Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi everyone ,
Looking for some advice in my aluminum venture.
Just got a 2017 ahp 200 and I love it so far.

Been doing some flat and 2F joints and I've noticed my puddles aren't super smooth. They look wavy maybe. I've reduced the flow to 15 from 20 but I haven't seen much improvement.
I'm not very experienced with aluminum. It's been 10 years since I've even touched it in high school.

I'll be doing little intercooler piping projects at home and some chromoly cages maybe some day.

Here they are.
60-120 amps
Act balance all the way down
Frequency I think 120
1/16 blue tip2% lanthinated ans 1/16 4043

Is it still too much gas ? Electrode is probably 1/8 to 1/4 inch ouch of the cup
Tried size 5 and 7'cup. It's all new to me
The videos have been amazing from this site. So I thought I'd ask
Thanks in advance.

To me, your beads show a simple issue of inconsistent filler feed. Aluminum is extremely finicky about the amount of rod dipped and your travel speed. Slight variations show up a great deal more than steel wire. Nature of the beast really.

Aluminum is rather different too in that the base metal, once hot, really soaks up a ton of heat requiring you to reduce the input heat to maintain the amount of “”soaking in” of the filler. In the bottom picture, you’ll notice the width of your bead is more narrow at the start. That’s down to the base metal not being as hot. Once hot, your puddle bleeds much wider. So, a trick I use to teach/train myself on consistency is:

Flat stock. Scribe 2 parallel lines the width you’d like your bead to be. Weld, but add filler only enough to reach the lines, and continue as you go. This will teach you speed, dip amount, heat control, and you’ll learn to watch your puddle more closely. It should also improve your feed control.

You'll also be much happier with more cleaning action. I personally am around 45 but never less then 35 the puddle gets to dirty and harder to control.

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Ok, thank you I'll just keep going then

5th Street Fab wrote:You'll also be much happier with more cleaning action. I personally am around 45 but never less then 35 the puddle gets to dirty and harder to control.

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These machines have a lot of cleaning in them. I actually started at 50. Then down to 30 now I think the lowest is 20.
I'll try some more

Efgillepskii wrote:

5th Street Fab wrote:You'll also be much happier with more cleaning action. I personally am around 45 but never less then 35 the puddle gets to dirty and harder to control.

Sent from my XT1635-01 using Tapatalk

These machines have a lot of cleaning in them. I actually started at 50. Then down to 30 now I think the lowest is 20.
I'll try some more

I know I have an ahp at home. It doesn't do well under 35 is what I was saying

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Ok thank you. I'll try that again tonight

If you're referring to the grainy (vs shiny) look they should have, it might just be your technique combined with your filler.

4043 tends to get grainy like they when it cools too slowly. 5356 should look better but you might just need to modify your technique.

I have this issue when I work on aluminum car parts. I need to use 4043 as the parts operate at elevated temps and I tend to cook stuff as I'm only a weekend warrior and lose my good since I weld so infrequently.