PA160 STH unboxing!

[Shield Arc]

WOW! I think you're a natural at Tig welding!:thumbsup:
Personally I try very hard to stop my welds in the center of a joint, not on the edge. This can't be done all the time, but I try. I like to use 36-grit 5-inch dia sanding discs on a 4-inch grinder for cleaning steel before welding. Maybe try, just as your backing off the pedal to stop your weld make one last dip of the filler rod to eliminate that little "bubble".

 

[joshuabardwell]

Personally I try very hard to stop my welds in the center of a joint, not on the edge.

Right. As I understand it, the corners/edges are where most of the stress is going to be, and the start/stops are going to be the weakest part of the weld, so it's better not to put those two together in the same place. I really have to start pushing myself to round the corners. It's so difficult with stick, where you may be 12" out from the joint, so swinging around a ninety-degree corner requires a rapid movement of more than a foot. I'm not sure how you really do that while still staying steady and carrying the puddle properly. With TIG, and its small torch, I will have to come up with a different excuse. :laughing:

 

[Shield Arc]

It's so difficult with stick, where you may be 12" out from the joint, so swinging around a ninety-degree corner requires a rapid movement of more than a foot. I'm not sure how you really do that while still staying steady and carrying the puddle properly.

Welcome to the world of welding:laughing:, wait until you get into pipe welding! It is all about maintaining the proper rod angle at all times. I think you're doing great, I' am impressed!:thumbsup:

 

[joshuabardwell]

I would rather use my wave balance to adjust penetration as opposed to tungsten grind angle.

Only an option on AC machines, though. The PA160-STH is DC only. Maybe some day, I will get an AC TIG machine, but for now, the machines and the materials are way out of my price range.

At the end of the day, you can always adjust penetration by turning up the heat, although that has side-effects.

 

[Shield Arc]

At the end of the day, you can always adjust penetration by turning up the heat, although that has side-effects.

Joint prep, joint prep, joint prep! There is more to welding than burning rod / wire. Proper joint prep is key!

 

[joshuabardwell]

Joint prep, joint prep, joint prep! There is more to welding than burning rod / wire. Proper joint prep is key!

It's really everything. Fitup is the number one reason why I can weld coupons and kind of look like I might not be a total hack, but when I start trying to actually build something, all my "skills" seem to go out the window. It's so frustrating too, because I know I can run a decent bead, but my projects often look like it's my first day under the hood and I have no business there. For all the practice I do with a welder, making sure my bandsaw fence was square to the blade did more for my projects than most anything else.

The real insight into the importance of fitup came to me on a forum thread showing pictures of bicycle builds. Coped tubing, complex joints, and nary a gap to be found. Now that is skill, man. You can't just cross your fingers and try to bridge a gap on a bicycle! If those guys can do it with coped tubing, surely I can do it with a couple of pieces of square tube making a right-angle joint.

The other thing I have had to learn is, as I put it: "Don't double down on your mistakes." If I cut a joint and it has a huge gap, or if I accidentally cut the piece an inch short or something, I have a tendency to want to just forge ahead and try to work around the mistake, rather than scrap the piece and do it again. This creates a cascade of failure. I've been watching the show Kitchen Nightmares, and say what you will about Gordon Ramsay, he will send an order back to the kitchen five times rather than send it out to the table with one thing wrong with it. My fabrication could use a little more of that attitude.

 

[Shield Arc]

It all comes with experience, the more projects you build, you'll learn from everyone of them. My buddy Jack who was a crane operator for me for years, says he loves to build projects with me in my shop, because he learns a new trick every time we build something together. If you can get around someone who has a lot of experience fabricating, you would be amazed at some of the tricks we use. Most times we don't even think about them, it's just second nature!

 

[weldermike]

Josh, prep is EVERYTHING! I just finished up a very small project for a friend, sorry no pics, I gave it back to him today, but a half a day saturday and a few hrs sunday all prep and fit work. Couple tacks monday just to check fit up, and a half hour tig welding today and its better then new now. But patience and time is a key factor before you light up. Makes a world of differance. And I aggree with your food guy when it comes to my products. I will literally smash it and chuck it in the pile with the others if it isnt perfect, right in front of the person and build new before I put my name on it. And believe it or not it builds good business. When people want quality from someone who cares about there work they come see me. But anyway your coming along real fast bud, keep at it!

 

[CNC Dan]

Josh:
For small gaps, try re-positioning so you can angle the weld downhill. Not all the way verticle, but some what going down. That way the dreaded drip is just moving ahead.

 

[Shield Arc]

In my line of work we didn't always have the luxury of working to close tolerances. It was more blow and go! On this project we placed a million tons of falsework. We set these beams in place, and used two 100-ton jacks to jack against the vertical beams at the walls, then hard shimmed the beams before welding them. Right where this guy is setting, I seen a guy take a very heated a $ $ chewing for re-picking the beam because he missed the mark by 1/32 of an inch.