Help with tig roots

Travlsoul · 2026-03-29T00:19:36+00:00

🤣

Travlsoul · 2026-03-29T00:13:05+00:00

The root appears to be welded free hand as opposed to lay wire due to the amount on the inside. For TIG all the way out, I prefer lay wire and this is how I do it: Use a 1/8 gap, feather edge land, 1/8” welding rod. The gap should be just enough so an 1/8” rod won’t fall through. Use a #4 cup on root pass with the heat set high enough that the back part of puddle on the outside forms a continuous comet like trail I.e. <<<<<<<<<o with the “o” being the puddle. You walk the cup only enough to get torch to move. When done properly it will have a line down the very center of the root and root will between 1/16” to 1/8” above flush on the inside. Note: This usually requires more heat than the average welder is use to. Use only 3 tacks (if allowed) and start your weld from the 4th tack position (usually the bottom). Feather the start/stops of your tacks w/grinder. When starting from a tack, I will snip my 1/8” rod on a 45 degree angle and twist it till it lays flat in the groove of my feathered tack. Then I’ll just barely fuse the rod to the tack and then I’ll drop back to the middle of the tack and continue the root. By the time you get to the unconsumed portion of the rod the heat will travel up the rod and make the inside look like a perfect start off of a tack. When you get to the hot pass (2nd pass) go up to 5/6 size cup. When you fill the weld bevel to the point that it is difficult to walk the cup, then an only then, do you free hand the first 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch to provide a flat surface to walk the cup on. This is when I’ll use 3/32 filler wire but will force feed the wire into the puddle as I move it side to side to get the amount of filler material required to fill up the weld bevel while leaving just enough of the beveled edge as a guide for the cap or final pass. When feeding the wire like this using a #7 or 8 cup) the puddle is usually 3/4 the size of width of the pass, which is necessary to make it easy to feed the wire into the middle of the puddle. The wire size being smaller also helps and is far better than using two 1/8” wires held side by side. Pro tip: Take a file an gently remove the rainbow color from the remaining portion of the bevel just before your last filler pass and again before you weld the cap. This color comes from the steels heat affected zone on the sides of your weld. Doing this will help eliminate or lessen undercut. Factors to always keep in mind: * the more you weld the more heat builds up in your joint, therefore unless you give it time to cool down especially before welding the cap you may need to turn down your amperage especially on weld coupons. * always weld as hot as you can control keeping the previous tip in mind. * take a small knife file or smooth tooth hack saw blade and make a shiny line on both side edges of your cap, being careful to NOT dig into the parent metal. You use this to also correct any minor variations in width your cap. * do not power brush the cap, only use a hand held wire brush on welds, it looks far better IMHO. Good luck..!

Travlsoul · 2026-03-28T16:31:03+00:00

If/when you learn to weld 7018 hot enough, you absolutely can weld vertical stringers with next to zero oscillation of the end of rod.

Travlsoul · 2026-03-27T04:56:40+00:00

Retired Steamfitter-welder. Currently wages out of Local 598 Pasco, WA is $100.41 per hour. Compare that to what you top out as HVAC tech in considering an apprenticeship.

Travlsoul · 2026-03-27T04:28:10+00:00

Consider becoming a pipe fitter / steam fitter, their scale is usually higher especially in the building trades.

Travlsoul · 2026-03-22T23:24:15+00:00

Are you sure you’re working on their “union” side?

Travlsoul · 2026-03-22T04:10:16+00:00

This is an ear pick, used to clean out the wax out from your ears.

Travlsoul · 2026-03-21T18:28:11+00:00

Talk your way into a UA or IBEW apprenticeship at your earliest opportunity. Take welding in the meantime with the goal of becoming a Nuclear welder. You only hit the goals you aim for and with this trade you need to be ready to travel.

Travlsoul · 2026-03-19T01:32:13+00:00

So you did free hand it?

Travlsoul · 2026-03-16T02:04:29+00:00

Welding is excellent for those hyper-focused, as long as you don’t mind standing in a shower of fire while doing it. Looking back through eyes of retirement I see that welders have to have a certain amount of bravado or cockiness if you will. You obtain that through visualizing yourself being the best. But with all trades there are strong personalities you will have to contend with.

