As a career welder/fabricator who has welded more alloys than most people have seen or heard about. Why am I watching this..? Oh right, Matt

Excellent video, Matt. I love your low-key and (sometimes) self-deprecating humor - mixed with, good, solid technical information. You clearly hit the points that most beginning welders struggle with.

wasn't in a class but was welding some stainless on a jobsite and this oldtimer (not even working just having a look at his friend's future office) walks up, stops me, twists my wrist to a different angle and says "now weld properly" 30% improvement to my welds. thanks, wise old timer.

“Like any good welder, I blame the equipment”. Classic line and this guy is great. Laid back and self-effacing during his video which covered a lot of great info for the laymen.

I did a welding course and for some reason ended up talking to three different teachers there . Each one of them told me to do thing totally differently from each other , which was a bit confusing at the beginning. The coolest thing was watching them weld in completely different ways but always having amazing results.

Okay frenchman speaking, Chartreuse is the name of a mountain range in southeastern France. It is more famous as the name is used by a French herbal liqueur made by monks since 1737. The liquor is green as your electrodes. If you are curious, you can find some importers in the US, it's 55%ABV and already quite pricy in France where I live next to the factory.

Matt, As a gearhead and fabricator I've been enjoying your exploits for some time now. A comment about the laser cut steel parts. As a part of my 30 years as a certified aerospace welder, I"ve worked directly with the engineers in the material engineering depts. We've found that what appears to be a clean cut at the edge of laser cut parts there is a thin oxidized layer left over from the laser. If welded as cut, there is a narrow band of a porous and brittle weld left behind. Verified via x rays of finished welds. There are some SAE studies verifying the same under high powered electronic microscopes. Up close, that narrow band looks like a sponge!!! Just a few moments dressing those laser cut edges results in a uniform solidly fused weldments. Just a light pass with an abrasive. Doing this you'll see some the grinding 'dust' is hard and crunchy, evidence of the oxidation and porosity. When terminating a weld, chopping the current all at once leaves the dreaded dimple or divot caused by the rapid cooling, shrinking of the weld puddle. Close microscopic inspection shows there are numerous spider web stress cracks radiating from the middle of the 'dimple/divot'. The technique to eliminate this is...at the end of the weld, slowly back off (pedal) the current but while the puddle is still molten, add just a tiny droplet of filler to cap the shrinking puddle then slowly back down the current while moving the torch in small circular motions. Don't forget to keep the inert gas flowing until the weld has totally cooled. I've seen top notch chrome moly tube race cars (top fuel dragsters) with every single weld terminated with the dimpled puddle, a disaster in the making. Even pre welded kit plane frames I've seen exhibiting the same. Everyone knows that 'big cracks' emanate from 'little cracks'. Why take the chance?? I'm surprised this issue isn't covered better in most all welding tutorials. Go figure???

The before and after on the welds is impressive ,I took a 2 year welding course along with a welding job, learnt everything under the moon about welding and id say that you summarized the most important parts very well.

It's been said that practice makes perfect, when in reality it's practicing with good technique that makes perfect. Big props for taking a class and increasing your knowledge base.

"A bad tattoo that someone traded meth for" I'm always at a loss to describe that sort of art, that's a beautiful description.

I was an industrial welder for years and your information should be very useful to many people but what made me hit like was the humorous delivery. Well done.

"A good pilot is always learning" -I'm proud to see another Matt making the world a better place. So much good info here. I've only ever done arc welding so far, but this makes me more excited about trying these fancier welding methods and materials.

My favorite comment was about the 240v outlet. "In that case, this was already here". Nice.

Never thought Welding Class would be this entertaining

Hi Matt (and whoever might be watching the tungsten preparation part)! Just one important remark on grinding tungsten. Those expensive tools are not expensive because they're fancy but because they insulate you from the tungsten particles getting grinded off the rod. Those are super harmful to your health. I remember when I studied mechanical engineering and we had welding classes the prof. was super insistent on "Guys for the love of life never grind those on a bench grinder, it's about your own health!" and it stuck with me.

Your honest failures are more helpful to society than you might know - whether they are something you have made and since regret or something you have bought/adapted and wish you had done it differently.

