Learning TIG first, or should I start somewhere else?

[Vinny]

I remember learning Oxy Acetalin welding in high school. Didn't know it was still offered. Figured schools would just do MIG since that's what I mostly hear about.
Still, OA was real easy. If all you were going to do was fix panels on cars, it's probably all you'll need.

 

[J.Lind]

A bit because of this thread and the person that said "it's nice to have a torch for heating up metal," I pulled the trigger on a Smith Versa-Torch kit. The HVAC repair kit. I figure it gets me the cutting torch, all the brazing tips, and a rosebud, and I'll pick up a bigger-fitting regulator and some larger bottles, as well as a couple welding tips. That way I have a nice mobile outfit if I need to weld something away from home.

 

[Machobuck]

I started with tig and nothing else for a year...Its not a problem but I wish I was a good gas welder first

 

[outcast]

why am i getting jumped on inhere

all i said was that i taught myself, and that i am pretty good at it.
i didn't say i was a pro.

i don't see anyone jumping on the other guy who said he taught himself
yes, i have 2 digital cameras and i was driving in 1985.

so, too you haters, FU.

 

[outcast]

hey sberry

are you from SFT ? i am a member there, though i haven't been in several years.
you fella's are among the ones that helped me learn.
i met you at Rons home/shop out there down that gravel road in custer park .
also, i believe you were at the Miller/ILLINOIS tool works plant for a gtg from SFT. where we got to use some of MILLERS toys.
several years ago.

hey, remember Bob setting his pants on fire lol.

anyway. how is the berry biz going ?

 

[spv]

why am i getting jumped on inhere

all i said was that i taught myself, and that i am pretty good at it.
i didn't say i was a pro.

so, too you haters, FU.

I guess the difference is that you said you were good. I am far from good and could certainly do with some lessons. That said, I can get full penetration welds and I can't break them, even with thin steel sheet. I tear the sheet instead of the weld breaking. I am only a weekend warrior at best though. I am certainly far from "good", "apprentice" or even "trade school" grade. I would have done a trade course in TIG Welding but I really don't have the time. I do a bit of welding here and there as time permits.

 

[mike13u]

Dont sweat it Outcast. You came off a little cocky in your first two posts. People are just kidding around though. It is an internet forum right?? No need to get too serious.
I think with welding though, its just one of those trades, you never say things like "I'm good at it" Its kind of like walking into a new gym and telling everyone your a good boxer. Everyone is going to immediately look for the holes in your game. There are a lot of guys that weld for a living and have been doing it for years and dont walk around telling people they are good because as soon as they do there will be a guy there waiting to show him how much he doesnt know. Its a constant leaning/improving situation. You should never completely be satisfied because you can always be better.

 

[joeswamp]

Very true. Welding is a lot like playing a musical instrument, no matter how good you are there are probably folks that are way better than you.

I thought I was halfway decent until I met some full time aerospace welders and saw their test coupons, which I attempted to duplicate. These guys' welds were so perfect and so uniform that it didn't seem possible. The variation in bead width was probably less than 1/64", and this was on hard to weld jet engine alloys. These guys told me that the coupons were easy compared to their real work, they often had to weld very thin sheet onto thick castings.

I guess that's how good you can get when you practice 8 hours a day for a couple of decades.

 

[zmotorsports]

Dont sweat it Outcast. You came off a little cocky in your first two posts. People are just kidding around though. It is an internet forum right?? No need to get too serious.
I think with welding though, its just one of those trades, you never say things like "I'm good at it" Its kind of like walking into a new gym and telling everyone your a good boxer. Everyone is going to immediately look for the holes in your game. There are a lot of guys that weld for a living and have been doing it for years and dont walk around telling people they are good because as soon as they do there will be a guy there waiting to show him how much he doesnt know. Its a constant leaning/improving situation. You should never completely be satisfied because you can always be better.

