New respect for TIG welders

[mountainman72]

My first experience with TIG tonight - what a fun disaster.

The handle broke on my stainless steel coffee pot. With no stainless MIG wire, and figuring it was too thin anyway, I went to my neighbors to use his TIG to fix it. He's got a nice machine - Miller Diversion. The pot is thin gauge, double walled thermos style. I had no expectations of 'stack of dimes', but I did think it would go better than it did.

First off, the battery was dead in his helmet so I used old school goggles. Then the amperage was set too high so I blew a hole in the pot that needed filling. When I reached up to raise the goggles and check my weld, I put the hot end of the rod through my hat and burned my head.

I filled the big blow-out hole, but created other small ones in the pot's wall. In only 1 spot could I get the puddle to really flow into the pot and 'weld'. Everywhere else just looked gooped. Eventually I got most holes filled, but the whole operation looks like stainless steel bird poop all around the handle. It's amazing how bad it looks. Plus, I must not have fully filled the original crack, because some water steamed and dripped out at the end.

So to anyone who can make TIG look good, much respect!

Brett

 

[600SL]

I did something like that when my gas was off.

 

[buildyourown]

Gotta back purge SS or that will happen every time. On thick stuff you can fake it, on thin stuff the **** from the inside just eats right through

 

[readymix]

Just takes practice

 

[superchargedv8]

its all about practice...

 

[zkling]

Sounds like you showed up naked and unarmed to fight an army.

 

[Jackfre]

Yeah, life is a humbling experience. In addition to getting the purges right and the machine settings (btw, I use the Miller Welding Calculator App) right there is only the issue of torch wire foot pedal and recognition. I used to be a hand. Now...I can't hit my A**with both hands.

Lots of practice!

 

[JACDes]

A new coffee pot would have been less expensive.

but at least you had a piece of scrap to practice on.

 

[zmotorsports]

Again, just takes practice. If it were easy everybody would be doing it.

Mike.

 

[shawnspeed]

If it is dubble walled , how did you vent the back?if it was still sealed that is why you had issues...when you applied the heat , it would blow the puddle back onto the tungsten huh...you ideally would need to drill a small hole that could be quickly sealed with a tack when done..and a back purge is reccomended, but probably wouldn't have made a huge difference for it's intended purpose...live & learn

 

[mountainman72]

I did learn - that TIG is tough!

Yes, double walled so the blow back may have contributed. I couldn't vent it without creating more holes. But I don't think I can really blame much on that. I'm sure 90% was my inexperience.

As for just getting another pot, 1) it was a $60 pot so I figured it was worth trying, and 2) why not? It's already wrecked. I saw it as a chance to try something new and learn.

I did make coffee in the pot this morning, so I guess it was worth it.

Brett

 

[cnc-me]

Think you just picked something very difficult to weld,to practice on.
Time for some 1/8" steel that's nice and shiny.

 

[readymix]

The double wall if not vented and purged would be pretty hard to weld.

 

[mike13u]

Back purging to weld a handle back unto an old stainless coffee pot?? Come on guys. Perhaps a little hole drilled into the material to vent the double walls so that his weld didnt have a little volcano on the last bead as he circled around. But, it doesn't look like that would have been his biggest problem anyway. A little sugaring on the back of a stainless weld like this would have little effect and probably hold for another fifty years welded properly.
Brett, props for trying and double props for posting it. It takes practice and no amount of reading and watching You Tube will substitute. Make this the starting point of your challenge and work on conquering it. Its not easy but it is a very rewarding experience to see yourself get better. No matter how long you have been TIG welding, you are always trying to get better and it is a very humbling craft. Good luck.

 

[ZRX61]

The other issue is that now there is no vacuum between the two walls so the heat insulation factor has gone down the crapper

 

[tdkkart]

More filler rarely fixed a mucked up weld...........but most people think that piling **** on **** is the way to do it.

 

[sberry]

I agree it is worth the learning experience and not every little tack needs to be back purged. Was the machine set of DC or was it set to weld aluminum?

 

[Monkey_Wrench]

Yikes I hope to get a Tig machine as well this year, but have never welded with it...



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jnkpile]

Lmao! The part about burning through your hat had me laughing out loud! Good on ya brother for sharing an awesome fail with us (;
Sorry I forgot about you actually using it this morning so I guess you grabbed a small victory out of the mouth of defeat, cheers

 

[rohartman]

first thought when I saw that picture was WOW. were you using 100% argon or 75/25? my ss welds started out like that when I was welding the ss shields back on mufflers for the VW dealership next door but I got better each time and hell it was under the car and nobody could see it $20 dollar a pop, beer money! I'm still laughing about you hat been there done that, thanks for sharing