Gas Lens or Old school for beginner?

[JMS1972]

Not bad at all. You could up the amps some and travel faster - it will waste less heat and give a cleaner weld. But it's really not far off.

I did try that but it was too much and ran away from me.

I think you want more gas flow - make the top of the float sit flush with the 9 position, and see if that improves shielding at all.

Ah good thanks I thought it was a bit dark.

Now for an actual challenge... weld two bits together

What? are you mad!

 

[Dr.Al]

I think you want more gas flow - make the top of the float sit flush with the 9 position, and see if that improves shielding at all.

That sounds very high to me (and a great way to waste a lot of argon). For welding mild steel with a gas lens, I usually have the float sitting at about 5 litres/minute and I'm always amazed at how well it works as the gas bottle runs out and the flow drops down to as low as 3 (although that 3 is probably only any good for horizontal beads or inside corner joints; probably not so good for outside corner joints or welding upside down).

Control of the filler got worse when I was feeding the rod - probably holding it too far away from the puddle so it was wanging around a bit managed to hit the tungsten a few times

That happens, don't worry about it and keep practising and it will eventually get easier. When I started I brought a length of rod into the house along with my left glove and would sit there practising feeding the rod while watching the TV. I'm afraid the only thing that'll help reduce dipping the tungsten is lots and lots of practice.

I felt I could keep feeding but the gloves let me down MIG gloves were too thick and the gardening gloves got too hot! I've ordered some goat skin ones from Amazon so that should help.

Yeah, thin gloves are great. I use fairly cheap ones as they tend to get a bit of a battering, but that's probably just me.

This is the flow gauge - how do you read this ????

View attachment 290694

I'm afraid I don't know how to read that gauge - mine just has a ball bearing and I aim for about the middle of the ball. My guess would be that it's calibrated for the central line to be the point you read. 5 litres per minute is reasonable.

Stick out about the same as cup outlet? It was sharper than this when I started

That looks okay to me - with the gas lens on it is quite tolerant to different amounts of stick-out in my experience.

 

[Munkul]

That sounds very high to me (and a great way to waste a lot of argon). For welding mild steel with a gas lens, I usually have the float sitting at about 5 litres/minute and I'm always amazed at how well it works as the gas bottle runs out and the flow drops down to as low as 3 (although that 3 is probably only any good for horizontal beads or inside corner joints; probably not so good for outside corner joints or welding upside down).

5lpm on a no.7 cup is quite low for welding stainless, and that's what i judge the quality of the shielding by - 8-9 LPM is perfect. Then again, not all flowmeters are calibrated equally so...
Right enough, you could get away with less on mild steel.

 

[ghostdancing]

these welds look very similar to my first one welds.also .settings was similar to mine..

to cure the problem of gray\dull looking welds, i did the following: first of all i cleaned the plate (mild steel) with cellulose thinner, then sanded to shine metal with the grinder and a thick grinding wheel (the flap disc doesnt work well), then clean again with thinner
after that i scribed a series of parallel lines with a sharp points (to learn welding straight), i found that is better run beads no longer than 5 -8 cm because it's possible to control the filling road without "feeding" it, so i can concentrate to get consistent and nice beads for the moment; i use a thick leather glove for the torch hand, and a gardening, tight fit glove for the filler rod hand

i have the tungsten protruding no more then 5mm form the cup (5 or 6 when using 2,4mm tungsten)

for me the 2,4mm tungsten it's easier to control (1,6mm filler rod)

i also found that practicing on a 4\5mm thick plate it's better: less distorsion of the plate due the heat of many beads layed in short time

finally: dont know your age, but if have some grey hair too, probably you need glasses to focalize from short distance, for example i use 2,0 glasses for reading a book, (and for stick welding) but had to get 3,00 to follow the tig welding from shorter distance

 

[Dr.Al]

5lpm on a no.7 cup is quite low for welding stainless, and that's what i judge the quality of the shielding by - 8-9 LPM is perfect. Then again, not all flowmeters are calibrated equally so...
Right enough, you could get away with less on mild steel.

