i know you're gonna tell me practice, practice, practice. what else can ya tell me? any pointers? i practiced yesterday quite a bit but was pretty disappointed. doesn't seem to get any penetrating. the bead, filler rod, seems to be way on top. i'm not welding anything together yet. i was just running beads on a piece of sheetmetal. ordered me a dvd from Mr. TIG. couple of my buds came over, who are better welders than i, and couldn't get the feel for it. every time i've watched somebody they make it look easy. any pros out there? i got a Miller Econotig. does TIG and Stick.
Sorry to here you have an Econo Tig, have not heard any good about that machine. Maybe you don't have enough heat set into it. Try upping the amps. Do you have crater control on that? The best way to discrib tig is like gas welding electrically. Are you seated when welding? Being comfortable when welding makes it easier to contrl the bead. If you haven't already, try being seated, working the bead toward you holding the torchead like a pencil. Pretend you are drawing a line and becarefull not to contaminate the tungsten with the filler. Make sure you gas is flowing and you have regulator adjusted for enough flow. Good Luck
gas is at 20lbs., recommended. my pops bought me the unit for xmas so i can't complain about the machine. i got to make it work. http://www.millerwelds.com/products/tig/econotig_ac_dc/ what about tungsten position? it shouldn't be too far out right? they say it should extend out the tip equal to or 1.5 times the diameter of the tungsten. its a 50 amp unit. i cant really up the amps, can i?
could the problem be i'm welding on my steel bench tops? ground? last night just before i finished i tried stick welding on a piece on the floor and it was perfect. never did try the TIG on the floor. i really don't see why this would make a diff but maybe!?
I have an Econotig and a Synchrowave 250 in my shop. The econo has it's limitations, but you will not see them in the average home shop. I can tell you the pedal is the weak link on that unit. You can drop it and get the potentiometer out of phase and that can give you problems. You will know when you have done that becasue you will apply the pedal slowly and when the arc starts, it goes to full amperage. I would recommend turning up the amps. That unit will put out 150 amps at the torch. I usually set the amperage to 75-100 amps and modulate the heat via the pedal to control it when it start getting too hot. If you are working with really thin metal like 20 GA or thinner, cut the amps down a little farther. If you think you are having problems with your pedal, you can set the machine to stick welding and drag start the arc to see if you can get more heat out of it. This eleminates the foot pedal all together. Not the ideal way to weld, but allows you to trouble shoot the pedal. You also need to match the filer wire diameter to the thickness of the metal you are welding. Usually you can use .035 for reall thin material, 1/16" for 16 GA material range, and 1/8 for the bigger stuff. This is just a starting point and you will soon find that different diameters give you more or less control over the weld. A friend of mine bought a book from Cartech that is about welding. He consumed that book and came to my shop to learn how to weld. He did a great job and said he just followed the advice of the book. Maybe I can get him to post the name of the book here. (Pimp Daddy, that means you...) Let me know if I can help any more.
will do turbo. thanx a ton. i'm a little cornfused as to your method of trouble shootin the pedal. when you said set it to stick, did you mean to try and tig on the stick position???? and thanx for the encouragement on the machine. i was pouting, thinking my new machine is wrong for me.
...when you said set it to stick, did you mean to try and tig on the stick position???? Yes, set it to stick and lightly drag the tungsten on the metal to start the arc. It will contaminate the tunsgsten a little so the arc will look bad, but you will be using 100% of the amperage setting you have on the front of the machine.
One trick that I've shown people that were learninig was to practice dragging the torch accross your material without adding the filler. This will help insure that youv'e got a puddle going to dip the filler rod into. Also helps to practice keeping the correct distance from the end of the tungsten to the material as you travel across the piece. other tips: -make sure the ground clamp is attached to the piece your welding - Its best if your sitting at a table and the piece is up close enough to make sure you can see the size and look of the puddle. - rest your elbows on the table to help stabilize your hands as you weld, I'll often try and create rests for my wrists to help stabilize everything. - drag the torch towards you so you can see the leading edge of the puddle as you dip the filler rod into it. - if your gloves are too thick you'll have a hard time feeling the feed of the filler rod. Do you have any pics of you samples?
PRACTISE PRACTISE PRACTISE... I learned it pretty well in a week or 2... Welding every night and weekend... But I used to do tons of MIG welding before...
Oh yeah... read books about it too... I have the Gas Tungsten Arc Welding book by William H. Minnick.. Very good one!
We had a Ecno tig for 5 years ,would never sold it except started to weld thick alumunum.I think it is a great rig.
here are my pics. after last night i came to the conclusion that it seems like my arc is almost getting blown out. maybe too much argon. i was in the garage with no breeze, the doors were shut. my welds, attempts, almost show that too.
I'm not TIG expert, but 20psi sounds like a lot of gas pressure, and the picture makes it look like you've blasted molten metal across your work piece. Try turning down the gas so you just feel a gentle breeze coming out your torch. Too much will cool the weld quickly and blow away your weld pool. Ideally, you don't measure the gas in pressure, but by flow, which means you really need a flowmeter. You can probably pick one up for $20 where you bought the welder.
That looks like either the wrong Gas, or No Gas. Are you running straight Argon? Can you feel the gas coming out of the cup? For what its worth, I TIG weld for a living. In an indoors situation you shouldn't have to turn the gas up over 20lbs. I normally run about 12cfh at low amperages on a portable with gauges, or around 25cfh on the shop welders at the higher amperages (they have flometers).
set gas to 30 lbs if ya got a breeze set it a little higher when you sharpen the tungsten make sure the grind marks go the loong ways with the lenght of the tungsten it helps keep the arc from walking try putting two pieces together i think you will find you got 2 much heat also what type of shielding gas are you using should be 100% argon
so fellas, tucker, it only arcs up on dc neg, right? should it arc at all on dc pos? yes i have 100% argon and yes i can feel a breeze out the cup/nozzle. up above somebody said too much gas. now ya tell me more. cornfused!@#?
i'm worried about my pedal being jacked up like someone said earlier. any thoughts bftwcs? i tried on dc pos last night and nada, zip, nothing.
i've always run my gas at 17-20 cfm flow. how close are you to your work surface?? you want to be within 1/4" the work material. where is your electrode polarity set?? for mild steel make sure to set to dcsp (dcen). try to leave an ever so slight flat tip at the end of the electrode instead of trying to sharpen it into a hyperdermic needle. keep your torch at a 15*-30* angle (85*-70*) perpendicular to the work surface. MAKE SURE YOUR WORK SURFACE IS CLEAN!!! bursh it with a wire brush real good.
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