Welding Stainless Steel - How to Tig Weld it Like a Monster

Tig welding stainless steel is like an art form. It takes finesse, patience, a good eye, and willingness to effect the rules for welding stainless. What are the rules?

Rule 1...There is an old rule of thumb that says use one amp for every thousandths of an inch of thickness. For welding stainless steel , it takes a little bit less than that. For whatever over .125" multiple passes are in order and ordinarily 100 amps is plenty.

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Rule 2...never use a carbon steel brush or carbon steel filler rod. The weld might look fine for a few days but soon it will rust and make you look like the slug you are if you take short cuts like that.

Rule 3...get in and get out. Farting colse to getting the weld going once you light up, or welding easily slow builds up heat that you just can't outrun. When you light up, make sure you are ready to weld. Get spellbinding and race the heat. Distortion is a big deal with stainless too and low heat input helps forestall distortion. Low heat input does not necessarily mean low amperage. Sometimes a higher amperage will let you get in and get out and put less total heat in the part.

Rule 4... Use a gas lens . Gas lens collet bodies work better than old school collet bodies. They cost more but they work better. You need all the help you can get with gas shielding because not only the weld, but the hot tip of the stainless steel tig rod needs to be protected by argon. Why? Because oxidation of the hot tip of the filler makes the puddle sluggish. A sluggish puddle takes more amps to flow. More amps means more discoloration, more heat input, and more distortion.

Rule 5... Hold a tight arc. A long arc will make the end of your filler rod ball up and blob into the puddle. You don't want that.

Rule 6... Don't chase the puddle.  When welding sheet metal, sometimes the puddle will range for dissimilar reasons like magnetic military or heat sinks. Stay the course and go level ahead. Things will settle  in by themselves and be more uniform if you don't chase the puddle. 

Welding Stainless Steel - How to Tig Weld it Like a Monster

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How to Make portable Welding Curtains

If you don't care about being safe and the safety of others around you while you weld, then you are an inconsiderate Putz and you don't want to read what I have to say here.

But if you are interested in protecting the eyesight of others with a one-time small venture of time and money, then read on.

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I am talking about development portable welding curtains out of conduit, quadrate tubing, angle iron, or even Pvc pipe. A portable welding screen that will block Uv light but still let the welder to see inherent dangers like a forklift going by or an overhead crane getting too close.

Most welders make the frames for their portable welding screen from metal because..I mean..hello! they are welders.

The first thing to do is decree the size of the actual welding curtain. Then part and cut the metal to make a rectangle that is slightly bigger than the welding curtain without the frame.
Then cut 2 pieces for the outrigger legs that keep the stand for the welding screen. quadrate up the rectangle and weld. The attach the bottom outrigger legs. I have seen some portable welding screens that have 4 large ball bearings welded on to let them slide indeed in the floor. I have also seen very small casters attached to allow for easy movement. But none of this is necessary. The portable welding blind will be very light and easy to move around.

Once you are done welding, get some zip ties and fasten the welding curtain to the frame.

You are done. In less than one hour you can indeed unblemished a portable welding screen from start to finish.

Now that is a worthwhile investment.

How to Make portable Welding Curtains

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