Tig welding tips, questions, equipment, applications, instructions, techniques, tig welding machines, troubleshooting tig welding process
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ONDGAS wrote:....notice the ball on my tungsten pulls to one side and almost looks like there is a split in the end of it....
tungsten 1/8 blue, and do the same thing and notice it's just not pooling nice....two puddles are around 80-100 amps and 75% bal and the lower one is when I try to add filler, it's almost like the filler is absorbed under the pubble....I hate aluminium? I feel like you need ten years experience on each conceivable weld in each conceivable position :evil:
Perhaps your machine has a fault in the AC waveform. A few questions and comments for you.

I. Confirming you have the Master TIG MLS? In reviewing the Kemppi manual, appears that when you select "more positive" on your machine you are actually adding more DCEP (increased cathodic etching, increased electron transfer to the tungsten and ionic bombardment to the workpiece). This protocol is the exact OPPOSITE on how Lincoln and Miller transformer/inverter-based machines are adjusted, if we are interpreting the manual correctly. On a Lincoln/Miller, increasing the " % " increases the level of DCEN and the heat into the workpiece. Figured you understand this, but noting the differences for context. Try welding with the waveform, frequency, and balance at factory settings. Note, images show annotated clips from the Master TIG MLS.

II. Confirming your work piece is 6061-T6 Aluminum? Thickness of material? On Lincoln/Miller inverter machines we prefer 2% La (BLUE) Tungsten for Aluminum/Magnesium and 2% Th (RED) for ferrous materials. DGP Tri-Mix WS2 (CREAM) for special applications. On Aluminum material 3.2mm (1/8in) and greater, we run an 1/8" electrode with a balled end. Aluminum under 3.2mm, we switch to 2.4mm (3/32") Tungsten and down to 1.5mm (1/16") Tungsten for even thinner Aluminums. Although the balled Tungsten profile is common on transformer rigs, we find the spherical end maintains arc consistency, helps focus the plasma jet, and combats split ends. We also use a standard blunt end and regular 2:1 sharpened point with equal results.

III. Learn to appreciate Aluminum. The material requires a different mindset. In material preparation/fitup and when welding. Uncertain with your existing level of hood time on Aluminum. We prefer to START off someone NEW to TIG on Aluminum. The perceived "violence of action", IOPO, forces a welder to learn how to develop the molten puddle, control heat input, and develop sound tactics (dip, move; dip, move, etc a la a metronome) during the weld out. Also, never be in a rush to finish a weld line. Slow things down. You're in control of the process, not the torch or the pedal. Once you improve your Aluminum abilities, switching to ferrous material is less challenging.

IV. Online training and focused practice. As you know, Jody C. has a virtual bank vault replete with excellent video content and commentary on how to approach Aluminum welding. Another outstanding online source is Arron at http://www.6061.com/imagegallery.htm. His one-time, unlimited access, $45 subscription for professional Aluminum TIG training is worth it's weight in Scandium. Note, have no existing professional relationship with http://www.6061.com and above comments are not a funded endorsement.
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ONDGAS
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Thanks arclight that's some in depth advice!!!

Yep that is the machine I have and I have a previous post questioning how to cross reference the Lincoln miller percantage based balance to the kemppi and I have a online chart I use. I'm on my phone so I might have to just screen shot it but I'll add it below.

I'm using 1/8 blue tungsten because I have a subscription to the 6061.com tutorial and Aaron reckons he just uses the 1/8 for pretty much everything and suggest balling the tip so that's what I have gone with. I admit I haven't followed his specs 100% because I simply don't have the exact belt sanders and polishing tools as he does ( he grinds, then belt sands then polishes on a buffer his tungsten)

To be honest I'm happy with my welds on scrap, as in - on the bench with nice clean material in nice positions, where I struggle is when there is a variable eg. Welding a throttle body flange that I bought which is alloy(who knows what kind) to a thinner material of pipe, so it's a curved weld thick to thin and just plain awkward. 99% of my welds are for my own car so I don't mind it not looking sexy and to be honest don't mind it failing ten times over cause it's a learning experience and it's still cheaper then paying to get done elsewhere. I say this cause I understand that I'm out of my league attempting these welds but basically I have no choice I need to get it done.
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Rubbin' is racin' son
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Sheesh, I doubt the problem is this complex. No need to get into all the technical just yet, its a welder meant to weld, seems like it welds but it aint perfect.

There are SO many variables when TIG welding, its not even funny, then there's TIG welding Alum which adds even more shit to worry about.

I read some of the posts so I am not 100% sure what you did already but here's what I recommend,

First of all, Nail is right, you are way too close, you look to just be burning into the alum to show but that ain't the way to test it, matter of fact I have never seen anyone test it that way. Run a bead and see what it looks like.

With TIG, its easy to come to the conclusion that the physical universe around you suddenly changed and something in the machine magically changed and now its welding properly, I highly doubt that's the case.

There is a reason for it and it could just as well be your angle of the torch, tungsten contamination, base metal contamination, insufficient gas flow, kinked hose and the list goes on. Those are things i would look for before getting complicated, someone else already figured all the other shit out, its up to you to follow the directions, not reinvent the machine and verify the original engineers did their job, at least not yet. Start with the basics and go from there.

There was a thread here, recently with someone who just couldn't get his machine to weld right and pages and pages of replies and it turned out to be his gas lens...........

