Trying My Hand at TIG Welding

 Well I have been busy these last couple of weeks building a new stainless steel glycol tank for my bigger anodize chiller build.
I was quite surprised when I went to purchase a tank of tri-mix ( Helium - Argon - CO2 ) for my MIG welder and got told by the welding shop. And I quote " That's expensive " and was never told a price. So I stuck with my tank of C25 Mig gas and welded my tank up. Since it Looks like the prices for everything are only going to get more insane I finally started looking into getting a TIG welder. The one I went with is sold by Primeweld
it's the TIG225X. I set it up today . I must say I SUCK at Tig welding currently. LOL. Especially on stainless steel. Aluminum I am ok on.
Steel was structurally fine but didn't look great. I guess I will have to practice a lot more. How about everyone else ? What was your first experience with TIG Welding ? Good ? Bad ?

 

First experience with Alu, TIG set at 20A, put the mask on, hit the switch and arc!
Moved slowly my hand over it trying to melt some wire, no dice.
The owner of the shop came and started laughing, set the current to 120A and proceeded welding easily.
Took the torch again, fired it, waited a bit and ... a hole and some molten alu on the floor!
That "bit" was to long, so to make it easier on me, i lowered the current to 85A and did some nasty welds on 3mm alu plate that for some reason did not brake after hitting it with a hammer, it just bent, so i must have sneaked in a few good spots.
Now i am OK at it, but not good as i was, glasses, mask, getting hard to clearly see what i am doing.

I think the reason I do ok on aluminum is I used to melt down lead for fishing weights . That and I solder circuit boards almost every day at work. LOL

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tommylight wrote:

Now i am OK at it, but not good as i was, glasses, mask, getting hard to clearly see what i am doing.

You can get lenses to fit inside the welding mask. They really help:



 

Well, when I was in my college during engineering we also worked with a tig welding machine, my initial experience was not good, however, after a few days, I did it very well.
Thanks