TIG welding techniques – which is better? Walk the cup or freehand

Walking through the cup vs. Freehand Tig welding techniques explored.

Ever since I learned to Tig pipe, I’ve heard welders argue about which welding technique is better, cup walking? Or free hand?

So which welding technique is better?

For me the answer is simple. Both have their place of course. It’s Ford versus Chevy.

You need to know how to tig weld using both techniques.

Why?

Because there are times when walking the cup is better, and there are times when the free hand is better.

For pipe welding in fabrication shops, cup traversal works very well and can be very quick and easy. But what about all the tig welding done on the jobsite where there are all sorts of things in your way? That’s when the freehand technique rules.

If you’re welding a pipe and you can walk on the cup, just do it because there’s nothing prettier than a TIG weld on the pipe made by a cup walker. But when the time comes when you need to work freehand, you need to be good at that tig welding technique as well.

Walking the cup works great on pipe about 2 inches and larger and also on most socket welds, even as small as 1 inch in diameter.

But for smaller diameter pipes and tubes, the best welding technique is freehand.

Freehand tig welding is also necessary for welding all sorts of things other than pipes. In fact, it’s used for pretty much everything except pipe welding, while cup walking isn’t very useful for much more than pipe welding.

But let’s be clear about the term “free delivery”. It does not mean holding the torch without leaning on anything. It simply means that the ceramic mug does not rest on the metal.

The hand is stabilized by resting part of the hand against the metal being welded. That’s the only way to be stable enough to do good accurate tig welds.

Doing a good tig weld means being able to maintain a tight arc. You can’t do that unless your hand is steady.