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advice on TIG tungsten and rod size

7K views 37 replies 13 participants last post by  rjd048 
#1 ·
I'm trying to read up on this and figure out what to order. I think it sounds like I need a 1/16" tungsten and er70s6 rod, but I'm not sure how thick. I will be welding sheet metal primarily.
 
#3 ·
#14 ·
The miller Tig book is usually for sale for under $ 20 in the store or down load here for free
http://www.millerwelds.com/pdf/gtawbook.pdf

Another good resource is from Jody Collier. former welding instructor. a free 10 min video each week, and he has done an evaluation of everlast equipment
MultiProcess Welder
Welding Tips and Tricks - TIG, MIG, Stick and a pantload of other info
that miller handbook is great, thanks for that. I think I got it narrowed down to The Eastwood Tig 200 DC or maybe the AC/DC 200, which is a lot more. It's the 3 year warranty.
 
#6 ·
lay wire

I still prefer oxy acety for thin work. , but I am almost as old as Bill Hines who still stays with oxy acety , and I am not as steady as I was over 50 years ago. touch the tungsten in the puddle or touch the rod to the tungsten and I have to stop and regrind. The lay wire technique is to lay a larger size wire over the joint, tack the ends and melt it in to make the bead, and make sure you get penetration, a good bead. and I can guide the tig torch with both hands. you don't get the stack of dimes look but to me a good smooth bead is ok.
 
#7 · (Edited)
I still prefer oxy acety for thin work. , but I am almost as old as Bill Hines who still stays with oxy acety , and I am not as steady as I was over 50 years ago. touch the tungsten in the puddle or touch the rod to the tungsten and I have to stop and regrind. The lay wire technique is to lay a larger size wire over the joint, tack the ends and melt it in to make the bead, and make sure you get penetration, a good bead. and I can guide the tig torch with both hands. you don't get the stack of dimes look but to me a good smooth bead is ok.
u want a good way to practice tig welding , get a clean piece of paper , a very sharp pencil , and 2 washers , one 1/8th thick and one 1/16th thick
u put the paper so down so its longer left to right and put the washer at one one , then u put the pencil in it and move the pencil in circles inside the washer while slowly moving it across the paper.
every pencil mark on the paper is a trip u would have made to the grinder to grind the tungsten clean

start with the thicker washer , until u can get it down really well then move to the thinner washer


i used this trick when i first started welding years ago and it does help
 
#11 · (Edited)
JC classes

A lot of the California junior colleges offer night welding classes, I took one a few years ago, the cost was only $ 50 and I used more than that amount of argon, rod and electricity. They had us start with Oxy acety welding. It's more forgiving, learn rod and torch control.
Jody collier from welding tips and tricks sells a "tig Finger" a finger protector heat shield that is very useful for welding at higher settings. Tig gloves are thinner for better rod control but don't offer as much heat protection.
http://www.weldmongerstore.com/tig-finger/
 
#15 ·
Looks like I'm settled on The TIG 200 DC. Although it doesn't weld aluminum it's ok. I've had my mig welder for many years and haven't welded anything aluminum or needed to. It sucks to not have aluminum welding capabilities but I'm not a welder, don't get paid to fabricate, and am not gonna buy aluminum to fabricate with. It's a no brainer to pay less for what I need as opposed to what I might need. This welder is $500 and the AC/DC is $869. With a 3 year warranty I think I'm making a good decision. I'll make a thread of my experiences with the welder and maybe it can help another clueless guy out there.

Anyhow, today on lunch I caught myself doing the motions of tig welding with my fingers and thought, "I need to get this." I've got great coordination and the willingness to learn so I'm off on my journey.
 
#18 ·
I prefer tig over anything, I have two lincoln tig machines myself and a lincoln mig. I just refuse to use the mig unless I just have no other choice. No mess or spatter or grinding to clean up. When your done your done. I built a spiral staircase in my house once inside on top of the carpet with no drop cloth. Try that with a mig and not burn the house down.LOL
 
#20 ·
Here it's....Tig inside,at the bench/station.Outside,Mig...and using that nasty flux core,up to thicknesses until stick comes into play.

About the only thing we use the Mig for "in" the shop,is tacking up headers.....and maybe some other one handed chores?
 
#22 ·
By the way, to the original question, working in a production shop doing metal parts for electronic devices for years there was nothing used but 3/32 tungsten on material from 1/8" down to .015, and for .050 or thinner the filler rod would be .04 or 3/64. Gas cup size and shape would be the thing that varied with the job.