Ah, that makes sense: I haven't done much stainless welding but I'll bear in mind that I might need to up the flow if I ever do!

I do generally find mild steel welds look a bit dull, but I don't know how much of a problem that is. This was done at about 5 litres/minute with a #6 gas lens, 2.4 mm 2% lanthanated tungsten, 2.4 mm filler rod (I usually use 1.6, but was going through it super fast for these inside corner joints). The plate is all 3 mm thick mild steel. I think the current was about 130 amps, but I can't remember for sure.

These (nowhere near as neat!) outside corner joints were the same as the above but lower current and 1.6 mm filler rod:

They look quite grey and dull, but that doesn't seem to have affected the joint quality at all - in the latter case I ground off the corners to give nice round edges and the weld had penetrated and it all looked like one bit of metal under the "dull exterior". Do mild steel TIG welds ever look really shiny (without scrubbing with a wire brush or whatever)?

 

[JMS1972]

these welds look very similar to my first one welds.also .settings was similar to mine..

to cure the problem of gray\dull looking welds, i did the following: first of all i cleaned the plate (mild steel) with cellulose thinner, then sanded to shine metal with the grinder and a thick grinding wheel (the flap disc doesnt work well), then clean again with thinner

I did clean the panel with flap wheel and brake cleaner but it's a junky bit of steel cut from an old cabinet so not super clean.

after that i scribed a series of parallel lines with a sharp points (to learn welding straight), i found that is better run beads no longer than 5 -8 cm because it's possible to control the filling road without "feeding" it, so i can concentrate to get consistent and nice beads for the moment; i use a thick leather glove for the torch hand, and a gardening, tight fit glove for the filler rod hand

i have the tungsten protruding no more then 5mm form the cup (5 or 6 when using 2,4mm tungsten)

Should I use a smaller cup for 1.6mm Tungsten / 2.0mm plate? I've got a selection of cups.

for me the 2,4mm tungsten it's easier to control (1,6mm filler rod)

I've just bought a couple of packs of 1.6mm Tungstens - most of my work will be pretty thin stuff. But I'll try a bigger one.

i also found that practicing on a 4\5mm thick plate it's better: less distorsion of the plate due the heat of many beads layed in short time

I need to have a root through the scrap bin. The long plate did move on me.

finally: dont know your age, but if have some grey hair too, probably you need glasses to focalize from short distance, for example i use 2,0 glasses for reading a book, (and for stick welding) but had to get 3,00 to follow the tig welding from shorter distance

It's rude to ask but I was using my readers. Perhaps get some cheapy ones a diopter up...

 

[morssdn]

I managed this once on mild with lay wire instead of feed using pulse, was quite shiny.

 

[Dr.Al]

I've just bought a couple of packs of 1.6mm Tungstens - most of my work will be pretty thin stuff. But I'll try a bigger one.

For thin stuff you'll probably be fine with 1.6 mm, but the 2.4 mm will do most things. I've used 2.4 mm 2% lanthanated tungstens on 0.8 mm sheet and also on 5 mm plate so it does pretty much everything I ever need.

 

[ghostdancing]

i'm a beginner too (my first 14l argon cylinder is not finished yet..), but from what i read around, with 1,6 tungsten i would use 5 cup, 6lpm flow on mild steel..double check your torch for beeing sure it's gas tight.

brake cleaner: it's nasty stuff (as well as acetone and cellulose thinner, but perhaps worst?) i would stuck on acetone, used with good ventilation, carbons headmask and gloves (i use the thinner becuse it's what i have at home), clean before and after the grinding session; i found that flap discs are not good on mill scale (it's hard stuff) and tend to embedd crap in the metal, that's why i use the grinding wheel

 

[Dr.Al]

i found that flap discs are not good on mill scale (it's hard stuff) and tend to embedd crap in the metal, that's why i use the grinding wheel

My preference wherever possible is a few hours in a bath of citric acid and then an easy clean up. For box section (which has thin mill scale) a wipe with a bit of scotchbrite cleans it up after the acid; for plate with thick scale on, a non-woven preparation wheel takes the (pre-citric-acided) mill scale off really quickly.