Very well said. I couldn't agree more. Life itself is a learning experience and as long as a person is improving he is progressing.

Mike.

 

[sberry]

hey sberry

are you from SFT ? i am a member there, though i haven't been in several years.
you fella's are among the ones that helped me learn.
i met you at Rons home/shop out there down that gravel road in custer park .
also, i believe you were at the Miller/ILLINOIS tool works plant for a gtg from SFT. where we got to use some of MILLERS toys.
several years ago.

hey, remember Bob setting his pants on fire lol.

anyway. how is the berry biz going ?

Yes, I was at those events and remember flaming Bob well. I really liked the demo Chris from Miller did with the Dynasty, really speeds up the learning curve to see a real master at work with all the features. Probably would take a guy a while to figure them out on his own, he demo them in a few minutes.I should have a couple events like that myself,,, wonder what kind of attendance I could get?

 

[ibedayank]

outcast....go to www.weldingweb.com

look up ZTfab or ZAPSTER if you can tig like either then you are good...if not well...........
and some of us like to see the perfect stack of dimes even if we can't afford the welder to do them


as they say proff is in the PICS bud no pics....didnt happen

 

[green63701]

If you want to get some good info on tig welding check out weldingtipsandtricks.com

 

[IndyGarage]

I haven't seen anyone who wasn't a welder at all learn to TIG on there own. Not that it can't be done (somebody had to) but it's not easy.

I'll admit that it wasn't easy for me to learn, and I'm still a novice

The problem is that you have to learn to not flinch from the sparks, smoke and heat. You have to learn to see the metal puddle and you have to learn how closely to hold the tip to the work without dipping it, and then you have to learn how to hold and feed the wire without oxidizing it, and once you learn all of that you have to learn to vary the heat with your foot. And all of these things are interrelated to one another.

The reason starting with other types of welding is good you have to learn some or several of these skills, and many of them are transferrable to TIG.

 

[chris bsopke]

" learn not to flinch from the sparks, smoke and heat"

Don't sound much like tig welding to me , more like dirty mig welding

 

[Jim Johnstone]

" learn not to flinch from the sparks, smoke and heat"

Don't sound much like tig welding to me , more like dirty mig welding

That's what I was thinking. I've done a fair amount of MIG and stick, and never flinched from sparks then, I can't imagine TIG being an issue at all.

 

[spv]

I haven't seen anyone who wasn't a welder at all learn to TIG on there own. Not that it can't be done (somebody had to) but it's not easy.

Really? I taught myself to TIG a year or so ago coming from pretty much a zero base. I am not a "welder". I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. Really at best a "beginner". That said, getting started is not all that complicated if one is looking to weld mild steel. Plenty of reference material out there on tungsten type, filler rod type, amperage, gas flow etc. And then it is all down to practice.

If your seeing sparks when your TIG welding you may be using the wrong tungsten type, or not turning on the shielding gas . All I see through my auto-darkening helmet is a beautiful green glow. I really enjoy TIG welding. I patched a few holesaw holes in some mild steel just this morning, and built a wall mount for some steel boxes (holding load as I type this)

 

[Zeke]

I learned to weld better going to Sat classes at the local community college. The Sat classes were actually a lab class for many weekday students to make up time. So, all processes were being done at the same time.

I started with MIG. Did 3 semesters of that and moved to TIG. The one instructor couldn't even get into my booth until the second Sat and after I had been at it for about 6-7 hours total. A couple of other advanced TIG guys got me going and I'd bounce things off them. I ended up doing just one semester in TIG and only did AL when the instructor wasn't looking (which was most of the time).

Before the school shout down summers and Saturdays, I got in one semester of SMAW. I think I learned more about welding in general doing stick. After all that time in MIG and TIG, I was really gluing some stuff up. It was great. I worked on an inverter machine and an antique transformer. Good stuff.

