![]() 02/22/2014 at 12:00 • Filed to: None | ![]() | ![]() |
I started welding on stainless the other night in class. I decided to do a little practice at home this morning. In class I got pretty good at running a bead and by the end of the night was making a pretty decent butt joint.
This morning, I decided I'd try my hand at a lap joint. First attempt, cant get enough heat into the piece to get a good puddle. More amps. Still no good, a few more amps.
Now I'm burning through in places and still can't get the puddle I want. More electrode stickout and better pedal manipulation... now we're getting somewhere.
I still can't get the puddle and joint to flow right though, and my filler rod is balling up. Hey, wait a minute. I bought a really fancy TIG machine with a pulser, let's turn that on.
NIRVANA.
The second half of my lap joint has good penetration on the base metal and excellent tie-in on the lap metal. I made a minor change in my filler metal manipulation and now it's running right!