For really thin stuff (and I did hundreds of those .015 parts) you had to "bird-*****" the filler rod down, initially having the heat on the filler rod not the part, then hold the heat on the resultant tiny glob 'til the instant it soaked into the sheet metal. Kinda like when solder melts into wire. Then you move on quick and keep doing the same thing. Ever concentrating the heat on the sheet just got you a hole. I do the same thing now on cars when I'm hitting a spot that got thin due to rust erosion but is not bad enough to cut out.

I like the pencil-in-a-washer thing. Next time I teach somebody if that ever happens again, that's what I'm going to make them do first. Learning the moves while actually welding, there's just too much going on.

Just got my first mig at age 53 and I love it but I remain a tig user wherever possible.
 
#24 ·
depends on what ur welding and what type of joint
on a 45-90* joint were u can rest the cup on the pieces without the tungesten touching u rock the torch/cup back and forth and walk it down the joint

on something flat u may end up moving in small circles or back and forth a lil bit across the joint , or u may just go stright down the joint

the washer trick is to help u lean to keep the torch hand very steady and maintian the same distance from the tungsten to the work piece while moving ur hand without touching
every pencil mark u leave on the paper is a time u would have to stop welding and grind the tungsten

another trick that helps some ppl out that have trouble feeding the filler wire threw there hand is to not wear a glove on that hand as it makes the filler wire easier to slide across ur hand
 
#25 ·
Not really having trouble with the tungsten touching anymore, but will practice rocking the cup and weaving beads. I still need to get a natural feel for what speed to travel at. My beads don't look right so I need to keep practicing. For sheet metal open butt welds I think I'm ready though cause you don't do long beads, maybe 1/4" at the most. I definitely want to get better at the other things and am guilty of learning to mig weld pretty good on sheet metal but slacking on the rest, so I don't want to repeat that mistake. It actually makes me want to go back and work on my mig skills on thicker stuff.
 
#26 ·
When you say "open butt welds" are you saying filling a gap between the sheet metal with filler rod? I personally like to "fuse" a tight gap when welding thin sheet metal with the Tig and using filler rod if needed (unlike using a Mig and having a gap). It just seems to work well without blowing thru the thin sheet metal for me. Good luck and have fun.
 
#27 ·
well what I have been doing, and it's just a few test pieces, is fusing the tight spots and generally doing it 2" apart with 110 amps, then turning it down to 30 amps and starting off the tacks I'm using 1/16" rod and going at most 1/4". I'm leaving kind of an imperfect gap cause I figure I can learn from it more than if the gap was perfect. I'm so used to huge welds left from the mig I'm not so much minding the fact if I add filler I will have to grind a little cause it will always be lower than a mig weld. Lots to learn still though and will give that a shot too.
 
#30 ·
Haven't read all of the posts, but since you're welding sheetmetal with TIG, I suggest you learn the laywire technique. It produces a relatively cold weld, but that's good for thinner sheet metal, it creates a very consistent weld bead (if you get good at it, it looks almost like a machine MIG weld), it's less movement of the filler rod (which makes it easier that you can concentrate more on your heat and your torch), and the filler absorbs more of the heat, so you don't burn through the base metal.
 
#32 ·
tig points

Jody's lates video on Welding tips and tricks talks about sharpening the tig points, I have been doing heavier material, Repairing Farm machinery, Building stops for our big irrigation pivot-circle system, and the last 2 T bucket chassis I built using my old airco AC_DC stick welding with Hi freq on. It is a lot faster than Tig. I welded up some 3/8 Plate the other day with the Lincoln 255 Tig at higher amperage and made beautiful looking welds. Jody pointed out in his Video that improperly sharpened tig rods will produce arc wander at lower amperages. I like my water cooled Tig torch but I will buy a smaller torch and a real tig sharpening machine when I get ready to weld in the patch panels on my 29 A roadster, and build patch panels for the 37 Pontiac 4 door.
 
#38 ·
Tig filler rod

I have been Tig welding for almost 40 yrs. now and have found that for thin sheet metal to dimple the area with a body hammer and then cut a plug to lay down on it nicely and be almost even with the original surface then use silicon bronze filler rod 1/16 dia. and very little heat almost like brazing and paint and primer adheres to it very well. It is almost like soldering a copper pipe connection, can keep the torch back a bit from the work and the silicon bronze rod just kind of melts and flows into the joint. This technic is only good for body work and not for welding something that you need a lot of strength in.
 
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