Started welding last year and it is like programming. Only very few get perfect on it, for the most of us it is about becoming less worse.

This Old Tony enters the chat

Nice TIG crash course! Only thing I would add, which I also learned kind of late, is to relax and breathe. If you use the "grip of death" on the torch, you're going to be too stiff to turn corners and make adjustments. If you hold your breath (like you would when shooting a rifle) your longer welds are going to suffer.

Boilermaker here. 30 years experience welding pressure vessels. Good video. Having your welds x-rayd is great incentive to get it right.

Don't spend 10 minutes grinding that ball of steel off your tungsten. Clip it off with side cutters then chuck the tungsten in your drill. You'll get a more symmetric cone at the end of you electrode with a drill spinning it. Don't run the drill too fast, you want the scratches on the end of the electrode to be pointed towards the tip.

The cooled torch will be really helpful in AC welding, too, even at relatively low current and/or duty cycle the torch will heat up much quicker in AC. It's worth the money.

LaYZr means Lanthanum, Yttrium, Zirconium. These electrodes were originally developed for automated inert gas welding.Therefore, since visual control does not play a role in such a process, it was necessary to create an electrode that would retain its shape for a long time after sharpening.

I have been a welder for 18 years and everything you said is spot-on. It's something you have to learn by doing. Any good welder has gone through the same frustrations you went through.

Re: grinding your tungsten electrode. A good college friend and roommate is a proper Welding Engineer at SpaceX working on starship. During the pandemic i worked there as an integrator. We didn't cross paths too much, but would text and such. At one point I mentioned welders using angle grinders with no guard or handle to sharpen their tungsten and he was... heated. Apparently SpaceX DOES buy those expensive sharpeners and if you use a grinding wheel on something *going to space* it will apparently matter.

The amount and variety of stuff you have "laying around" is always impressive.

Thank you for sharing👏

One item I rarely hear addressed in welding videos is the use of magnifying lenses. I lived in a state of denial or ignorance until I used a magnifying lens to aid my aged eyes. The difference in my welding quality was profound. Give it a try.

My buddy, Walrus (you my know him if you're into Chrysler Hemis) had me TIG welding in 10 minutes. There's nothing like having a good instructor. (I had never welded anything in my life before that and have since forgotten everything he told me because I don't weld, but it was fun to do it.) Excellent video.

"like any good welder, I blame the equipment" lol, thats the truest thing said in this video.

Great Video! The only two things I would have included cause they are cool are 1. Aluminum rusts a hard outer-shell instead of flaky grossness of steel. This shell melts at a significantly higher temperature and is the main reason for a a good pre grind/clean on aluminum. Some welders can modulate the signal to blast away the outer-shell with one portion of the square wave and to weld (input heat) with the other. My welder has a Cleaning/Penetration knob for deeper welds or better shell blasting. 2. Heat spreads in aluminum much faster than in steel. For this reason you need way more juice for the same thickness of material being welded. For the same reason as you approach the edge of the material (especially points and corners) you "push" the heat ahead of the work area and this concentrates as you approach an edge and it all melts away. Thus you need to ease off the throttle before you get there. Great Video! Oh and I guess 3... Aluminum expands/contracts MUCH more than steel and minor warping problems in steel will triple for the same project in aluminum.

I love your work. Clear, well organized. clevver and accurate. Thanks a lot

We should all do refresher courses every now again just to keep this on toes

Best of luck mastering welding, from one of the rare people on the internet who are supportive :)

Thanks. This is one of the most comprehensive tutorials on tig welding. I can't wait to practice all of your suggestions!

Beautiful, well informed video. Thank you Matt

Tig welding is like juggling and playing the harmonica at the same time while reading a book.

I've been learning welding at school for a couple years, but I learned some things in this video, thanks

Always enjoy your videos, your one of the best KZfaq content providers out there in my mind. Thanks for the lessons and laughs!

Great job on the video Matt! Thanks for making it.

You forgot the best weld method known to man, JBWeld.

Use a variable speed 1/4 " drill to hold the electrode when you sharpen one.

