Hello everyone and welcome to the X3M TIG Channel so for today's video, I got a six-inch spool setup
with the tee fitting here it's on the rollers but for educational purposes we're gonna, I'm
gonna do in position so today's subject is a free hand so I'm going to do freehand
root pass so every welder has doubt which strategy will be the best, free hand or walking
the cup, especially beginners think walking the cup is the best thing, well freehand is a must to
learn it's gonna help you definitely in a field or if you're in a shop you're gonna walk the cup
and I'm just gonna show a couple basic stuff here with a free hand, the most important thing is
prep, clean up everything got a bit prepped nice clean I put a three root tacks feather edge
always go couple inches to clean from the edge for setting we got a Miller xmt 350.
this is the amperage 130 135 a cup size eight and as you can see here the tungsten stick out
up to 10 mils I usually go by reference just push inside the bevel and when the tungsten
is touching the edge of that bevel that's pretty much stick out as you can see here one of the
technique you can just hold that handle and basically, weld with your knuckles
try to keep your hands steady and rotate that wrist when you go up and the whole idea of a
free hand is a to learn how to control How To Be steady and well at the same time
you can also do this hold the torch and try to support with your use your fingers
because you kind of you have a steady steady hand while you're welding it's pretty much the side
to side motion so your ideal the freehand is once you end up in the field there's not much room and
you were in the shop all the time you walk in the cup you know and then you're gonna have struggle
so if you're freehand I like to freehand the root pretty much on every joint if I can especially
at the bottom part and then once I go up to nine o'clock then I like to just lean my cup
on a pipe and continue on so this is a free hand with with the back feed the feeding technique
on the bottom part as I already said on the earlier in the beginning of video 135 amps 130 you can
even go all over the whole idea you want to have a nice and good build up for your root
especially on the bottom part so We're not gonna have any suck back later on a hot pass
as you can see here this is a whole idea of the
I'm holding on the on the bottom of that handle of the torch and try to keep your hands steady
while feeding I just slowly side to side and Slowly progressing up this is the whole idea
of the free hand, there's lots of benefits to it, once you dial in with that technique
it's going to be really helpful for you even if you're in a shop , it's a good thing to practice
I like to like looking through the Gap and just a free hand while doing back feed on a with the rod
you can do that as well or even depends what you like you can yourself at the bottom like doing
overhand and do the free hand support with a with a with a pinky there is also
tig finger famous tig finger from welding tips and tricks
so you now get burned when you when you when you're doing free hand
I'm now climbing up to the top part from nine to twelve o'clock
you just kind of slowly rotate your wrist that inclination of tags then you're pointing
as you can see here I want to melt that Rod I'm keeping their body inside
it's just on the other side of the tack
so I'll pull it out before I reach the tack and I'm gonna
I'm gonna do a tie in from the outside just to dip here
there's no rush with a free hand you want to go slow
it's going to have nice good control as you can see inside what's going on
you want to burn those edges no need to rush guys I like welding it's
you don't want to rush take your time
it's all about the prep and how you position yourself
you want to support it if you if you're too shaky then you want to support yourself as best you can
there's a couple tricks
yeah that's the root from the inside another half of the spool is done
it's a nice good consistent root all the way around that's by like a free
hand because with the free hand I always kind of have a
better control even though my hand is shaky sometimes I still got a way better control
as you probably focus more on what you're doing so that's actually helpful
okay now we're from the other side on the bottom part
and that's how it goes this is the freehand take welding
didn't do any speed up it is what it is that's exactly like a real time it
goes slow sometimes looks like you don't even move wrong spot but it's it's progressing
and it all depends from The Gap I like 5/32 maybe that's why I go a little bit slower
if you got maybe a smaller Gap like one eight and then you go with 3/32 maybe you can
can go maybe a little bit faster like a lay wire technique and then it just maybe run and
maybe you can speed up but as I said no rush you want to put a nice good solid root inside
and that's the whole idea of freehand just to to learn how to control how to
control your hand as well not only with the puddle um and that's it this is the
the root I'm just going to show you the example I got one more uh joint I did here
so this is gonna
the whole idea I'm looking through the gap on the on the from the side but as you can see my wrist
you know the sample's inclination is changed is not always uh
some kind of perfect angle 15 20 25 degrees it's uh it's always changed you know depends
how the puddle behaves you know lots of lots of factors that can affect the puddle
it's a little bit tight here on the top
just gotta do it from the bottom same thing feeding from inside back feed
and slowly going up and you know guys like even if even if your hand is shaky that's all
right that's normal you know we all you almost yeah but as I said it's a good practice
it doesn't matter if it's a shaky you just gotta learn how to control that hand
either you're going to support or lean against the pipe but you got to be careful pipes
get hot if you're holding it up too much you're close to that cup the cup is going
to get hot if you're holding on the bottom of the handle as I do uh that requires a little
bit more control as it's gonna be really shaky but you can also support it with your elbow
onto your lower body like a stomach or a hip just to have that steady arm and then you just
bending your wrist while you're going around the pipe that's one of the tricks try that
okay that's the root on the second join the same thing
never had an issue with a bit of freehand a lot of freehand especially on a six-inch eight inch
especially if you can be from the top and then just looking through the Gap and doing freehand
that's uh it's ideal but freehand is mostly for the field for tight position tight spots
where you can't walk the cup or either it's horizontal weld
especially if you're working with the Boilermakers there's going to be lots of freehand there
it's slowly on the top closing in on that I'm gonna do tie in here
just gonna dip it here
just gonna open that doing like a keyhole, while dipping
and then just finish on the side yeah that's it pretty much for the for the route for the
free hand this is all free hand for the for root pass in this video
um I'll just buff every pass now I'm gonna do 170 for the hot pass
I'm not worried about any suck back or that uh even though I'm gonna do hot
pass with the 3/32. for root I had a 1/ 8 rod and this one is a 3/32. 170 you can go really fast
and that's the whole idea of the hot pass so you're not gonna go slow so your
travel speed is going to be really fast you're not gonna pause on one spot and
you can go fast
and as I said the cleaning every pass with the buffing wheel yeah
you don't want to have any impurities inside
clean it good clean clean clean always clean then you have a nice clean puddle as you can see here
and that's it guys hot pass is done from now on it's gonna be just a stick
as I said this was just in position for educational purposes the rest is
going to be in rollout thanks for watching and see you in the next one guys take care
foreign