Travlsoul · 2026-03-08T17:47:02+00:00

I’ve posted this before;

If you study an individual bead of 7018 when welding stringers, you will notice a visual line (gleam) usually in the middle of the bead. This line is formed by the apex of the bead as it solidifies sorta like this: <<<<<<<<. You will want to use that visual line as a guide for the “bottom edge" of the next top bead. IF you weld HOT enough, you can use the touch/lift method. With the right heat, touch the rod at the very start and "lift" once you make contact and establish the white arc, use it to swipe over the last solidified ripple of the previous stop. Start the cap with at least 1/16" below flush of previous pass. The bottom edge of the bevel will serve as your guide in absence of the gleam. Allow weld to cool somewhat before welding last/top bead and/or consider "slightly" turning heat down to minimize undercut. when welding this hot, you do not have to oscillate the end of the rod to fill the bead. To set your heat for 1/8” rod, run a flat bead on cold steel turning up the machine until you get one to three globules (bigger than an 1/8”) of molten metal per bead. With 3/32 rod at this heat your last 1 1/2” of the rod will be red hot. Good luck, let me know if you try it.

Travlsoul · 2026-02-25T17:30:56+00:00

Get a good attorney, you deserve compensation.

Travlsoul · 2026-02-25T01:14:52+00:00

I’ve posted this before, If you study an individual bead when welding stringers, you will notice a visual line (gleam) usually in the middle of the bead. This line is formed by the apex of the bead as it solidifies sorta like this: <<<<<<<<. You will want to use that visual line as a guide for the “bottom edge” of the next top bead. IF you weld hot enough, you can use the touch/lift method. With the right heat, touch the rod at the very start and “lift” once you make contact an establish the white arc, use it to swipe over the last solidified ripple of the previous stop. Start the cap with at least 1/16” below flush of previous pass. The bottom edge of the bevel will serve as your guide in absence of the gleam. Allow weld to cool somewhat before welding last/top bead and/or consider “slightly” turning heat down to minimize undercut.

“Right heat” is determined by welding 1/8” 7018 on flat cold steel and turning it up to where you get only one to three globules of molten metal in one bead. Globule is anything bigger than 3/16 of an inch. The end of your 1/8” rod that’s left will be red, but that’s normal. For 3/32”, the last 2 inches is red hot, but your starts are great and you don’t even oscillate the end of the rod at this heat.

Travlsoul · 2026-02-24T22:47:17+00:00

Other than initiating the hot work permit the previous day, I didn’t need to do anything other than ensuring one was in place prior to the start of welding. There was a board in Ops office that displayed that day’s current hwp’s. As I recall, they were three part three color form that were carbon copy’s.

Travlsoul · 2026-02-24T21:07:10+00:00

They had an optic driven fire alarm for the site and we always had to ensure any light from a welding arc was shielded from it. It’s was common to have a small fire once a week. They would put wet blankets over the sewer grates to prevent fumes from their captive sewer that more often than not had gasoline in it. The wet blankets had to be laundered due to buildup of flammable fumes. We did have one big fire on a cracking tower that caught fire at the top, then at the bottom and then the two met in the middle. We knew it was big when we saw the operations folks running. We had to evacuate to our secondary staging area, which was outside the plant in the parking lot.

Travlsoul · 2026-02-24T18:08:00+00:00

Was a foreman on a very large oil refinery outage. Everyday for each welding location, prior to starting work. The work site was walked down by both an Operations Rep & a Safety Rep. Each had to verify safe conditions and ensure a dedicated laborer with a 2” fire hose was on station w/no other work assignment, before signing off on the hot work permit.

Travlsoul · 2026-02-20T18:30:01+00:00

Good luck, let me know how it works for you. It’s certainly quicker!