 

[JMS1972]

i'm a beginner too (my first 14l argon cylinder is not finished yet..), but from what i read around, with 1,6 tungsten i would use 5 cup, 6lpm flow on mild steel..double check your torch for beeing sure it's gas tight.

I'll try a smaller cup. I think I just guessed it All the torch fittings are new so O rings should be okay.

brake cleaner: it's nasty stuff (as well as acetone and cellulose thinner, but perhaps worst?) i would stuck on acetone, used with good ventilation, carbons headmask and gloves (i use the thinner becuse it's what i have at home), clean before and after the grinding session; i found that flap discs are not good on mill scale (it's hard stuff) and tend to embedd crap in the metal, that's why i use the grinding wheel

Its was closest to hand. The metal is junk so I'm not expecting miracles.....

 

[ghostdancing]

I managed this once on mild with lay wire instead of feed using pulse, was quite shiny.

nice weld! did you let the rod flat on the root or angled 90° with the tungsten axis?

 

[ghostdancing]

few hours in a bath of citric acid and then an easy clean up

do you need to wash the piece in water after the acid bath? i tried once with vinegar, it cleaned the rust perfectly, but rusted again very quickly, nevertheless i washed in water the piece

 

[Munkul]

Best thing for millscale I've ever found, is a low speed angle grinder with poly abrasive discs like these:

Abracs Poly Abrasive Disc

Attach this poly abrasive disc to your angle grinder tool to remove surface imperfection from your material. The Abracs disc can be used on a wide range of materials such as metal, concrete, stainless steel and aluminium. The synthetic resin coating clings to rust, paint and other contaminants...

www.toolstation.com

Used on low speed, they last for a long time, and they JUST remove rust, paint and millscale, no steel. No need for acid baths or faffing around like that.

You can find cheaper ones if you look. Again, you need a variable speed grinder to make the most of them.

 

[JMS1972]

Best thing for millscale I've ever found, is a low speed angle grinder with poly abrasive discs like these:

Abracs Poly Abrasive Disc

Attach this poly abrasive disc to your angle grinder tool to remove surface imperfection from your material. The Abracs disc can be used on a wide range of materials such as metal, concrete, stainless steel and aluminium. The synthetic resin coating clings to rust, paint and other contaminants...

www.toolstation.com

Used on low speed, they last for a long time, and they JUST remove rust, paint and millscale, no steel. No need for acid baths or faffing around like that.

You can find cheaper ones if you look. Again, you need a variable speed grinder to make the most of them.

I did use one of those as well as the flap wheel - didn't know about running them slowly. Might be time for a new angry grinder....

 

[Dr.Al]

do you need to wash the piece in water after the acid bath? i tried once with vinegar, it cleaned the rust perfectly, but rusted again very quickly, nevertheless i washed in water the piece

I tend to just wipe them with a rag and then either wipe with scotchbrite (for box section) or use the non-woven preparation wheel things (aka poly abrasive discs) for the thicker mill scale. There won't be much water left after that. For box section I tend to blow the inside out with an air compressor. Citric acid is a lot nicer to use than vinegar.

Best thing for millscale I've ever found, is a low speed angle grinder with poly abrasive discs like these:

Abracs Poly Abrasive Disc

Attach this poly abrasive disc to your angle grinder tool to remove surface imperfection from your material. The Abracs disc can be used on a wide range of materials such as metal, concrete, stainless steel and aluminium. The synthetic resin coating clings to rust, paint and other contaminants...

www.toolstation.com

Used on low speed, they last for a long time, and they JUST remove rust, paint and millscale, no steel. No need for acid baths or faffing around like that.

