TIG welding for beginners
Three inputs at once, and a fourth thing you must not do. Here is the order to learn them in so it stops feeling impossible.
The four things happening at once
Hold the torch at a consistent angle. Hold a consistent short arc length without touching the tungsten to the puddle. Feed filler rod into the leading edge of the puddle with your other hand. Modulate amperage with a foot pedal as the part heats. Learn them in that order rather than all at once.
Learn them separately, in this order
The most common reason people find TIG impossible is trying to do all four at once on day one. Break it up.
First: no filler at all. Set the machine, clamp a clean piece of scrap, and run an autogenous bead — melting a line along the surface with no rod. You are learning torch angle, arc length and travel speed only. Do this until the melted line is straight and even in width.
Second: add the pedal. Same exercise, but deliberately vary the amperage — ramp up, ramp down, watch what the puddle does. You are building the connection between your foot and the puddle size.
Third: add the rod. Now dip filler into the leading edge of the puddle at a steady rhythm. Your torch hand is doing what it already learned.
Fourth: put it on a joint. Lap joint first, then a fillet, then a butt joint.
Each stage takes a session or two. Trying to compress them is what makes TIG feel like a talent rather than a skill.
Arc length: the discipline that matters most
Hold the tungsten roughly its own diameter away from the work — for 3/32 inch tungsten, about 3/32 inch of arc. Short, and consistently short.
A long arc spreads out, heats a wide area, loses gas coverage and produces a broad shallow weld. Too short and the tungsten touches the puddle.
Touching the puddle is the thing you must not do, and everyone does it repeatedly at first. When the tungsten touches molten metal it contaminates instantly, and from then on the arc wanders and spits. The only fix is to stop, remove the tungsten, grind the contaminated end off, and start again.
This is why the no-filler exercise comes first: arc length is the hardest single thing, and it deserves your whole attention before anything else is added.
Feeding the rod
Dip the rod into the leading edge of the puddle — the front, in the direction you are traveling — not into the middle and not onto cold metal ahead of it.
It is a rhythm rather than a continuous feed: dip, withdraw slightly, move forward, dip again. That rhythm is what produces the stacked-dime appearance, which is a consequence of correct technique rather than a thing you aim at directly.
Keep the rod inside the gas shield even when withdrawn. A hot rod tip pulled out into open air oxidizes, and the oxidized end contaminates the weld when you dip it back in.
Torch angle
About 15 to 20 degrees from vertical, leaning back the way you came — so you are traveling away from the finished weld with the torch tipped slightly toward it.
Less angle than that and the gas shield does not cover the puddle properly. More and you start blowing gas at the wrong area and lose coverage.
The filler rod comes in low from the opposite side, at roughly 15 degrees to the work.
Setting up the machine
Current type. DC electrode negative for steel and stainless. AC for aluminum — AC versus DC TIG covers why.
Amperage. A rough starting rule for steel is about one amp per thousandth of an inch of thickness — so around 125 amps for 1/8 inch. Set the pedal's maximum there and control below it with your foot.
Gas flow. 15 to 20 CFH for most work. As with MIG, more is not better — excessive flow becomes turbulent and pulls air into the shield.
Post-flow. Gas continuing to flow after the arc stops, protecting the hot weld and the hot tungsten while they cool. Roughly one second per 10 amps is a common starting point. Too little post-flow and your tungsten oxidizes the moment you stop.
The settings chart has the ranges by thickness.
Tungsten preparation
Grind to a point for DC, with the grind marks running lengthwise along the electrode rather than around it. This matters: circumferential grind marks make the arc wander, because the current follows the grinding grooves.
On AC, expect the point to ball over. That is correct behavior rather than a fault.
Use a wheel dedicated to tungsten. This is not fussiness — a wheel that has ground steel embeds particles into the tungsten and produces exactly the unstable arc you will spend an hour trying to diagnose.
Cleanliness, which is not optional
TIG is the least forgiving process on this site. Oil, paint, rust, mill scale and shop dust all contaminate the weld visibly.
Degrease, then grind or brush to bright metal, then weld. In that order — brushing first and degreasing second pushes contaminants into the freshly abraded surface.
For aluminum, use a stainless brush reserved exclusively for aluminum, and brush immediately before welding because the oxide reforms within minutes.
Your helmet may not be adequate
Low-amperage TIG produces very little arc light, and a helmet that triggers reliably on a 100-amp MIG arc can fail to darken on a 15-amp TIG arc. Helmets intended for TIG publish a minimum amperage rating.
Check yours before you start on thin material — auto-darkening helmets covers which ones state it.
What to expect, honestly
Most people produce a usable MIG bead in an afternoon. Most people need several sessions before a TIG bead is acceptable, and several more before it is repeatable.
That is normal and it is not a measure of aptitude. It is a coordination skill, and coordination skills come from repetition rather than insight. The people who give up are almost always the ones who tried to learn all four inputs simultaneously on the first evening.
What we would buy
1. The machine to learn on
AHP AlphaTIG 200X
AC/DC, a foot pedal, and enough adjustment to grow into without drowning.