I had taken a gas welding course at night some 30 years before and could cut and stick things together. I did some OK to nice brazing. I had forgotten almost all of the safety procedures. It was a good thing that all students participated in gas bottle safety and cutting set ups.

People who weld will always come in a few stages. There are those that know the trade and respect it. These guys don't blow their horn so much; the gentlemen of the trade. There are hot shots that can make perfect beads in one process, not so much on all processes. There are plenty of hacks amongst the amateurs and some damn good part timers.

Whatever you do, treat the subject like the science it is and learn all the safety. If you don't know how much acetone is in an acetylene bottle, don't call yourself a welder just yet. If you're not looking at your toes all the time while lit up, don't call yourself a welder just yet. If your ground clamp is behind you at any point, don't call yourself a welder just yet.

 

[Jim Johnstone]

Well my boss has decided that we don't need our Lincoln Squarewave TIG 175 at work and offered to sell it to me. Is this a good machine to learn on?

Jim

 

[ibedayank]

Well my boss has decided that we don't need our Lincoln Squarewave TIG 175 at work and offered to sell it to me. Is this a good machine to learn on?

Jim

If you can get it for a good price and its not beat up I would
you need AC to tig aluminum

 

[Jim Johnstone]

If you can get it for a good price and its not beat up I would
you need AC to tig aluminum

It's in spotless shape, we don't do much welding at all, and since they bought an inverter machine a few years ago, the Lincoln hasn't been plugged in more than once or twice.

 

[Frank The Plumber]

hey sberry

are you from SFT ? i am a member there, though i haven't been in several years.
you fella's are among the ones that helped me learn.
i met you at Rons home/shop out there down that gravel road in custer park .
also, i believe you were at the Miller/ILLINOIS tool works plant for a gtg from SFT. where we got to use some of MILLERS toys.
several years ago.

hey, remember Bob setting his pants on fire lol.

anyway. how is the berry biz going ?

You're not, it's just a good practice to go through the motions to keep your talents fresh. I've been welding for 35 years but the first 30 minutes of any given day look like poop. They test you about once every two weeks on a critical job, so if you haven't done it for a while it is good to test your skills.

 

[pro machine Engineering]

I would buy a machine and dive in and go. The Tig depot online has some good videos and wyatt is good to work with if you have a question. I learned gas welding in high school. My theory is and what I have seen is if you can gas weld with a torch you should be able to run with a tig once you figure out how to set it up.

 

[boohocky]

I personally started off with O/A in highschool. From there, I purchased a used Miller Thunderbolt Stick welder and started welding together things. One day a farmer needed an axle housing on a tractor welded. I tried welding it for him, and it turned out like ****. From there, I spent about a year with that same farmer learning how to weld/doing welding jobs for the farmer with my stick welder, little did I know he was a welder for the U.S. Army back in the day. I got pretty darn good at it, and moved on to MIG. I purchased a used Lincoln MIG machine and started welding things together with it. I was self taught at MIG, and I landed a job at a local factory welding injection die holders together. I got some of the best lessons I could've gotten from the old timers in that factory on MIG and stick welding.

I then moved on to a die maintenance technician. It required me to know/learn TIG. Which I had never done in my life. One lesson with a 27 year veteran changed that for me. I spent about 3 hours welding. Everytime I messed up, he showed me. If I had something wrong with my technique, he helped me correct it. I even learned how to set up a machine from this guy. He also taught me aluminum welding, which is part of my job now. All the aluminum cylinder heads these days have made repairs a lot easier.

Well, without making it too long, my personal experience and opinion is start from scratch. Learn the basics, and listen to the experienced people that try and help you. Nothing beats hands on experience, and you will only get better with time.

 

[MANTOOL]

You would be better served in knowing that you know what you know. And how you got here from there. I learned "old school". Gas, then stick, then mig, then tig. You may get frustrated but you can't go from a dead stop to an full sprint in one step. Besides, tig is a true artform that requires practice and patience.