You can find cheaper ones if you look. Again, you need a variable speed grinder to make the most of them.

I use one of these (on a battery-powered variable speed grinder), but for the thick mill scale on flat plate it takes a while to clean all the scale off. After it's been in the citric bath I use it and it takes less than a minute to clean a 2 metre length. Before the acid bath it takes 5 to 10 minutes and feels like a chore (but then I hate angle grinding in any form really), especially if doing a lot in one go. On box section it's very quick, but not as quick as wiping with scotchbrite after a citric bath (and the latter doesn't need me to get the angle grinder out, which is always a good thing).

If I haven't got much to do, I'll just use the preparation wheel on the angle grinder, but when I've got lots to do, the citric bath is a no-brainer for me.

I did use one of those as well as the flap wheel - didn't know about running them slowly. Might be time for a new angry grinder....

If you run them fast, they disappear very quickly without really achieving much.

 

[Dr.Al]

On my bar clamps project, I cleaned (with the method described above) the entirety of over 15 metres of box section and 12 metres of flat bar. I think the total time the angle grinder was running for all of that was about 10 minutes. I can't imagine how long it would have taken to do all of that just with the grinder and a prep wheel.

 

[JMS1972]

I tend to just wipe them with a rag and then either wipe with scotchbrite (for box section) or use the non-woven preparation wheel things (aka poly abrasive discs) for the thicker mill scale. There won't be much water left after that. For box section I tend to blow the inside out with an air compressor. Citric acid is a lot nicer to use than vinegar.



I use one of these (on a battery-powered variable speed grinder), but for the thick mill scale on flat plate it takes a while to clean all the scale off. After it's been in the citric bath I use it and it takes less than a minute to clean a 2 metre length. Before the acid bath it takes 5 to 10 minutes and feels like a chore (but then I hate angle grinding in any form really), especially if doing a lot in one go. On box section it's very quick, but not as quick as wiping with scotchbrite after a citric bath (and the latter doesn't need me to get the angle grinder out, which is always a good thing).

If I haven't got much to do, I'll just use the preparation wheel on the angle grinder, but when I've got lots to do, the citric bath is a no-brainer for me.



If you run them fast, they disappear very quickly without really achieving much.

Looks like screwfix have pricematched zee Germans I've ordered one of these £35. 3K-12K RPM....

Erbauer EAG1010-125 1010W 5

Order online at Screwfix.com. Compact angle grinder with spindle lock for easy disc change. Features a 2-in-1 guard and anti-vibration auxiliary handle. Tool-free guard adjustment ensures easy and fast guard change. Soft start and overload protection ensures safer and reliable control. Supplied...

www.screwfix.com

 

[Dr.Al]

Looks like screwfix have pricematched zee Germans I've ordered one of these £35. 3K-12K RPM....

Erbauer EAG1010-125 1010W 5

Order online at Screwfix.com. Compact angle grinder with spindle lock for easy disc change. Features a 2-in-1 guard and anti-vibration auxiliary handle. Tool-free guard adjustment ensures easy and fast guard change. Soft start and overload protection ensures safer and reliable control. Supplied...

www.screwfix.com

Yay! New tool day!

 

[Munkul]

Makita DGA463Z 18v Brushless Slide Switch 115mm Angle Grinder Body Only

Makita DGA463Z 18v LXT Brushless Slide Switch 115mm Angle Grinder Body Only The Makita DGA463 is a 115mm (4.5"), slide switch, variable speed angle grinder that's part of the ever expanding Makita 18V LXT lithium-ion battery cordless range. It's powered by a Makita brushless motor for longer run...

www.powertoolworld.co.uk

This has been a revelation for me. I'd honestly not buy another angle grinder for myself without variable speed. Grinding, flap discing, deburring, paint stripping, wire wheeling - you name it.

I run fibre discs on lowest speed - so 3,000rpm. That corded Erbauer sounds ideal for the job perfect for fibre wheels and soft wire brushes.