Welcome to the X3M TIG Channel.
In today's video, I will try to show you the difference between
Freehand and Walking the cup technique.
The gap is loose 1/8 except at 10 o'clock where I have a 5/32 gap.
It's a poor prep by fitters but I will weld anyway.
I'll start on the bottom or 6 o'clock and wiggle my way up with the cup.
120 amps for the root.
Feather edge prep on the bevel
10 mm Tungsten stick out.
200 amps Miller Tig torch.
Place your cup in the groove and with wrist motion side to side
angle your torch 15 to 20 degrees away from the direction of travel.
The filler metal should be brought in at as low an angle as possible
to help avoid touching the tungsten electrode and contaminating it.
The root looks solid and uniform
Nothing to worry about with the root appearance.
So I can continue on with finishing the root pass on this side.
Now, another side I will Freehand.
Most important part when freehand is to support your arm
You wanna be steady as posible to prevent shaking
Another thing well is to try to control your filler wire by keeping it stable as possible.
Try to use one of the tacks as a support for your tig rod
That might help a little and make a big difference especially on the root
Shaking is normal when you freehand,
It all depends on the welding position you got, your body position, etc.
That's why its crucial to position yourself as much as you can
to prevent or reduce your body to shake a lot while you are in an awkward position
Even though I position myself as much as I could
you can still notice that Im shaky little bit
This side of the root looks good as well as the other side
I will continue with finishing the root pass.
This is a freehand side
and this is walking the cup on the root side.
This is a hot pass with walk the cup technique
Now I'm going to do freehand on hot pass
I'm really shaky here, but the intention is to show you this because this is a reality that we are facing in the field.
Hot pass done by freehand
This is a filler pass to flush on walking the cup side
Now I will do the same thing but on the other freehand side
It is a little bit different in aesthetic appearance
But the quality should be the same
On the cover pass or capping
I like to use the tip of my fingers as a balance for my torch
The reason why I'm so far on the handle is to
be far from the heat as much as I can
It might be a little bit more difficult but helps to keep your hands out of the fire.
The Appearance of cover pass with freehand technique,
maybe is not pretty as like with walking the cup
But as long as it's uniform and without undercuts, should be fine.
Walking the cup on a cover pass is way easier if you compare it to freehand
In my opinion, freehand requires a little bit more skills
In order for you to make a nice, good-looking bead.
The final conclusion from my experience is
Practice freehand as much as you can, definitely, you will need a steady hand
and quality is the same, maybe even better on the root with freehand
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