TIG welding is the hardest to master, and the main reason for that is there’s a lot going on all at once. If you’ve got the basics of TIG welding down, but you’re still trying to achieve the ‘stack of dimes’ effect, you’re probably sick of hearing, “have you checked your settings?” Try some of these suggestions for getting the perfect weld instead. 

1. Clean Your Metal

When it comes to how clean your workpiece is, TIG is the most unforgiving. Any kind of rust, paint, oil or otherwise that hasn’t been wiped or ground off your base metal can seriously impact your weld, and not in a good way. 

Go over your workpiece with a grinder or a wire brush to get rid of almost everything that is going to cause issues. Then you can give your material a good wipe down with acetone or a low VOC cleaner. 

Don’t use a heavy-duty cleaner; even after it has dried, residue remains on the surface of your metal. This residue will give you a dirty weld, and you’re probably going to create mustard gas as you try and burn through it. 

2. Use the Right Tungsten & Prep

Not every tungsten is suited to every metal, so it’s important to pick a tungsten that will work well with the base metal. For example, a gold-tipped Lanthanated tungsten is a great all-rounder, but if you were working with only aluminium, a white-tipped Zirconiated tungsten would be better. 

If you’re not sure which tungsten will work best for your job, we have a tungsten selection guide that covers all the properties, pros and cons of each type of tungsten. 

The other thing that will improve your weld is how you prepare your chosen tungsten. You almost always want to grind your tungsten to a point, and you always want to grind lengthways. 

If you grind your tungsten in a horizontal position to the wheel, you end up including more grooves across the top, which the arc has to navigate. Grinding lengthways so the grain runs in the same direction as the whole tungsten will give you a more focused arc. 

Keeping a separate, dedicated tungsten grinder (preferably with a diamond wheel) will also help to keep your tungstens from picking up contaminants from anything – like steel or stainless shavings – that are still present. 

3. Feeding Your Filler Rod

A great way to improve your TIG is by practising your wire feeding. There are a couple of ways to add filler, but one good technique is to hold it like a pen or pencil. 

Rest the wire on top of the middle finger, pinched between the forefinger and thumb (with the thumb further back). Push it through by bending back the forefinger and middle finger down the rod and then pushing them forward, dragging the filler metal with them, using the thumb as a guide or to help if necessary. 

You can make your feeding a lot easier if you don’t hold too far up the rod. Having roughly 10cm of rod out in front of your fingers is ideal; otherwise, you could lose control as it wobbles around.

To get an even-looking weld, it’s also good to try and dab an equal amount of filler into the pool each time. A good rule of thumb for adding filler wire to your weld pool is to dab the width of your rod. If you have 1.6mm thick filler, you want to add roughly 1.5mm into the pool. 

4. Don’t Melt the Filler Rod Directly

By ‘directly’ melting the filler, you’re using the heat of the tungsten or the arc to melt the filler metal. Your filler rod shouldn’t be balling or ballooning at the tip. 

Using the arc to melt your metal won’t give very good fusion, as the metal often ends up sitting on top of the workpiece rather than actually building up the joint. You want to be pushing your filler into the weld pool, as it’s the molten pool that then melts it. 

5. Keep Your Tungsten Clean

Dipping is natural. Whether you’ve gotten too low and put your tungsten into the weld pool or you got too close with the filler rod and touched it against the tungsten, everyone does it. The most important thing is to make sure you clean it as soon as it happens. 

If you’ve dipped your tungsten, you’ll need to pause your weld and regrind it to remove the contaminants. Unfortunately, once it’s been dipped, you can’t just burn that extra metal off, and if you do, it’s going straight into your weld, where it’ll cause issues. 

If you don’t want to stop what you’re doing to regrind your tungsten, having some pre-prepared tungstens on the side makes it easy to swap tungstens on the go. Then, when you’ve finished your weld, you can regrind any that need cleaning in one go. 

6. Use the Right Amount of Gas

Getting ample gas coverage for your weld makes a world of difference to the final result, so why not just crank it up all the way? Wouldn’t that be best? No, it wouldn’t. Having too much gas is actually bad. 

If you’ve got your gas flow all the way up, it creates turbulence, which destabilises your arc. Not to mention, pouring unnecessary gas over your weld is wasteful, and you’ll need to replace your cylinders more often. 

Stick to the recommended gas flow rates; we recommend 8-12L/m, and if you do need more, just go up a little bit at a time.

