That 70 year old welder in Tucson who said my MIG settings were 'just angry bees' actually made me switch to TIG last month

He pulled me aside at a shop meet, showed me his 8 foot aluminum weld with zero spatter, and asked why I kept fighting a machine that was clearly fighting me back - has anyone else had an old timer completely flip your approach to a craft?

2 comments

2 Comments

drew9653d ago

MIG settings being "angry bees" is spot on though, I gotta say. But aluminum TIG is a whole different beast - you really gotta watch your amperage creep. Too hot and you'll burn through before you even know it, especially on thin wall tubing. That 70 year old probably had his machine dialed in perfect, I bet he knew his preflow and postflow times like the back of his hand. Aluminum's tricky because it dumps heat fast, but if you don't keep a tight arc it'll just sit there and puddle up wrong. He wasn't wrong about fighting the machine though, I seen too many guys crank the wire speed up and wonder why it sounds like a nest of hornets.

murphy.barbara3d ago

And I read somewhere that aluminum welding is all about that balance of heat input and travel speed, like you can't just sit there and watch the puddle form. My old man used to say you gotta keep moving or it'll just sag out on you, especially on those thin wall jobs where a split second makes the difference. It's funny how those old timers had it down to a feel, not just numbers on a dial.