I have learned the basics of Mig welding from others, and purchased my own Miller several years ago. I am now extremely confident in my mig welding abilities, but I am interested in learnig to tig weld. My question- is tig welding as easily self taught as mig? I don't know any one with a tig or I would just give it a try and see how hard it actually is. I have checked into some local vocational schools and the cost is about $2000.00. Would I be better off putting the 2000.00 towards a tig.
Learn to gas weld well, thats a good stepping stone. To answer your question, no welding process is as easily self taught as MIG.
I think tig is easy. There are several books that you can take a quick glance at and be in business. Yes, if you learn to gas weld first you will be in better shape, but if you understand penetration, weld puddle, and preparation, I don't see a problem.
If you understand the concept behind welding, and can do one thing with one hand while doing another with the other hand, while also using your foot, you're there. Spend your money on a rig and practice, practice. That will get you farther than the class in my opinion. good luck!
i say go ahead and get the tig, and just like nutbush said, if you have a grasp on what your trying to do, getting a torch in your hands and praticing will be the best thing for you. reading books and gettin tips from expeirienced welders will work wonders. i taught one of my freinds on my machine and he picked it up very quickly, and he isnt all that great at welding in general. so practice, pracitce, practice and you will be set!
JMO- I was lead man in a large weld/fab shop for 20+ yrs. and for the most part, newhires out of the Voc. schools really weren't worth a pinch of shit. I think many of those schools just want your money. I'm self-taught in all phases of welding and agree with wfo guy that once you really understand the principles of welding it's just a matter learning/adapting techniques. If you buy a tig machine, at very least you'll have the equity in it.
Let me be another to recommend learning to gas weld and do it well. Tig is a natural extention of these basic skills. Someone said it and I agree Mig is the easiest self taught welding processes but being able to stick two pieces of metal together and doing it in a fashion that's strong only comes with practice. Frank
Tig takes a steady hand, at 67 I sometimes have a little too much "shake" in my hand to do a decent tig weld. Other days are just fine. It's a little tiny arc, but highly concentrated, and you need to get quite close to do good work, not unlike a small acetylene flame, and once you get the hang of it, you can make really beautiful welds with it. It's much slower than mig though. For the track, using chrome moley steel, tig is the only way to go, NHRA requires it for certified frames/cages that use chrome moley. W.
If you can gas weld, and make it look like a roll of dimes you can TIG no problem. I never learned to MIG and have no desire to, the MIG welds I've seen all look like shit. Maybe I'm old school gas & stick welding, only TIG'd aluminum bodywork in a restoration shop
It can be a very shocking experience, when the tungsten hits the filler rod. With a lot of practice you can make some beautiful welds. It would do you some good to watch someone weld and show you the basic setup before you buy a machine. Saint
I have been a navy welder for ten years and i tought for three of them. Hobart welding institute makes in my opinion the best books and videos for welding out there. They dont just give a vauge description but they break down every facet of the welding and WHY you do each certain thing. once you understand why you use this type of material or that type of shielding gas and why you need this polarity you will have no bounderies. I highly suggest looking into there books i am not sure of they sell them individually, if they don't shoot me an email and i will see if i can get my hands on a copy and send it your way.
here is a nice little weekend class you could take http://www.sportair.com/workshops/TIG%20Welding.html#TopOfPage it's held in the atlanta area so it's relatively close to you. it would teach you enough that you would know what you are lookin for when you purchase your welder. good luck later jim
i had someone show me, who knew how to do it. it seemed easy to pick up with scrap metal practice. make sure to cover up tho, i got "sunburned" from gloveline to sleeve from it, and that was in a 30 min session, lol.
I agree with Big Daddy on Hobart. They have excellent training materials. The tech college I went to used Hobart Institute videos and they were very good. Here's some good reading also. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_tungsten_arc_welding
kustomrods... I was in your same position about a couple months ago. Got a tig, started out almost not being able to lay a bead. Once you learn how to do your settings and have alright form its an easy way to weld... A lot more control, just google it and you'll find out a lot about it. I think your money is better spent on a welder and a few choice books. Ive only spent probably 40 hours welding this summer as I've been busy, and I feel very confident in my steel welding abilities... Now aluminum, whole different story!
Get proficient in gas welding first its a great skill to have and much cheeper to get into then jump to tig and it comes natural. I gas welded for about 4 years chopped some tops an such gas welding before I ever got my hands on a tig after getting a tig it took me about 45 min to get the starting and foot control down but the rest came natural. Now I love to tig weld it makes such a perdy weld
This is huge! Experience, whether your own or another's, is the best teacher. Everyone you run into will have a unique style and, if they are good, they will invariably have some tidbit you can use to become better. Mig welding is abused and misunderstood. People think you just pull the trigger and go, but there is definitely a lot you need have a grasp on to a) make it look good and b) be strong. FYI, Miller just came to the market with a AC/DC Tig inverter called the Diversion 165. It is retailing for just under $1300. This should be a pretty sweet setup for hobby guys. http://www.brweldingsupplies.com/product_details.cfm?category_id=7&product_id=1421 -Josh
I personally like my lincoln 225... Another of the lower cost tigs, but definitely a pretty decent one... Haven't ran into any problems yet!
