Practice Make Puurrrfect - Intro to TIG

Figure 1: The Shop

In the case that you didn't know, I have no welding experience. Therefore, I need to learn. I've been putting in hours on the oxyacetylene and TIG machines (Fig. 1, 2). I've found that you need to put in about 4 true hours to each machine to start getting things that actually look like welds.

Here is a description of the TIG welder - what I'll be using for all of the frame tubes.

Figure 2: TIG

You can fuse together all types of metal (including Aluminum). Here's the basics:

You have an electric current running through the table (which is a big piece of metal) and a current running through your tungsten filament (gun). Press on the foot pedal and you increase the electrical amplitude (more heat through the gun) (Fig. 3).

Figure 3. The Tungsten Electrode and Chamber (the gun)

So you heat up two adjacent pieces of metal with the electrode and create a pool of molten steel (not lava) (Fig. 4).

Figure 4. Cascadian Lava

You then take your filler rod (a stick of steel metal copper plated) and press it into this pool. Everything is happy and melted together and when you release the heat, the two pieces of metal are strongly bound. The trick is to "bead" nicely, so you move your pool and filler rod at a consistent speed and push the filler rod in every few millimeters. These are the kind of welds you'll get if you're a beginner like me:

Figure 5. Practice Welds

And these are the types of welds you get when you've been welding for some time:


Figure 6. What I Strive to Be