Padding beads and Filler wire feeding with the Aluminum Drill: Get your hands in sync for TIG Welding Carbon Steel ✋
Here's how to build the skill of feeding the filler rod on Carbon Steel by padding beads on aluminum:
Since we have been strictly focussing on learning to tig weld carbon steel, you might think this next training exercise using aluminum is out of place. But hear me out…
“If you want to get better at feeding the filler wire on carbon steel, weld aluminum”
Hold on a minute! How can welding beads on aluminum make you better at tig welding carbon steel?
Since aluminum requires much more filler wire feeding than steels, padding beads on aluminum is an efficient and cost effective training drill that will rapidly improve your filler wire feeding skills.
There is an old tale about a wrestler who was obsessed with building strength and toughness beyond what others thought possible.
He wanted to make his grip and throws unstoppable. One of the unusual training methods he reportedly used was:would use a tree as a training partner and struggle against the tree trying to develop explosive power and strength.
When asked why he trained against a tree, he said:
“After a tree, a man is easy.”
It might sound counter intuitive but padding beads on aluminum makes you better at TIG welding carbon steel.
I call this skill exercise the “the aluminum drill”
Essentially, this is stacking bead after bead on a piece of 1/8” or 3/16” thick aluminum.
Since aluminum requires much more filler wire feeding than steels, padding beads on aluminum is an efficient and cost effective training drill that will rapidly improve your filler wire feeding skills.
When you are first learning how to Tig weld, There is no better practice than padding beads.
Stacking one bead exactly halfway over the previous bead is a skill that will be used time and time again in a welding career.
And doing this with aluminum not only builds the motor skills of the torch hand ...but the filler rod had is required to get up to speed quickly due to the fact that feeding aluminum rod requires more hand action than carbon or stainless.
I call this the "Aluminum Drill".
But it all boils down to stacking beads with intention.
That means thinking about everything.
Thinking about the way you feed the rod...the ripple spacing, the way you hold the torch, the angle of the torch, the arc length, size and type of electrode along with tip angle or preparation, machine settings, gas flow rates, etc...
Doing the aluminum drill allows for experimentation.
If you really want to get the most out of the aluminum drill, alternate beads on both carbon steel plate and aluminum.
This simple twist in learning techniques has proven to be an effective training method from years of training TIG welding classes at Delta TechOps.
