Hi everyone I am John, and I am new to welding, but loving it. I am a Graphic Artist that has been stuck doing Web Development work for a long time, and finally decided i want to take the time to learn how to weld. Something my dad tried to start teaching me as a teenager, but you know teens. All i thought about was girls... Whoops

Started talking classes at College of Southern Nevada's welding school, starting with TGAW class. Stick never seemed like something i wanted to learn, and i had such bad luck with MIG welding, so i went to TIG. I know now my MIG problems were because we only rented those crappy Home Depot Lincolns, and i know now we never used the right wire..


We i am just about half way through my TGAW class, and so far i love it. I find myself missing not being able to weld as my class is only 2 days a week. In the beginning i had a bunch of issues with the Carbon Steel coupons, but got better with the Stainless projects and now that we moved to Aluminum i absolutely love it.

First Project, probably 3 hours total torch time.
Outside Corner, 14 gauge carbon steel. 1/16 1.5% lanthanated Tungsten with ER70s-2 1/16 filler
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After completing outside corner, T joint, Lap, and Butt joint, we moved onto Stainless.
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This was one of my early lap joints.

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This was my T Joint.

Only had to do 2 of these projects, then on to Aluminum.
I knew with AL it was suppose to be much harder, so i decided to grab a bunch of the used scrap pieces and just run beads on them till i got more control of the puddle. Getting the Settings right helped a bunch.
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This was after probably 8 coupons, all with double beads. The last couple with my Instructors help, i made a couple changes to my frequency and balance till i got that.

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This was the 3rd try at outside corner. Other then the end, and i skipped a beat twice in the weld, i got a pretty good grade for it.

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This is my lap joint. You can see where i hit the tungsten with the filler. That and having some slight bead size inconsistency, this was still a decent grade.
Again, had a couple days between this day and the Outside corner, so again i spent time on scrap to get a feel again. Had to re-find what i liked in the settings, because I didn't write it down, and the kids who use the machine on other days completely messed with it.


Other then that, i find my self wishing i had a welder at home to practice with. So i am not looking at getting either the Dynasty 200dx, or the Powertig 255EXT. I am leaning for the 255 because of price, accessories. But my only experience is with the Dynasty 200dx so it is hard to leave what i know. Hard to get past their price tag though. I will be lurking a bunch, and asking questions here and there.

John