Basic settings for welding.

Hello.

I am just getting into TIG welding in general and are trying to wrap my head the most arround it all, but there are so much in general.

What I was hoping to get out of this is BASIC settings for different metals to weld.

For my sake the interest would be SS,MS and aluminum just to have a ballpark to start out from when trying them out and experimenting from there.

Been playing with aluminum so far, but want to try a little steel aswell now. I am into car stuff, so in the big picture my welding will be thin plates or pipes together, and thin pipes/plates into thicker flanges etc.

For me, I have picked up these values online and are open to hear alternative settings and to add settings I might not have posted. Using pedal on the machine.

Mild Steel/Stainless Steel:

- #12 cup, about 25cf, or 12-14L

- 12/16" stickout or 19mm

- 40amp pr mm thickness

- Using 1sec preflow and about 1sec per 10amp postflow.

Aluminum:

- #5 cup, about 10cfm or 5-7L

- 5/16" stickout or 8mm

- 40amp per mm thickness

- 35% balance

- 120Hz frequenze

- 1sek preflow and 5sek postflow

Thanx in advance and hope for some good inputs.

Regards Frank

Hi Frank,

a little late but maybe for someone else...

it all depends on your personal preferences and the equipment you are using. For beginners and training I personally would start with stainless (like 1.4301 also known as 301), simply because it needs nearly no preparation. Cup size in general larger is better for the post weld gas cover and view (so less gas per minute needed and better viability with a bigger one).

Stic out for the beginner as a rule of thumb cup diameter is maximum stic out. You can, especially at the beginning go way more in so that you can lean the cup onto the material before you dig into the puddle. But don't teach yourself welding all the time with the cup on the part, you'll have a hard time to come away from that, have a tendency to scratch soft parts like alloy and most likely will have nearly all the time an insufficient angle from torch to material.

Tungsten in 2.3mm is adequate for most applications, thicker is more expensive and needs more time to grind in case, thinner is current limited and hard to grind round and centered. Tip: Buy a set of 10, so that you can exchange them quick instead of going to the grinder all the time. Later you can grind them all at once.

Gas flow, as long as you're not welding outside or somewhere where wind can blow the gas away you can decide by the weld, if it's grey'ish youre too low in liters per minute, too slow in welding or too high in current/too hot.

If it has nerly no colours you're the opposite, so too fast, too low current/too cold.

Ampers are a thing of speed, material, parts weight, torch angle, tungsten grind angle, balance, length of the weld and so on. As a rule for the beginners DC welding 30Amps per mm thickness Ac 35-40 per mm with 45% cleaning. As you'll weld dirty alloy and therefore need more cleaning it's higher in alloy. If less than 4mm thick, intermediate big (so a couple of kg) and not in the extremes with cleaning in alloy a couple of amps make a big difference for instance 2mm parts with 60 amps can be unweldable because you are not reaching the weld temp, whilst 75amps let not weld you more than a couple of centimeters before it flows away.

Frequency wise it's not that critical for the beginner, I would suggest 120 as maximum, especially when you'll use a single phase welder and "bigger" parts you'll be relatively soon maxing out your welder, even if it's good unit it will not provide more than 140-160 amps for an extended period of time and you'll not me able to hold the torch because it geht's too hot

for preparation, don't use flap discs or similar. The abrasive is bound with glue and you'll have a chance to conterminate the material with it. I would suggest grind discs for perpetration. Cleaning with degreaser is normally not mandatory.