It is certainly possible to teach yourself to TIG weld, just like it's possible to teach yourself to do anything else. Depending on how you learn, you may or may not be able to learn faster with classroom type instruction, but you'll get it on your own eventually. I'm not a master TIG welder by any means, but I'm getting there, and I've never had a class in TIG, Stick, Gas, or MIG welding that wasn't administered by my old man. Once you learn to watch the puddle and how to tune the machine to make that puddle do what you want it to, the rest is just hand-eye coordination and practice. For instructional material, Miller distributes a TIG (or GTAW as most welding folks call it) handbook that can get you through the basic setup of the machine and the general mechanics of GTAW welding. Right Click Here and Select "Save Target As" to Download a ZIP file containing the Miller GTAW Handbook. Read that cover to cover a couple of times, and you'll be able to at least fire up the machine and lay a bead down. I'll not guarantee what it'll look like, but you'll be welding. The rest is up to you, and really only comes with practice. Machine wise, I'm fast becoming a big fan of my Lincoln Squarewave TIG 175 Pro. It didn't break the bank to purchase, it welds like a champ, and is easy to adjust. It's not as adjustable as the higher end stuff, but it made up for that by not costing an arm and a leg. Unfortunately, they don't make that particular machine anymore. The closest they have now is the Precision TIG 225, which should be an equally capable machine, if a bit more coin. My advice is to buy a TIG machine of your choice, about forty pounds of filler rod, and start sticking things together until you've got the swing of it. That's what I did (and am still doing), and it's worked for me so far. My welds are getting prettier by the day. Another fifty or sixty pounds of rod and I'll be in my stride. lol
I bought the aformentioned Miller Diversion 165 and layed down my first bead two days ago. I got two pounds of filler rod and 20 cu. ft. bottle of argon and a good helmet. A local welding shop guy took pity on a newbie and gave me a ten foot long piece of 1/16 about 2.5 inch wide. He told me to just start laying down 2.5 inch beads about half inch apart and when I got to the end of the ten foot piece I should be ready to weld something LOL. That is about 240 short 10 second beads! I did around 20 of them and started getting bored so I fixed a pin hole leak in a steel rim on my truck and stuck some scraps together. All is well but I am going back to that 10 foot piece to experiment with different settings etc. He was right , just weld weld weld! I'd like to say I never welded before and that would be almost true except that I did learn to gas weld 40 years ago in aircraft school and as far as I remember it seems similar. Seeing the puddle is tough at first and getting the torch to close will happen and contaminate the tungsten (go re-sharpen it, don't try to keep going) Now that I've welded for about one hour my impression is that#1 relaxing and being comfortable is very important #2 the Miller "entry level machine will work fine for me. #3 It is kinda fun! Oh by the way, if you need to fix a pin hole leak in a rim, remember to let ALL the air out of the tire first! (the experienced guys will be laughing at this).
Congratulations on the welder. I think you will continue to enjoy TIG welding. I know some people think it is the most difficult form of welding, but I have gas welded, MIG welded, and TIG welded and would much rather TIG every time. It is slower and more expensive than MIG, but you can not beat it for quality welds. On your rim, remember this is also the case when sealing anything up with a weld. So if you are closing a piece of tubing and it does not need to be sealed, you can drill a very small hole in it somewhere to allow the hot gasses to escape.
I already knew how to gas weld, arc, and mig weld very well. I bought a Hayne's How To welding book and looked at what it said they should look like. I did alot of them to start with. When I thought thwy atrarted looking good, I started cutting them apart to see how good the penetration was. By that time I knew where I should be using the pedal, and how long to linger while getting the puddle just right. Good luck!! Mott
Buy a machine you can afford, get some books and videos, call a few experienced friends and go for it. I bought a Miller Maxstar 200 about 6 months ago - have probably welded about 10 or so hours total and I love it! These new inverter machines are amazing - they are so adjustable and convenient to use. I think that having oxy/acet skills sure help --> using rod in one hand, torch in another and making puddles. Also, I highly suggest learning to hold the torch in either hand - you'll be surprised how much more flexible it makes your welding. Here was my first weld . . . now this was ugly! Here are a couple pictures of two recent TIG welds - after 5+ hours of practice. Not the best, but not too bad. This is 1/4 - 3/8" thick stuff - so I had deep v-grooves, good prep and multiple passes. I have lots to learn . . . but I enjoy the practice and the technique . . .
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