AHP publishes AC/DC TIG at 10 to 200 amps with a 60% duty cycle at 200 amps and AC balance from 30 to 70 percent.
For learning, the relevant points are that it has a foot pedal, it has AC so aluminum is available when you get there, and its control set is deep enough to grow into without being so deep that you cannot find the three controls that matter.
What works
- AC output is what makes aluminum possible at all — this is the cheapest widely supported machine that has it
- 60% duty cycle at 200 A is a genuinely high rating for the price
- Adjustable AC balance lets you trade cleaning action against penetration instead of accepting one compromise
What does not
- The bundled torch and consumables are the first thing most owners replace
- The manual is thin. Budget time for learning the machine as well as the process
- 50 lb and a foot pedal means it lives in one place
2. One tungsten, both currents
CK Worldwide 2% lanthanated tungsten electrodes
Works on AC and DC, so you stop thinking about electrode selection.
Learning TIG is quite enough to think about without also learning tungsten selection. Two percent lanthanated works on both AC and DC, which removes the decision entirely.
Common sizes 1/16, 3/32 and 1/8 inch. Blue band. No thorium, so grinding dust carries no radioactive-material handling question.
Keep a grinding wheel exclusively for tungsten. A shared wheel embeds steel particles in the tip and produces an unstable, wandering arc that is genuinely hard to diagnose.
What works
- Works on AC and DC, so one box covers aluminum and steel and you stop thinking about it
- Contains no thorium, so grinding dust carries no radioactive-material handling question
What does not
- More expensive per electrode than unbranded tungsten of the same designation
- Still needs a dedicated grinding wheel — sharing a wheel with steel contaminates the tip
3. You cannot learn TIG in thick gloves
Tillman 24C TIG gloves
Thin kidskin, because feeding rod by feel is most of the technique.
TIG asks you to feed filler rod into a small puddle, judging the last few millimeters by feel. Thick MIG gloves remove that feedback completely, and beginners who try to learn TIG in them conclude they are bad at TIG.
Unlined kidskin, and the reference glove other TIG gloves are compared against.
They offer almost no heat protection, so they are wrong for MIG, flux-core or stick. This is genuinely a second pair of gloves, not a replacement.
What works
- Thin enough to feed filler rod by feel, which is most of TIG technique
- The reference TIG glove that other TIG gloves are compared against
What does not
- Almost no heat protection. They are wrong for MIG and dangerous for stick
- Thin leather wears through at the fingertips within a year of regular use
Who this is wrong for: Any wire process. These are deliberately thin and radiant heat from MIG or flux-core will get through them.
Questions people actually ask
Why does my tungsten keep touching the puddle?
Because holding a consistent short arc length is the hardest single thing in TIG, and it takes dedicated practice rather than being something you pick up alongside everything else.
Practice running beads with no filler rod at all until the arc length is steady. Adding the rod before that is what makes it feel impossible.
How long should the arc be in TIG?
Roughly the diameter of the tungsten — about 3/32 inch of arc for 3/32 inch tungsten.
Too long spreads the heat, loses gas coverage and gives a broad shallow weld. Too short and you touch the puddle, which contaminates the tungsten and means stopping to regrind.
Where do I dip the filler rod?
Into the leading edge of the puddle — the front, in your direction of travel. Not the middle, and not onto cold metal ahead of it.
It is a rhythm: dip, withdraw slightly, move forward, dip again. Keep the rod tip inside the gas shield even when withdrawn, or it oxidizes.
What amperage for TIG welding steel?
A rough starting rule is about one amp per thousandth of an inch of thickness — around 125 amps for 1/8 inch steel.
Set the pedal's maximum there and control below it with your foot. The pedal is how you manage heat as the part warms up.
How long does it take to learn TIG?
Most people need several sessions before producing an acceptable bead and several more before it is repeatable, against an afternoon for MIG.
That is normal. It is a coordination skill, and the people who struggle most are usually those trying to learn all four inputs at once rather than separately.
Sources
Read next
- TIG welding settings chart
Amperage, tungsten and filler size by metal and thickness, plus symptom-by-symptom diagnosis.
- AC vs DC TIG: which do you actually need?
What AC output does, why DC cannot weld aluminum, and how to decide before you buy.
- The best TIG welders for beginners
AC/DC machines for a first TIG setup, and why the bundled torch matters as much as the welder.
- The best auto-darkening welding helmets
Viewing area, optical clarity and low-amperage triggering, compared across four helmets.
- Welding gloves and jackets
Why MIG gloves and TIG gloves are opposite tools, and when a leather jacket stops being optional.
- Level 3 · TIG: aluminum, stainless, and welds you meant to look like that
TIG is slower, harder and more expensive than wire welding. It is also the only way to weld aluminum properly at home, and the only way to get a bead you would photograph.
Back to Level 3 · TIG, or start over at Find Your Level.
Ryder M.
Ryder M. is the hands-on owner behind Magoo Media Group. He writes Arc & Bead's buying guides and picks every machine on the site. What every recommendation is based on — and what it is not based on — is set out on How We Pick.