This novice TIG welder learned something today. I have been gas welding more than 50 years,
and am reasonably proficient. Lincoln Welders has a tent at Oshkosh each year, and I sat down
with one of their instructors a few years back and spent about 40 minutes learning the basics of
TIG welding. It has a lot in common with gas welding, and I did pretty well, liked the system, but
still not much actual experience with TIG. And a few years ago I inherited my father's Lincoln TIG
arc welding system.
I used a friend's identical model TIG unit about 4 or 5 years ago to weld the top rear corners of
some cracked 1911 mags. as much to see if I could do it as anything. I had it turned down to 7 amps
and got these really NICE little weld beads, mags are perfect. I was impressed with what TIG can do
if you get it right.
So, tday I went to the guy that has that same welder now to weld this frame together. DAMMM........ The arc
was jumping all over, and wouldn't stay stable, and then the lights flickered a bit and the machine
wouldn't respond to the pedal. WHAT THE HECK?? I'm no TIG expert but, heck, I can usually start an arc.
So, I increase the current setting, up the argon flow, and try again. Same thing, arc won't go straight,
just bouncing around and won't stabilize, then goes out. I call my friend over, who is a fairly decent welder,
but new to this machine, he gets the same result. We are both a bit over our heads with TIG, and darnit,
it never did this before????? So he starts laying a bead on a piece of nearby scrap. Perfect. I try, too, no
problems getting a good arc, controlling it, and laying a bead. WHAT???!!!
Finally, after looking over our corner setup for about 20 min------I pull out the magnetic corner holder and just put a
couple of chunks of steel on the 1/2" sq tube to hold it down and set it square with a hand square. And laid
down a nice bead.
I figured out that the magnetic field from the corner magnet was driving the arc nutso and keeping it
from stabilizing, and eventually the (very smart, computer controlled) machine was shutting down and resetting
due to arc instability.
Well, you can learn something every day, if you will pay attention. Had piddled away so much time on
this that I had to get home for dinner. Will finish it tomorrow, and probably just use my gas rig and
small Smith airline torch and be done with it. I have the TIG rig, just need to get the power outlet wired
fill the gas bottle and set up a place to start practicing, and get up to speed again.
Bill