That's peak STW niceness, top marks!
TIG is very satisfying with practice, its a steeper learning curve and coordination than MIG, but an amazing process. I love the lack of spatter compared to MIG, its so clean and precise. Also great for using different filler without having to fit a new spool, can just buy a couple of bits of wire for brazing, cast, stainless,
You will spend a fair amount of time sharpening you tungsten when learning! Sharpen both ends and have a spare sharpened. If you have time you dress them properly, for site work you get good at sharpening them on an upside down angle grinder (not HSE approved)
MIG is not quite the hot metal glue gun described, sure you can start sticking bits of metal together quite quickly for DIY, but to be able to MIG to code on the job is skilled, or weld upside down in a confined space on rusty POS with oil leaks etc.
The good welders I know dont seem to care what mask they are using, but a decent auto mask makes my life a lot easier. Depends what I am working on though, I am not burning up my Speedglass with spatter burning through crap running hot, but doing nice TIG welds its a pleasure to see perfectly.
[i]That’s peak STW niceness, top marks![/i]
I concur and he has selected a painting of his choice from my gallery as a gift in return, just for being such a nice guy. You have got to love STW for things like this.
^^ That's what I love seeing on this place, people helping each other and making the world a nicer place to be.
Learning to weld to a decent standard is very satisfying, I did it for a summer building canal barges when I was 17. Only basic welds on the whole but it was immensely satisfying seeing a pile of metal turn into something recognisable. Spent most of my time on MIG but did a bit of TIG too, sadly I didn't have the time to get good at TIG before the job ended. One of the lads I worked with was incredibly gifted, made it look like an artform and was completely wasted at that company. He'd been offered big money to work at a few very specialist companies, motorsport and aviation, but for some reason just refused to go. He did the continuous weld round the roof (25ft long) of one boat that was in for repair and the welding was so uniform and neat that the owner decided to leave it as-is rather than have it ground smooth (I was good at that part). Not usually the done thing in boating circles but he had the weld painted gold after the work was finished and it looked like a perfect bit of fine rope running round the whole boat. He liked having me there as it meant I could do the stuff that wasn't on view and he could concentrate on the visible parts and making them look amazing. Scary to think that was 25 years ago now and the old site is now a housing estate.
Thanks for your input everyone.
I volunteer for a local charity and yday i met i guy who runs Veterans Sheds in Bethesda. They have both metal and woodwork facilities and both stick and mig welders. They have a couple of coded welders who are on hand to help and instruct, so i think im going to attend there and learn from someone in person, then see where i get to!
Thanks
Ian
I thought I would try MIG welding again for the first time in about 3 years before I bought Argon, regulator, flow meter etc for the nice new (to me) TIG welder, just to see if I could still do it.
Please remember this is a cheap gasless MIG, I was never taught and I have only welded about a dozen times in my life. With that in mind, feel free to laugh, critique and advise.
I cut 4 1mm slits in some angle iron and then welded them shut. The one on the right was where I was adjusting the settings for wire speed and power as well as adjusting the settings on the auto-mask. I left it unground to show what it looks like raw. The other three have been ground down but the weld stood a little proud of the metal on each.
I had the power quite low so I could see how far through the metal the weld penetrated and as it was only just over half the thickness I decided to fill the cuts fromt he other side too. These seemed cleaner and better so I guess that 8 practise welds showed improvement.
