Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Day 2: Lincoln Electric's GTAW (TIG) welding class

Day 2 was all about stainless. We began the day at 8am with approximately 90 minutes of lecture. We started with some basic metallurgy and went over the different families of stainless. We then talked about some of its physical characteristics and really focused on its thermal conductivity and why stainless wraps the way it does. Then we went into machine settings and techniques. Pulse was introduced and we were encouraged to experiment with high frequency pulse to reduce heat input and (hopefully) warpage. A little Q&A and then we were off and running. Bob cruised around all of the booths and did some demos for us. But really, it's been all about booth time. I've been skipping lunch and staying late. The six straight hours of uninterrupted practice has been fantastic. Here are some photos. Please be kind. With only a tiny bit (maybe an hour total) of previous experience, these are some of my first attempts at welding of any kind. The entire album can be seen HERE.

The booth.


Lincoln InvertecV205-T


16 gauge carbon steel butt welds


16 gauge carbon steel T joint


16 gauge stainless butt weld



stainless T joint


my first tubing sample attempt


There's a lot of photos showing a ton of nasty welds in that gallery link I posted above. Fun stuff.

Thanks for reading!

5 comments:

Patch said...

Zank layin' down the fat beads

Unknown said...

That's cool! Looks like your first tubing attempt went fine. Stainless steel is difficult to weld as it is thin, and one mistake could scratch its flawlessness. Apparently your welding class experience was a hard one. But it will be worth it if you'll be learning stuff like this.

Jeanette West

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Unknown said...

I have missed your first welding class, could you please share the tutorial URL with me please? Do you have any youtube channel where you post your updates? I like your class very much. Thanks in advance.

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