Last night in my sleep I too came up with what I thought was a brilliant
invention....  Patent pending.

Having realized a couple of weeks ago that my OA gas-welding failed to
meet my stringent QC standards, a friend suggested I invest in a TIG
welder.  After viewing tons of Youtube videos online demonstrating the
ease of TIG welding I bit-the-bullet and ordered a machine. The TIG
welder arrived a couple of days ago, but it is so far not what I was
expecting.

My problem(s) are that I cannot quite see the puddle; from behind my
face-mask there appears to be very little difference between an optimum
puddle on 4130 tubing and a big hole; I have not yet figured out how to
keep track of where the far end of the filler-rod is located when I'm
hiding behind inside a helmet, etc ...

All my problems appear to be related to seeing what is going on; things
don't appear at all like they do on Youtube.

So my brilliant invention of the wee hours of this morning was to adapt
a video camera to serve as my real-time video camera.  Using digital
filtering I could using a camera to monitor my welding environment. The
digital filtering software could use some sort of non-linear filtering
algorithm to show the work area in somewhat normal illumination, but
also display the TIG torch and associated arc/puddle in vivid detail.
It could be software adjusted to meet the exact melting temperatures of
whatever alloy I was using.

This morning I had the wind taken out of my sails ...

http://visiblewelding.com/


http://www.visiblewelding.com/Videos/Alum.TIG.closeup.avi


RBerglund

Not to worry Robin. The key is getting the right face shield transparency (darkness).

The other thing you can do is increase the ambient light on the work with
a 200 watt spot light.  This allows you to see more of the work before
you strike a spark and reduces the contrast after you strike a spark believe or not.


Also get yourself some magnifying reading glasses and get your face closer
to the weld.

Hang in there it is worth it.


Paul Lamar

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