tight or loose stacks of dimes ???? ( tig welds)

so when it comes to tig and bead look , is there a standard ?? on aluminum i can get half decent looking stacks , but with steel my stacks are always way tighter is this acceptable or should i keep trying to get them similar to my aluminum beads

 

Ideally every weld should have a closer stacked looked, even aluminum. Yes it looks cooler to the untrained eye, someone who doesnt know anything about welding.. However the closer the spacing or circles are together the stronger the weld is. The farther apart the more prone to cracking the weld will be. The weld should look like this (((((((( not like this CCCCCCC.

 

110% penetration test coupons for aluminum (welded in a fixture & purged on backside puddle key-holed) look more like a millipede than a stack o' dimes on both sides. For some reason many in off road fab tend to have an overly lose stack when it comes to mig welding. Most of the Tig welds from the off road guys on steel are fairly close stacked, and like Brian said, although commonly seen, a closer stacked Aluminum bead is best.

 

Like both Brian and Chase said. . .your beads should be closer rather than farther apart. Your puddles should be spaced so that the crater of the previous puddle is covered. . .any farther apart and your are producing a weak weld. The crater acts as a stress riser and if it isn't filled, or covered by the next puddle, that is where the crack(s) will start and if you have a whole string of beads that have exposed puddles you can imagine that the weld will be significantly weaker and more crack prone than a weld whose craters are filled/covered.

 

cool thanx guys mine are tight pitch say every 32nd or so if that,s what,s more acceptable i,ll worry more about hand control and consistant bead size

 

The spacing of the stack (as its been called) when Tig welding steel comes as much from the rhythm of the rod addition as anything.

 

The key is uniformity of the weld. If you were to put a straight-edge against the bead, ideally the entire edge would be touching. That's why tighter beads are stronger, they're more uniform, the heat is the same, the penetration is the same and the shoulder (that mite not be the proper term) is uniform, no stronger or weaker points throughout the weld. Same reason trigger welding is bad, the cold start on a mig is far worse than the "throttled back" portion of a tig weld, but same basic concept.

Brian Mapes example is perfect (((((((( is better than CCCCCCC Each of those dips at the top and bottom of the C where 2 meet is a thin spot where weld strength is less than optimum.

 

x...2