TIG Welding Learning Post
Turbo Mini Forums

Looks like its been welded along a side, then missed one, then welded another side. Or, its been artifically cooled as its been welded.

The difference in colour is all down to torch angle. If you fillet weld a round tube as you go around the weld is not getting argon shielded and discolours. The discolouration is fine as long as it's not oxidised. Titanium discolours like a bitch if you don't get it right. Anything other than silver or a light straw colour on titanium in aerospace is a failure. At work I use a 12 millimetre wide ceramic for everything from 0.21m up to 4mm. Also your travel speed will effect the colour of a weld. Slow is okay but too fast and the weld will appear grey. Grey means that is on the boarder line to oxidising.

I've got my hands on an old AC/DC tig, so expect some dodgy photo's from me.

I'm trying to sort out some pure argon gas, at the moment I'm looking at 29p per day to rent the bottle and around £100 for a refill (inc surcharge) is this what you guys pay?

Team www.sheepspeed.com Racing

Good Lad!

From BOC i think mine is 22p a day and about 45 quid a refill,

is your price for a BIG Jar?

Edited by Joe C on 5th Jan, 2010.

I pay around £150 a year for rental for two Y size bottles, plus the gas.

I'm waiting for Roderick

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

On 5th Jan, 2010 Paul S said:

I'm waiting for Roderick

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

Reminds me of this http://v8tvshow.com/forum/index.php/topic,2016.msg3488.html

What do people think to this?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TIG-WELDER-PLASMA-CU...=item25586685e7

Im after a plasma cutter and tig welder for some simple stuff. Will this do the job?

Manchester Minis

When I was looking to buy my TIG off ebay, I looked for people in the sellers feedback who had previously bought the same thing, and sent about half a dozen of them a message, explaining that I was looking to buy one, and asking if their machine was OK, did it work, what did they think of it etc.
Only 2 of them replied, but from that I got 2 fairly positive answers, so took the plunge and bought mine.

That one is DC so you can do mild and stainless, but no aluminium.

I know alot of TIGs enable you to arc weld too, has any one actually ever used this feature?

Mine supposedly does, came with some arc welding pliers too, I haven't tried though.

They arc weld beutifully.... Really stable. It's like the difference in going from C02 to mix in you MIG welder.

At least that's what arc welding on my miller dynasty is like, I can't comment on the cheap chinese units.

Cheers. I have messaged a few people to see what they think of them. Also i will mainly be using it for the plasma cutter but i thought a tig could be useful at the same time.

Manchester Minis

Tips from welding up my manifold:

1. Relax - forget that someone told you it will be difficult.

2. Let the workpieces warm up, this can take some time.

3. Don't apply the filler rod until both sides of the weld are molten.

4. Make sure everything is meticulously clean - clean with a stainless wire brush and give it a wipe with acetone.

5. Start with lowish amps, see if it will create the molten pools, if not, wind the amps up a bit, then try again. Keep winding up until you can start laying the bead. After a few inches, start to wind the amps down again, otherwise it will blow holes.

6. When joining thick and thin metal together, bias the torch towards the thick stuff.

7. Keep breaking the tungsten back to a fresh tip, particularly if it has touched.

8. Make sure your filler rods are clean, mine had sellotape residue on where they had been packaged :$

Edited by Paul S on 19th May, 2011.

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

exactly what Paul said!


the only thing I can add is try to sit down and rest your arms on somthing if possible, then you'll be less likly to dip the tungsten,

if you do dip the tungsten its pointless continuing, as you WILL need to take it out and tak it bak to fresh.

I'd agree. I clean my alu rods off with scotchbrite before using them.

I thought I'd keep this in the same post.

I had my first play with the TIG yesterday. And after about half an hour of burning tungstens out and one shield I gave up thinking it was impossible. I then had another look at it with a clear head to find the torch and clamp were the wrong way round (earth clamp should be + and torch - )
I also noticed the gas hose to the torch was kinked, so no gas!!

This was my 3rd attemp at running a bead, and was about as good as it got tbh. This was on 1.5mm stainless with a foot pedal.



What does it mean when you get a very dark rough weld? Is it too much heat?

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1/4mile in 13.2sec @ 111 terminal on 15psi

I'd say yes too hot,

also if your not back purging the oxygen from the back can make it go dark on the top

Looks a lot of current. How much were you using there?

I don't know what welder you are using, but I found with mine that the footpedal overode the dial setting for amps. Therefore it was easy to use too much amps/heat with the foot pedal.

My advice would be to get used to the welder with fix amps to start with i.e. no foot pedal. That will do the job just fine on stainless.

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

Im using an r tech. I think the base current was set to 85 and i switched pulse off as i was using the pedal. The pedal was about 2/3s down for the run so im guessing thats about 50amps? i tried it without the pedal but found as soon as you let go of the button the heat would just go and you'd have to start the pool again. With the pedal i found there was more control. What kind of base current would you suggest for that thickness?

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1/4mile in 13.2sec @ 111 terminal on 15psi

9.85 @ 145mph
202mph standing mile
speed didn't kill me, but taxation probably will

Stevie, you say pedal isn't really required for stainless or mild, why is this? Any hint or tips welcome :) May inprove my ally welding!

Here are some examples I did using a pulse setup on a tig welder - with no filler rod.
Top 2 pics with purged argon


Bottom 2 with no purged argon

Graham