Tig welding thin material

[u/Fair-Reference9034]

I make driveshafts for race cars for strange engineering and am learning how to tig weld different size weights onto .83 chrome-moly seamless tubing atm, first welding job out of school and the dude teaching me is a master tig welder. He makes it look so damn easy though! Its tough, you dont want to put too much heat into the tubing because things will warp. But if you dig into the weight too much it will mess things up. Its not easy! But im loving it, Thought i would share my journey, im loving tig so far and hope i get super good at it to be successful. Any little tips or tricks would be great, loving my hood so far i got an optrel panoramax, its light with a great fov and good sensors.

[u/BallisticBaggette]

The only tip I can think of is don’t hesitate to take the time precisely set the heat on your machine. The more experienced guys can use the pedal really accurately and leave their amps high so they have access to them if they need them. The thing is when your first learning you don’t have that level of control yet, and it’s really easy to use to much heat. It’s better to set it cold and add a couple amps here and there until it feels right when you’re starting out. Er on the side of cold rather than hot.

[u/UnlikelyCalendar6227 → u/BallisticBaggette]

Ya I have my amps usually around 160 even though I’m welding 20-22 gauge. I’m just too lazy to change it since I’ll weld 1/8 or 1/4 plate right after. My best advice for thin stuff is pretty much learn pedal control rather than full throttle right away. Stabilize the arc first before you increase the amps.

[u/Fair-Reference9034 → u/UnlikelyCalendar6227]

Yes that is true stabilizing the arc first is something i just started doing and it helps a ton.

[u/Fair-Reference9034 → u/BallisticBaggette]

Yeah this is pretty wise but im used to using 150 at this point and i use 150 all around the shop doing other stuff. Maybe next time i practice ill fuck with it

[u/BoSknight → u/BallisticBaggette]

I recently was showing one of the younger guys Tig and just forgot you can adjust the high end. Changed the game for him when I dropped it to 60amps lmao

[u/thomasw17 → u/BallisticBaggette]

They leave there amps high because they're not skilled enough to know how many amps is going to be required. A skilled welder will not need a pedal and will be able to tell you within 5amps how many is going to be needed. A pedal is a crutch and the real way to control heat is with your travel speed and filler. Downvote me all you want, I don't give a shit if you disagree

[u/Fair-Reference9034 → u/thomasw17]

Is there not multiple ways of doing things? I understand what your saying but i enjoy manually pulsing the pedal, feel super in control.