, skipping beads (the worst!) From there it got worse when it came to lap welds and inside corners. I find those the hardest. Well I did... I did some kick ass beads on both today. My welds are more consistent in width and height too.
The trick (for me anyway) is to slow down! Wait for that puddle to build and stay there until it does. Then you can start to feed the filler rod and begin to move. Move at an even rate as best as you can and WATCH that puddle closely! Don't move ahead of it. I put in the magnifying lens in and that's a big help. I can really see things now. Another important thing is to keep as tight of an arc as possible. The closer you get, the better things go. (until you dip a tungsten which I'm not too bad about)
The biggest pain so far isn't sharpening tungstens but preparing metal to weld for practice. It doesn't take long to burn through it. It does however take a lot of time cutting and fitting, removing mill scale, cleaning and positioning the pieces to weld. I've been doing mostly inside corners and lap joints.
I'm really stoked about my practicing with 18 gauge sheet metal. When you get that one down, you're ready for patch panels!!! I'm almost there!
I couldn't find any .045 filler rods around here so I bought some .045 mig wire. It works great! I had to buy a 10 pound roll so I see a lot of patch work in my future.
It was only $9.98 too!