7. TIG Gloves

There are a few types of safety gloves you can get to protect your hands, but getting some TIG specific gloves is definitely the best way to go if you’re TIG welding. 

They’re thinner, so you have a better feel of the torch and the filler wire you’re feeding through your hand. They’re also still fully protective, and because a lot of TIG is done at lower amps, it doesn’t matter that they’re thinner because there’s less heat to absorb. 

8. Perfect the Arc

Getting your arc right is going to have the biggest impact on your TIG welds. To do that, let’s first talk about distance. 

In general, keeping your tungsten roughly 3mm from your joint will give you enough space to add filler while also keeping the arc concentrated and covered by the gas. 

If you get too close, you’re more likely to dip your tungsten; if you get too far away, your puddle becomes wider, and you lose the focus of your arc. 

Next are your angles. Holding your torch vertical from the weld might seem like the best way to get proper gas coverage, but you lose your line of sight, and it makes it a lot harder to feed in the rod. 

Instead, you want to turn your torch about 10° from vertical, in the opposite direction of travel. This gives you a bit more space to see around the torch and creates a bit more room to add filler without worrying about hitting the tungsten.

For both of these, consistency is key. Make sure you’re in a position where you can maintain your distance and angle without becoming uncomfortable or losing vision.

9. Shield the Tip of Your Filler Rod

While you don’t want the tip of your filler rod so close to the arc that it’s melting, keeping it in the area the gas covers is recommended. 

Having the gas cover your filler rod helps keep it contaminant-free and stops it from reacting with the atmosphere while it’s waiting to be added to the weld.

10. Swap Your Torch Consumables

If you’re swapping between metals, it’s not a bad idea to swap the consumables on your torch as well. 

Even though TIG welding doesn’t spark or leave spatter, the consumables on your torch will still have remnants of whatever was just being welded. These little bits could potentially contaminate your next weld, so having a dedicated set of consumables gives that extra bit of protection for your weld. 

This can be especially helpful for stainless and aluminium, as they’re incredibly touchy metals when it comes to cleanliness. 

11. Reduce Your Arc Slowly

When you’re finishing a weld, don’t just let go of the pedal or leave your finish amps as high as your peak ones. 

Instead, ease off slowly (and with a good post flow afterwards!) to avoid craters, pinholes and cracks in the weld. Your weld is hot, and suddenly cutting that off can shock your metal, which often results in cracking.

12. Gas Lens vs Standard Collet

Gas lenses make a world of difference to the gas coverage your weld gets. They’re generally wider, and they more evenly distribute the gas across the covered area. 

They also create a more stable plume, so it’s directed straight out of the cup and onto the weld. That’s why, with a gas lens and larger gas shroud, you can have your tungsten stick out further without issues.

13. Select the Right Filler Rod

Your filler rod material needs to match the base metal or be as close as possible to achieve the best possible weld. 

That means using a 4043 aluminium filler rod when working on 4000 series aluminium. If you’re not sure what kind of material you’re working on, except that it’s stainless steel, you can use a filler rod like 309L, which is designed for welding dissimilar metals together. 

As well as the right type, you also need to use the correct size filler rod. If it’s too thick, you’ll need too much heat to melt it and burn through the base metal first. On the other hand, too small a filler rod, and you won’t have enough metal to fill the joint properly.

A good rule of thumb when picking a filler rod size is that it should be smaller than the plate thickness that you’re welding. 

14. Do a Dry Run

Doing a dry run along your joint before you start your arc lets you know if you’re going to be able to make the weld comfortably without running into anything or getting stuck. This is especially true for welds in tight or cramped spaces where your elbows might bump into things as you go. 

If you’ve got a particularly long weld, it might also be a good idea to rest your hands on something so they don’t get tired or shake during the weld. 

15. Keep a Consistent Travel Speed

Your travel speed should be the same the whole way along the joint. A consistent travel speed will give you a consistent weld bead, which is what you’re after. It will also keep your heat input even across the whole joint, so you won’t have any excess distortion in areas.

A good way to determine how fast you’re travelling and whether it’s consistent is by watching the width of your weld pool. It should remain the same width the whole way along, which means you’re travelling at a steady pace. 

Your puddle width, in comparison to the weld bead width, will also be impacted by how much filler rod you add with each dip. However, you want to add the same amount of filler each time as well, so this is a good way to practice getting everything to be consistent.