Great video ,always learning is a nice aspect of living . I enjoy your commentaries with the humour built in so smoothly. I’ve amassed quite a few followings over the years but seldom come across such quality of enjoyment as your efforts. Thanks

I built my own water cooler for my water cooled tig torch using a 1 gal gas tank as a reservoir, an on demand diaphragm pump that I had laying around and a automatic transmission cooler as the heat exchanger. And the cooling fluid is a 50/50 mix of distilled water and antifreeze, because my garage is unheated, and the antifreeze provides a degree of corrosion protection in the cooling system. I like the water cooled torch because it stays cooler and I can hold the torch a little closer to the tip without getting burned. I'd been mig welding for 30 years before I tried tig. Tig is a different animal, so I watched everything on youtube about tig that I could and got more confused and in my head about tig welding. In this regard a teacher will give you the "on the fly" tutelage that can lessen the learning curve substantially. Then you can spend more time practicing and applying what you learned rather than trouble shooting your issues. But alas, I'm stubborn and continue to teach myself the wrong way of doing things. This video has a ton of useful info in it as to the importance of certain things and the unimportant parts. Being able to see the actual weld puddle is paramount. Clean lenses and blocking out the light from behind you was something I learned on my own and I fabricated a hood for my helmet to keep the light from behind me reflecting into the inside of my lenses, makin it very difficult to see. I also wear prescription glasses which tends to compound the problem. You want the inside of that helmet to be as dark as possible, with no exterior light coming in while your welding area should be well lit. It's a PITA to have to learn this stuff on your own. If I'd taken a class, I would have shortened my learning time and saved myself lots of frustration.

I been welding for about 6 months, I realized that the most important thing is running on the hot side without melting holes in your work.

I still have that snap-on helmet somewhere, I picked it because that was the largest viewing screen on a helmet, and almost immediately I melted half of the decal off. I recently bought a Miller helmet from the gas supply store intown cost the same as the snap-on did, but definitely a lot better battery life and also a lot better functionality

Love the humor and mellowness, good job! Thanks for the thorough overview. You nailed it man!

Great job, remembering and explaining. love your style. thank you. and keep em coming.

Bill is great! He set me straight last year on Tig. Great video Matt. It was a good refresher for me haha.

Comfort is one of the first things should think about when starting to weld and I think it’s too often overlooked. You need to be as comfortable as possible when welding. That mean seated with head and arms in a comfortable position. Gloves on so you are not jumping when your hands get hit with molten metal. Proper helmet, cloths and shoes. Trying to weld squatted on the garage floor with arms fully extended while trying to avoid molten sparks will not result in the highest quality welds.

i am a retired welder and watched and i have to admit you narrated perfectly. i am impressed you did great. LOL let the people also know that practice makes perfect. then have someone grade your weld. and that applies on all different types of metal and thickness.

Love for the algorithm. Good to see you putting in the time to master the craft and can already see the improvement in those control arms. I did a speciality metal fabrication apprenticeship a few years back (before going back to engineering), mostly TIGing stainless for food and wine processing equipment. Was lucky to learn under some very skilled guys and eventually got Cert 7 qualified for high pressure stainless pipe work. It’s a rabbit hole for sure, but messing around with pulse settings can wield wonders for dialling in a consistent weld, getting the penetration without heat soaking the part.

Looking forward to Matt rigging up a laser scanner and a robot arm to keep the welds at a consistent distance, speed and angle...

im a federally approved welder in germany and i have no probelms with anything you said in this video. but id like to add two things: firstly: i cant stress enough how important the jacket and long sleeves are. they are not to protect you from heat but from the UV rays wich can cause severe burns after only a couple of minutes (seriously!!) secondly: timestamp 18:38 maybe not place your welding helmet glass side down if you want to prevent scratches?

I love this. pretty much describes all my mechanical tool knowledge - Start Doing (it wrong) .. either you learn the right way eventually or give up cause you're so horrible until someone shows you what you've been doing wrong all these years. my dad put a soldering iron in my hand as a child and ive been soldering ever since ... 30 years later i watched a louis rossman soldering video and learned... and immediately went and threw away half my tools and replaced them with cheaper better versions of the tools, and far more expensive and reliable consumables. overnight i went from a .. passable thru-hole electronics guy, to an adept surface mount capable solder-monkey.

