Days 7 and 8 of Welding Class

We're still working away at TIG welding. After all this is a TIG class! Last week I was welding aluminum. Now we have moved on to 316 stainless steel.  I missed two days of aluminum due to work conflicts. And missed a chance to try to weld a box out of aluminum. No problem though, there will be lots of chances to sit in on the classes that precede and that follow my mid-day class. It looks like there will be no shortage of chances to make up, or even get extra, hours of practice.


Anyway TIG on Stainless is sure different than aluminum. We were using pure tungsten with a round tip on aluminum. Now our tungsten electrodes are 2% cerium and are sharpened to a point. We also switched to DC electrode negative from AC. It also takes less amperage to weld the stainless.  Gotta run now but here are my best of the last two days. There not much, but this is my first ever training and I only have about 12 hours of practice so far.


The first picture (below) is a fusion weld on a flat position, lap joint of two pieces of  0.125" thick, 316 stainless steel, run without any filler.

 

 Below is my best bead for the session with filler (308L). Sorry for the bad picture. I struggled with lighting issues.