in this video I'm TIG welding some 18 gauge cold rolled that's just a little
bit less than 50 thousandths of an inch I'll be doing some flash tacking and
kind of going over how that works flash tacking is just tack welding sheet
sharp electrode you don't want any misfires when you're doing this I'm set
up with a number five gas lens cup and you can notice I've barely got the
electrode sticking out the end there I've chosen number five just to save a
little gas and so I'm going to reduce my flow down a little bit less than ten cfh
probably more like about eight or nine and with a nice soft flow of gas that
also helps avoiding misfires so it's just a really quick tap of the foot
pedal I use the cup to prop against that outside corner joint and then I Rock the
electrode in till it touches and then pull it back just a little bit just a
whisper and then blast it really quick with the foot pedal and it leaves a nice
small perfectly clean attack hardly puts any heat into the metal at all it
doesn't distort anything doesn't melt through and it speeds things up a whole
lot when you're dealing with tack and joints like this on sheet metal
especially on stainless once again I rock the cup in to touch the electrode
pull back just a little bit of a gap and blast the foot pedal now because you use
in such high amperage it does pay to practice on some scrap metal before you
do this on anything important and you can't have a gap at all you've got to be
really paid close attention to corner to corner fit up with no gap and a really
tight arc length and you got to get on and get off you can't hold the foot
pedal down more than maybe a tenth of a second or so there are machines out
there that have spot timers on them for doing this operation and it's pretty
helpful once you get it dialed in then there's no guesswork then you just press
the foot pedal and it just does it all at once all it does it all for you don't
have to press a foot pedal all the way down or let off or anything just tap it
or even use a torch switch the Machine I'm using today does not have a spot
timer so I'm just doing it by manual just tapping that foot pedal and then
getting off of it really quickly this is a copper spoon that I got from Harbor
Freight unfortunately I don't think they sell them anymore this is one of the
best deals they had for about $10 you could get this nice piece of copper with
a handle on it and super handy for using for backup for filling in holes and for
jobs like this where you hold it right next to where you're gonna arc off maybe
somebody's still have I think maybe eastwood has a version of this a little
bit more expensive probably still worth it now I usually tack it about once
every inch or two but sometimes you have to tack it really close together as I
tap it with a hammer and work out any potential gaps that are in there now I'm
going to switch over to a jazzy 10 a ceramic it's a number 10 Cup with the
extra couple of diffusers in there that makes a heck of a difference when it
comes to shielding I'm gonna use about 20 cfh for this tin cup and that's about
what I would use for a number eight gasoline so it doesn't require any more
gas than a number eight for this first outside corner joint I'm using these big
chill blocks here one of them's clamped on another I'm just laying on there they
don't really make perfect contact but they still make a big difference in in
sort of trapping the argon envelope and also drawing a good bit of heat away you
can see it's a little bit blue a little bit silver here and there but that's
probably where it's touching and where it's not but it still makes a big
difference I was full pedal at 55 amps and it seemed like I wanted just a
little bit more so I'm going to increase it to 60 amps for the rest of this joint
I'm using Oh 45 diameter ER 70s to filler and a 3/32 diameter 2%
lancinating electrode you saw that earlier on how that was tapered and
those chill bars are really making quite a difference and the reason I say that
is because i welded some without any chil bongs here
that's coming up soon you can see the distinct difference between this and
what I'll weld without any chilled bars but before we do that let's just take a
look at the filler rod hand here when I'm welding a really small puddle like
this what I'm doing is I'm dabbing the filler rod in the puddle and then when I
choke when I pull it out of the puddle I I do the feeding operation with my
fingers so I don't feed it in there with my fingers I dab it because I'm a little
bit more precise when I'm not flicking my fingers around I dab it and then I
choke back and feed it when the rods out of the puddle if that makes sense I say
that because sometimes on a heavier aluminum joint I know I won't worry
about that I'll just push it in the puddle because I'm pushing so much more
rod in with aluminum here I'm welding obviously with no chill bears at all
same cup same everything else but just no chill bars and it welding up just
fine puddles staying pretty clean and everything but you can just notice a
distinct difference in the discoloration of the well bead it's all gray and dull
as opposed to being nice and shiny with a luster 4 carbon steel that doesn't
necessarily mean it's worse or better or anything like that it's just you know we
always strive to do as good as we can so the chill bars do make a difference and
then about this time it occurred to me that I made this little handy little
thing here good a good while back I had to hunt it up it was in the bottom of a
toolbox just some copper bars and just made for outside corner joints like this
and it's just really handy it's again it doesn't touch it doesn't come into
complete contact but it still does a great job I'm gonna set this piece up to
where I'm welding and completely flat and an easy way to do that as with these
magnetic Vee pads I add a D sort of store fairly recently because they're
just so darn handy also these can apec's many wire cutters or many bolt cutters I
should say work great for snip and wire especially when you start snipping 1/8
wire and stuff so now I'm going to run one like this and see if it maybe traps
the argon in there a little bit better I don't know it's probably not going to be
much different but I'm trying stuff thought I'd experiment here a little bit
when you're welding something as thin as 18 gauge you're going to penetrate
you're gonna draw a little oxide into the puddle so it's not going to be a
perfectly clean puddle with no purge on the backside but still having the chill
bars that kind of trap the argon and then using the tin cup which kind of
help you keep the hot tip of the rod shielded all go a long way into making
something like this look as good as you can make it look you can see a little
bit of oxide floating around here and there in the puddle not too bad though I
really like the way it welded with the chill bars as opposed to without
you