This is definitely the most useful Tig welding summary I've ever seen. Great job, you got a new sub!

Nice video. I'm taking welding at Palomar college. Great equipment and instructor and its cheap. I hired a guy at a maker space that got me started. For the same amount of money I'm taking a semester worth of welding. stick, mig, flux core tig, al tig, and metal cutting. Also love send cut send.

i welded two things last week one of them held so i'm bacisally a pro now

A little side welding story some may enjoy... Most all have seen photos of the strange 'Side Hack' or 'Side Car' Smokey Yunick brought to Indianapolis in 1964 that he called the 'Capsule Car' that included a drivers compartment separate outside from the main chassis/body. The first weekend thru tech inspection, the car was considered unsafe by the tech inspectors. They would not buy off any of his welding. The old school inspectors were familiar with the welds they'd seen for years on the old roadster style Kurtis Kraft and Watson Indy cars, put together with either oxy-acetylene or stick welding. Much larger, fatter welds often on DOM tubing rather than the chrome moly that Yunick used for his design. With Yunicks military aviation background he was familar with the advantages of strength and stiffness of CrMo tubing vs the mild steel DOM many used and appreciated the TIG welding used in the aircraft industry. He could use smaller diameter tubing that matched/surpassed the larger OD tube most the others had used for decades. The reason why the inspectors would not approve of Yunicks car is they were not familiar with or had ever seen the smaller, cleaner, tidy welds that TIG welding can produce. It wasn't until a certified aircraft inspector showed up that worked as a weld quality control inspector at North American Rockwell as one of the additional tech inspectors. He declared these welds were not only sufficient but some of the best TIG welds he'd ever seen. The irony of this is Smokey not only taught himself how to TIG weld but he built his own welding machine from scratch using recycled transformers, capacitors, switch gear and rehostats sourced as scrap from the phone and electric companies!!! The only 'store bought' TIG component was the air cooled TIG torch, the rest was all DIY!!! Learned this from his column in Circle Track Racing magazine when he was the technical contributor years ago,

Your welded parts at the end sure look good! Great video, much learned! Thanks!

Can you make a video about your GD&T considerations for send cut send? Stuff like alignment tab clearance and tolerances for existing parts. That would be great!

I have learned on a handheld portable stick welder since I was 11 years old in our garage, and it took me the while to get good at it especially with all that slag it created that was hiding the actual weld. When I later on bought my own MiG welder it become so much easier to weld with it because I could see the actual weld straight away.

Thank you Matt! Your video is just mesmerizing.

This is the best explanation that I have ever seen, thank you!

I bought one of the first Everlast welders (when they first hit the market) about 20 years ago, a 3-in-1 that does TIG, Plasma, Stick. It still works the same as the day I bought it!

Loving your work Matt! Being genuinely entertaining while getting useful information into people's heads isn't a commonly encountered combo.

I taught myself to TIG weld aluminum via YT and it's hilarious to watch you make the exact same mistakes I did. Dipping your tungsten and having to stop and grind it each time is a very humbling experience. Oddly, I can't wait to do more. Great video! You earned a new subscriber.

I'm a big fan of Prime Weld. Nice gear, great support.

Very clear and concise explanation. Excellent!

This is sick! Going to weld for the first time in a bit, perfect timing!

I love the way you explain things in the warms of your words, makes me understand

Thanks for the video. You covered a lot and with a subtle sense of humor

Enjoy all your videos but this has been by far the most useful for me personally. You identified all the worst TIG mistakes I currently make. I suck less now! Thanks.

This was one of your best videos and they all are great. Coming along with you on a self improvement exercise we all can relate to- that was just plain cool. And instantly, I respect and admire Bill. Stay Awesome Brother Matt 🎩😎♠️💙

brilliant video - i really like your approach to sharing your learnings! thank you.

I really enjoyed this presentation. Good information, pace, self deprecating humor, yet a good flow of ideas toward a cohesive goal.

