Tig bead good or bad

[3faze]

I am working on my tig welding and have been trying different settings on my dynasty 200dx and have been changing my technique to see if i can produce a weld that looks something like some of the welds posted by experienced welders on this forum and my tig welds started getting lines in them. I wasn't able to take a picture of the welds but found some pictures on the we that look something like mine. If you could tell me what I am doing wrong that would help and how would I fix this problem

[tallwelder]

Those lines aka crowsfeet on the bottom bead are from excessive heat, either let up a lil on the pedal, speed up, add more filler or all of the three! Good luck. Carl

[3faze]

I find that when i am tig welding steel I either end uo with a weld that has those crowfeet or I end up with a weld that has a lot of ripples. I get the usual ripples from where I dipped the filler metal and then i get ripples from where I moved the puddle forward. thats for the help so far and I am wondering I anybody knows how to get rid of those little ripples from where i moved the puddle forward.

[3faze]

I managed to take a some pictures and hopefully you can see what I mean about those small ripples caused by moving the puddle also in one of the welds the crater is bronze and i don't know why. For all of these welds I ground the surface to shine and poished it with scotchbrite. The filler metal was er70-2 so I don't know what caused the problem. My shielding gas is set at about 12 cfh. Any comments about the welds and what you think would be great.

[millermania]

I managed to take a some pictures and hopefully you can see what I mean about those small ripples caused by moving the puddle also in one of the welds the crater is bronze and i don't know why. For all of these welds I ground the surface to shine and poished it with scotchbrite. The filler metal was er70-2 so I don't know what caused the problem. My shielding gas is set at about 12 cfh. Any comments about the welds and what you think would be great.

These look much better than the first. I don't know about the bronze dimple at the end, but I have noticed that when I keep the torch moving and dip quickly, I get the rippling effect which is perfectly fine. If I do more of a move and pause with the torch and make a bigger dip (but less frequently), I get the stack-of-dimes look.

[tigman250]

the bronze spot is contaminants (i think) they ride on top of the bead until you finish it then it has nowhere to go so it lays on top. you can have the surface very clean and still get it i believe it comes from the material itself. for the ripples try stopping when adding filler, then advance a bit stop and add filler, advance stop add, advance stop add...........you get the picture. before long you won't even think about it, it will just happen. your welds are definatly improving, keep up the good work! just a tip, while practicing try to run your beads as straight as possible, it's all part of a sweet tookong bead and better to practice it now than try to "correct" it later on.

Craig