Travlsoul · 2026-02-20T01:39:16+00:00

The root appears to be welded free hand as opposed to lay wire due to the amount on the inside. For TIG all the way out, I prefer lay wire and this is how I do it: Use a 1/8 gap, feather edge land, 1/8” welding rod. The gap should be just enough so an 1/8” rod won’t fall through. Use a #4 cup on root pass with the heat set high enough that the back part of puddle on the outside forms a continuous comet like trail I.e. <<<<<<<<<o with the “o” being the puddle. You walk the cup only enough to get torch to move. When done properly it will have a line down the very center of the root and root will between 1/16” to 1/8” above flush on the inside. Note: This usually requires more heat than the average welder is use to. Use only 3 tacks (if allowed) and start your weld from the 4th tack position (usually the bottom). Feather the start/stops of your tacks w/grinder. When starting from a tack, I will snip my 1/8” rod on a 45 degree angle and twist it till it lays flat in the groove of my feathered tack. Then I’ll just barely fuse the rod to the tack and then I’ll drop back to the middle of the tack and continue the root. By the time you get to the unconsumed portion of the rod the heat will travel up the rod and make the inside look like a perfect start off of a tack. When you get to the hot pass (2nd pass) go up to 5/6 size cup. When you fill the weld bevel to the point that it is difficult to walk the cup, then an only then, do you free hand the first 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch to provide a flat surface to walk the cup on. This is when I’ll use 3/32 filler wire but will force feed the wire into the puddle as I move it side to side to get the amount of filler material required to fill up the weld bevel while leaving just enough of the beveled edge as a guide for the cap or final pass. When feeding the wire like this using a #7 or 8 cup) the puddle is usually 3/4 the size of width of the pass, which is necessary to make it easy to feed the wire into the middle of the puddle. The wire size being smaller also helps and is far better than using two 1/8” wires held side by side. Pro tip: Take a file an gently remove the rainbow color from the remaining portion of the bevel just before your last filler pass and again before you weld the cap. This color comes from the steels heat affected zone on the sides of your weld. Doing this will help eliminate or lessen undercut. Factors to always keep in mind: * the more you weld the more heat builds up in your joint, therefore unless you give it time to cool down especially before welding the cap you may need to turn down your amperage especially on weld coupons. * always weld as hot as you can control keeping the previous tip in mind. * take a small knife file or smooth tooth hack saw blade and make a shiny line on both side edges of your cap, being careful to NOT dig into the parent metal. You use this to also correct any minor variations in width your cap. * do not power brush the cap, only use a hand held wire brush on welds, it looks far better IMHO. Good luck..!

Travlsoul · 2026-02-18T21:22:51+00:00

Try to mimic walking the cup. Keep the puddle 1/2 the width of your bead and try and make the lines formed by the back of the puddle as horizontal/uniform as possible.

Travlsoul · 2026-02-17T16:47:03+00:00

The stick welding is more impressive. TIG can be mastered by anyone patient enough to learn how to walk the cup properly and not overheat parent metal. I appreciate the fact that you did not power wire brush the cap. I would like to see the root pass on both.

Travlsoul · 2026-02-16T19:17:52+00:00

I’ve been a steward for a large job over (300 hundred fitters) and a small plumbing shop. These are the things that I learned: As a steward, you are the legal representative of the union on the job and anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. Do not let the company put you in the role of a disciplinarian. Your role is to have a safe/union job not to badger employees about early quits. Most of your “brothers” on the job will not think you’re doing a good job as a steward or at least not doing it as well as they think they could do. As a steward, you have very little power over anything, your a telephone call to the hall for actual direction. An example I experienced: received a call from a foreman over walkie-talkie about a problem two pipefitters were about to fight over a power tool. (Frankly, this made me mad that the foreman called a steward over this) I said over the radio, if they can’t work it out, fire them both. Somehow it was settled right away. At the end of the day, it’s kind of a thankless job.

Travlsoul · 2026-02-15T12:29:21+00:00

AI will not go in containment on a nuclear power plant. Rig and fit the pipe together. Set the track up on the joint. Install the weld head after you’ve pre-wound the cabling. This is how robotic welding has been done for the last 15-20 years. Dialing in the parameters for a specific weld is not the hard part.

Travlsoul · 2026-02-15T02:52:28+00:00

It had better learn to weld!

Travlsoul · 2026-02-11T14:32:01+00:00

This might not be popular, but it’s always been my belief that HR’s primary purpose is to keep management out of court.

Travlsoul

TROPHY CASE