Hi Matt. Don't poke the filler into the pool. Let it melt in the plasma and it'll jump to the pool on its own. It'll always put the right amount in too. Your filler rod never needs to touch. Makes for a pretty weld as well.

A weird tip I picked up from my time TIG Welding: When you have a chunk of steel that's giving you hell because of contamination, hit it with Silver Rustoleum spray paint and then weld it. Something that offgasses from that seems to help. Never did figure out why it worked.

I liked this. Exactly the right mix of humour and knowledge wrapped in a neat vid. Thank you!

Thank you!

Your welds have improved immensely after taking the course. Ditch the pin vise and buy a cheap cordless drill and use it to spin your tungsten when you're grinding the point. The A arm looks awesome!

Thanks Matt for improving your welding skills. Your new grasp of basic welding skills will as well significantly help thousands of new technicians. Your excellent projects will now not expose viewers to unfortunate welding errors. Regarding grinding Tungsten; As a toxic heavy metal, all grinding dust should be captured and a personal respirator used. The same caution applies to grinding Tungsten Carbide tools as well. Matt, your humor is priceless. You are very funny. Your potential to influence budding Hot Rodders is significant. Keep up the good work. Our society needs your specific influence.

Thank you for sharing ❤👍

Much appreciated for the information

I have the alphatig 201xd. Love that machine. Super affordable and came with everything I needed to get started except for the gas and tungsten/filler. Works really well

You've been doing incredible work given you're self taught, but I really hope you get a lot more satisfaction out of your welding now you've got a broader skill set👍 A good looking weld is usually a structurally superior weld. Stop/start is a VERY limiting method 😕

This was great. Thank you!

Thank you for the video. It's always great to learn from your own failures and other ones experiences.

You've taught me that welding properly is just as complex as playing an instrument.

10:28 -- Matt, they make little thingys about the size of a Bic lighter that hold the filler rod for you. On top of it is a system of wheels (gears?), one of which you rotate with your thumb. Rotating that wheel/gear will move the filler rod forward or back. Supposedly this is easier than sliding the filler rod down your glove with your thumb. Check it out! I'm not a welder but I remember a welder friend telling me about this tool.

Good video presence, good delivery, interesting topic. Well done.

@superfastmatt Excellent work! Love the format including the humor, sarcasm, mistakes, etc. You've distilled months of learning down to 20 min, which I suspect will take many diyers (like me) beyond the half-assed level, with less swearing and blaming of equipment. Keep up the good work 🤘

Enjoy the videos. Don’t think it will take you long to appreciate the water cooled torch…even if you don’t go much over 120 amps. That said you mentioned the aluminum rod melting if you get the rod too close, which it can do. However what I tend to find is that it melts usually as you are trying to dip, if that happens it’s because the torch angle and the rod angle match if that makes sense. Think of the torch as a laser and the metal as a mirror, that’s how the heat acts in a sense. So if you get in the reflected heat you’ll make the rod turn into that balled up garbage. Only happens with aluminum, but feeding from a different angle will fix it. Not that you need my help I’m sure there’s 900 comments of useless info already haha.

Average Azerbaijani Weld

I appreciate that you're honest and humble. Thanks for the video, sums up things.

There’s a lot of good information in this video, and I appreciate that 👍

As a new welder myself, you have confirmed all of my biases and assumptions 👍

I took a welding course at a local Vo-Tech in 74 and welded for about 43 years. Your video piqued my interest as to how the training has changed over the years. You are learning good habits which will serve you well in the present and future. Multi-pass purged thick-wall steel or aluminum tubing is something backyard novices will probably never address, but it's a hoot to use a scope to see a beautiful bead on the inside of the tubing. If you ever have your welds tested by X-ray you'll soon appreciate welding as an art form and not merely a trade or a craft. BTW, plasma arc and laser welding was pretty much in its infancy in 74 but they're commonplace in some industries today. So, thanks for the video and happy welding as you continue to learn and develop your skills.

Great job good welding appreciate your humility

Thanks a lot for sharing the experience - I just started tig welding after many years of mig/mag and this really helped.