Anything welding

TIG welding question -

I recently made a career change (I am now a gunsmith). It seems that now I have to go down the path of TIG welding.

I will be borrowing my neighbor's machine for a short while, until buying my own. Unfortunately, he is not a TIG welder either. (I think he bought it with the intention of learning.) I guess we will learn together.

I'm not starting from scratch - I am certified on paper. I realize technique is everything, but it is a start.

Simple question - do you guys cut your fill rods before welding? I assume so, since yielding a 3 foot long rod seems uncontrollable. How short do you cut them? And, why do they come 3 feet long?

 

Even at work, I kept them full length. They're really lignt and make no difference as long as you have a good grip when feeding.

Practice feeding techniques with uncooked spaghetti strands.

Just make sure to wipe them down before you use them (the filler rod that is).

 

You don't wipe down your spaghetti before you eat it?????

 

for gunsmithing, it'll be rare that you have to make a long weld that consumes a lot of filler, so cutting them down does make sense to give you a bit more control. over time you'll get the feel for how much filler a given weld will consume, and therefore how short to trim it. until then, just practice and see how long you're comfortable with. unless starting and stopping a weld that should be one continuous bead occurs, there really is no wrong answer.

 

Makes sense.

As with everything - practice!

 

it's a nice cool night, after taking the dog for a walk, he wanted to stay outside for a little while. so i left him tied up on his cable in the back yard.

while opening some mail at the table just inside my yard-facing door, i heard his collar jingle, and the cable let out a singular 'twang'. and then a dog started barking down the street...

turns out he saw a racoon somewhere in the yard, and without thinking, gave chase.. fortunately, he only got it cornered and then tree'd up a telephone pole, and the other barking dog was unrelated.

pitbulls being pitbulls, he was moving so fast when he reached the end of his cable, something was going to fail, and it wasn't going to be him...

he pulled the d-ring out of his collar so hard, it's straight(2nd time).


so i re-bent it, and then tacked the seam to keep it together



and then realized that being that i have a welder, and it's already out...


the good news is that my other weld held as well, and not for lack of trying.


and the dog tax

 

He's a good boy!

 

How are you liking this saw? I have the regular cold cut chop saw & used to love it but just finished a reoccurring project with multiple miters & I hate what I have to do to make the opposite miter cuts. I am strugling with the price but if it lives up to the reviews I think it's worth it.

 

Hand plasma question for us plebs without a table, how do you evenly clean up serration marks from inconsistent movement with the torch on long planes? Like my curves I can clean on my benchtop belt sander but a long straight is harder to clean up.

 

It should cut really clean, worst case is you get some dross on the underside but it normally flicks off with your finger or you can use a chipping hammer to scrape it off.

The thicker the steel, the less dross you should get.

 

Top and bottom is not the issue, the edge is.

 

I try to clamp a straight edge and clean with a flap disc

 

That's a good idea, I tried to clean one up with the flap and saw some variance which totally negated the straight cut. Straight edge is smart.

 

Edge should be the cleanest; look for any "lines"

This will tell you if you're moving too fast or too slow; was trying to look through old pics and this is the "closest" pics I can find



3/16" all cut with a hand torch



These are farther away, but 1/4" that ended up really clean

 

I kept snagging on the guide I was using which is what caused the lines because i was essentially using two guides and I think I had them too close together.

I wonder if I didn't use the drag guide I could have gotten smoother parts. Dross has been a non issue really usually.

 

East Los tungsten grinder dust collector. Not gonna lie, cheap but does a good job of collecting over the years

Quick question on 2% Lanthanated vs 2% Rare Earth Oxide on steel(sometimes unkown using 309 filler)/stainless/aluminum usually on the thinner side and lower amperage’s 65 and below- I understand REO does well on the lower end for amperage, but is there someone here that prefers Lanthanated? Why?

 

Ordered a couple from @Wsidr1 and got them painted up.

 

The minor imperfections from snagging.

 

Yeah see, they're clean as hell

But it's "catching', hence the imperfections otherwise it's good to go

You're using the stand-off you said along with what else? I've just always used angle iron as my straight edge and go from there

I don't even use the stand-off

 

i usually just cut a healthy 1/8-1/4" in front of the finish piece, using a 1/8" piece of flat stock and use a 36-60 grit flap disc to bring the edge to finish-quality. that also allows me to make a smooth radiused edge..

i've also found dragging the gun towards myself instead of pushing it also offers a smoother edge.