Alright ladies and gentlement I'm struggling and require assistance. I've read numerous articles, lots of forum posts, watched lots of videos on youtube, and have been practicing as I go along but my TIG welding is still struggling.

This youtube video is one that believe describes what problem is. He goes into amperage, arc length, and travel speed just very briefly. I've found longer videos but those can get quite boring after a while. I'm sure you've all watched some of them. And truts me I know the number one recomendation is practice practice practice. I'm trying but I don't exactly have access to an excess of material to just scrap by making bead after bead so I have to do projects the trial by fire method. I digress...

Okay, keep a close arc, set your amperage correctly (roughly an amp per .001"), and keep travel speed up. So I can dial in the amperage pretty close. If I get everything dialed in my travel speeds seem to be okay to start. Problem is my welds look very dull to the point I know I'm overheating. I know this because when I stop welding and lift my helmet the metal is red hot. I believe this is because I start to increase my arc gap.

The reason for this increase is what I'm looking for help on. The reason I keep increasing the arc gap is because when the puddle starts to form with a very close arc gap there is litteraly no way for me to add the filler metal without touching the tungsten directly with the filler metal or the increase in puddle sizing rising up to touch. I mean if you're supposed to keep a gap anywhere from 1/16" to 1/8" well that's the size of your filler metal? I don't see how that's supposed to work.

Please help. I'm open to any suggestions. I just finished off my taillight/license plate bracket for my motorcycle and I nearly scrapped the part from frustration. I spent 3 days after working making all the pieces and nearly ruin the damn thing after 2 hours of welding.