Miller 251...

[TollyWally]

Very nice Kevin.

Seldovia is one of my favorite little towns. For many years we would fish the start of the season out of Seldovia sometimes commuting by supercub from Kenai saving hours of running time.

The rough profile and color of your skiff hull remind me of two different boats I remember from there. A little puker boat, DannyBoy that would ferry tourons from Homer and a resident longliner the Joanne Marie. I have many fond memories of Seldahoovia! LOL my sig line comes from a bumpersticker I saw there.

I'd like to progress to the point where that little tig gun would make sense for me to use. Thanks for the tips and especially for the pleasant memories your post on that other site brought back. All the best.

[Accurate twrs]

I guess the big question is ... Do you weld forward like a mig gun or backwards. Can you weld with the gun on its side....?

[welderbob]

You always want to push the weld with aluminum. You would be suprised how many people come looking for a job. The have years of experience ,hand them a gun and they pull the weld (ok for steel ). the weld is all black. We say thank you and we'll call when there is an opening.

It does matter in what postion the gun is in as long as you "push " the weld.

Bob

[Accurate twrs]

Forgive me Bob... i was asking Kmorin about his auto tig gun for a better name... yes i know how very well to use a mig gun. Sorry i didn't direct my question better... Tom

[kmorin]

Accurate twrs
I weld with my left hand dragging (wrist back of glove) and feed wire into the front of the puddle. So I'd call that leading but the arc is either in the middle or back of the puddle while direction is toward me from extended right hand pulled in toward chest.

I lean the gun back about 15 deg so I can lead and wash the weld zone ahead and the key to welding with this TIG gun is to adjust the wire feed tube correctly and hold that point at or around forward lead edge.



The tungsten is shown moving back and forth in the puddle and the yellow filler wire from the left is shown in the feed location I use with the gun. This view is "under" the cup which isn't shown for clarity.



Looking back along the weld from atop the weld seam I'm welding toward the 'camera' and with the gun leaning back I'd call that leading, but it may be a different term for you? Trying to draw the arc cone in the lead position and the back swing position superimposed on one another may not make the best illustration we've ever seen but that is what I'm trying to show in this sketch.

I find the most confining aspect of the gun on pipe to be the constantly rolling or evenly repositioning required as you round the pipe. This is much more of a work out than a seam like I've shown here where you light up and step walk along with the pulse and the results are consistent and uniform.



The gun can be used in any relationship to the parent metal you can hold it- as long as the filler wire is not held above the work too far. If that is done the HiFreq may run to the wire depending on setting and arc length. If you hold the gun underhanded- where the gun is flat and the filler wire is above the tungsten- the hot gas flood can melt the wire and it can fall on the electrode; contaminating.

To avoid this contamination, I usually start with the gun case vertical and rotate into the flat position to keep the gas flow from 'drooping' the wire until the wire is filling into the lead edge of the puddle. This is one of the reasons I mentioned earlier that the gun may not be as much improvement for pipe as it is for seams. On the other hand, my pipe welding is vastly improved by the TIG Gun since I have even more trouble keeping both elbows free and bending smoothly at the waist and rolling around the pipe joint.

So I've learned to anticipate the wire drooping into the puddle when melted by the argon overflow because I'm not practiced enough anymore to make the welds otherwise.

Hope this helps define how I'm using the tool?

Cheers,
kmorin