Best welding advices

Best welding handbook: how to become a more skilled welder and how to pick the best welding equipment. TIG Torch angle should only be around 10 degrees or less: Ideally, torch angle should only be around 10 degrees or less. Too much torch angle will deflect the heat and melt the rod before you ever get it into the puddle. This causes the rod to ball up and blob into the puddle. That’s bad. You don’t want that. You want to slip the filler rod into the puddle so that you can get a consistent bead. There are exceptions to this…like when you are using a lay wire technique and leaning the torch back while you walk the cup. But if you are dipping the rod in the puddle, too much torch angle usually is not a good thing.

Don’t use too much torch gas when welding aluminum on A/C. Don’t use too much torch gas when welding aluminum on A/C. Aluminum takes a lot of amperage to weld. Even though the melting temperature of aluminum is less than half that for steel, it takes about twice as much amperage to weld. Why? Because aluminum conducts heat away from the weld puddle faster than you can put it in. this brings me to an important point. Do not use more argon than necessary on your torch gas. If you do, it will be like blowing cool air on something you are trying to heat up with a torch. All that argon blowing on the part makes for a loud erratic arc because the arc force is so great. Have you ever lit up on a thick aluminum casting and listened to how loud the arc is? I bet your torch gas was up around 20 like the books recommend. That’s too much for aluminum (unless you are using an argon helium mix).

The arc is shaped like a cone, with the tip at the electrode and the base on the metal being welded. The closer the electrode is held to the metal, the smaller the base of the cone — but as you pull the electrode farther away, the base (and puddle) gets larger. If the puddle gets too large, gravity will simply pull it away from the base metal, leaving a hole. This is why thin-gauge metals are especially challenging for beginners. Perhaps the most important skill needed for TIG welding is moving the torch in a controlled manner, with steady forward movement, while keeping the gap between the tip of the electrode and the base metal consistently small — usually in the range of 1/8 inch to 3/16 inch. It requires a lot of practice to precisely control the arc length, keeping it as short as you can without allowing the electrode to touch the base metal or filler rod.

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Improper drive roll selection and tension setting can lead to poor wire feeding. Consider the size and type of wire being used and match it to the correct drive roll. Since flux-cored wire is softer, due to the flux inside and the tubular design, it requires a knurled drive roll that has teeth to grab the wire and to help push it through. However, knurled drive rolls should not be used with solid wire because the teeth will cause shavings to break off the wire, leading to clogs in the liner that create resistance as the wire feeds. In this case, use V-grove or U-groove drive rolls instead. Set the proper drive roll tension by releasing the drive rolls. Then increase the tension while feeding the wire into your gloved hand until the tension is one half-turn past wire slippage. Always keep the gun as straight as possible to avoid kinking in the cable that could lead to poor wire feeding.