How to TIG Steel

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There are all sorts of details to TIG welding Carbon Steel but here are the really important ones to get you started off on the right foot.

• Make sure your metal is clean enough. Cold rolled steel is sometimes clean enough to weld without sanding but  hot rolled steel has a mill scale coating that must be removed for good results..., that means grinding the mill scale completely off to clean shiny bright steel...not just polished over with a wire wheel but bare bright metal.  The is the first step to tig welding carbon steel.

• next make sure you are using a freshly sharpened tungsten as shown in the videos here.  I prefer 20% lanthanated tungsten because it suits my needs but there are several others that will work just fine for carbon steel.  2% thor, 2% ceriated, E3, and CK LayZr all work fine for tig welding steel

• When you are learning the standard cups that come with your torch work ok.  But pretty soon a Gas lens setup will help you weld better. There are 2 main reasons to use a gas lens...better gas shielding of your weld...and being able to use a longer electrode extension.  A longer electrode extension makes it way easier to see your puddle without straining your neck . 

• Argon is the shielding gas you need.  10% pure argon.  The flow rate you need is mostly determined by the cup size you use. 2 -3 cfh per cup size is usually about right. 2.5 almost always works for me.  So a #5 cup needs 12.5 cfh and a #8 cup needs 20 cfh.  All flowmeters are slightly different but 2.5 cfh per cup size will almost always work

• The 3 main things to avoid when tig welding carbon steel are 1. using too long an arc, 2. using too much torch angle, and 3. not shielding the hot tip of the filler rod with argon.

• The 3rd one is much easier when you use a gas lens cup like the jazzy 10 shown below

Simple TIG welding Settings for how to tig steel

Video on How to TIG Steel tubing using a jazzy 10 cup along with basic tips for tig welding carbon steel

Outside corner joints, lap joints, and tee joints are 3 of the most common. This video will get you dialed in on how to tig steel so that you can do all these

Now that you know the basics on How to TIG steel, you might want to check out these videos on...

tig welding 4130 chromoly ( its almost just like tig welding carbon)

tig welding stainless

tig welding aluminum