Edit:

http://forum.weldingtipsandtricks.com/v ... 7&start=40

48 answers trying to solve this problem.
if there's a welder, there's a way
exnailpounder
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The gas lens guy reminds me of a story...using my friends truck to do some work for him....truck dies out...I start pulling spark plugs, checking wires, cleaning out the oxidation on the contact points in the distributor cap, doing everything I can think of. I can't get it to run. I call him...he says "the truck has 2 gas tanks, one is empty, flip the switch to the other tank" :oops: ....it ran. Might as well try everything else first right? :lol:
Ifyoucantellmewhatthissaysiwillbuyyouabeer.
electrode
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exnailpounder wrote:The gas lens guy reminds me of a story...using my friends truck to do some work for him....truck dies out...I start pulling spark plugs, checking wires, cleaning out the oxidation on the contact points in the distributor cap, doing everything I can think of. I can't get it to run. I call him...he says "the truck has 2 gas tanks, one is empty, flip the switch to the other tank" :oops: ....it ran. Might as well try everything else first right? :lol:
:D
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:lol: :lol: :lol:
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electrode wrote:
exnailpounder wrote:The gas lens guy reminds me of a story...using my friends truck to do some work for him....truck dies out...I start pulling spark plugs, checking wires, cleaning out the oxidation on the contact points in the distributor cap, doing everything I can think of. I can't get it to run. I call him...he says "the truck has 2 gas tanks, one is empty, flip the switch to the other tank" :oops: ....it ran. Might as well try everything else first right? :lol:
:D
ren&stimpy.jpeg
:lol: :lol: :lol:

:lol: :lol:
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ONDGAS
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Olivero

Thanks for your input

I tend to agree that the issue is me as history with me shows it's usually something I did that is making my welds shit and not the welder. I'm not home ATM but after all the dramas I just picked up the torch and welded some lap joints that I needed for a little bracket And wow... that addictive feeling of nice shiny puddles that just swallow up filler rod I swear I could hear Barry white music playing in the background and rays of sunshine and rainbows shooting from the workshop. Anyways what I mean is when it works it works great but there has to be a variable which it's not liking and that variable is driving me crazy.

Question: could it be that I'm welding and halfway through a puddle I hit some sort of contamination and with current traveling up and Dow from the electrode I'm sucking up some crap and it's sticking to my electrode? Then with enough time/cleaning action the tip of my electrode cleans itself?
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Trying to weld galvanized metal will really mess up your tungsten but welding aluminum won't crap it up unless you dip. You will get a little oxidation on your tungsten but not enough to mess with your weld. When you weld on DC your electrode will stay nice and bright as long as you have a good post flow. It's very difficult if not impossible to weld through contaminated AL. I am guessing you are getting out of position a little and changing your arc length or torch angle and that's giving you some headaches. If your metal is clean then you shouldn't have any problems but sometimes dirty filler will cause grief.
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ONDGAS
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I'm starting to think the throttle body flange I purchased might have some sort of anodise on it. I know it sounds stupid but it doesn't look like anodise but it doesn't look like raw aluminium either. I just wrote it off as me being silly because it's sold as being used for welding but I'm having doubts and that could explain everything don't you agree?
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exnailpounder
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ONDGAS wrote:I'm starting to think the throttle body flange I purchased might have some sort of anodise on it. I know it sounds stupid but it doesn't look like anodise but it doesn't look like raw aluminium either. I just wrote it off as me being silly because it's sold as being used for welding but I'm having doubts and that could explain everything don't you agree?
Sometimes extruded and die-cast AL can look anodized. I would bet your throttle body is die-cast. Can you scratch it easily? If you can, it's not anodized.
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cj737
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Anodizing certainly will scratch easily. Perhaps it's better to examine the aluminum after scratching to determine if it's anodized or still raw/untreated? Anodized will show differently in the scratches where untreated looks largely similar.
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http://www.thefabricator.com/article/tu ... tural-tube

Anodizing is a scratch resistant coating. "anodizing creates a scratch resistant coating comparable to Sapphire, the second hardest substance after a diamond" Great article...worth a read.
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cj737
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exnailpounder wrote:http://www.thefabricator.com/article/tu ... tural-tube

Anodizing is a scratch resistant coating. "anodizing creates a scratch resistant coating comparable to Sapphire, the second hardest substance after a diamond" Great article...worth a read.
Thanks for the link, but having owned saltwater boats for a rather long time, ample motorcycles, and building stuff with anodized aluminum, I will rest my case on my experiences. I never said it wasn't scratch resistant, only that it can, and will scratch easily. Think I'm wrong? Step onto anyone's saltwater boat and look at their T Tops, handrails, etc. You'll see plenty of scratches. Or motorcycle forks, or triple trees, or....
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Depends on the quality of finish. If you're implying that even colored finish anodized will scratch as easily as raw AL then you need to read the article. ANYTHING can be scratched :roll:
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Regardless of it being anodized or not, it really doesen't make a difference, I have welded lots and lots of anodized aluminum and it welds just the same.

Welding looks easy sometimes but in truth, we all are thinking with a lot of variables at the time like the torch angle, weld gap, how far down is the pedal, liquidity of the puddle, movement speed, filler addition rate, wind, the surroundings, staying straight on the seam, consistent moving speed and the list goes on. After a while they become second nature to you but until then, it's not easy, even when you get it, its not easy.

Welding is not easy no matter who you watch, we can make it look easy and I do and the people I have trained all say I make it look SO easy but once they go under the hood, they see its now not so easy.

Just make sure you understand what you are doing and why the various things are important to have right. Robotically following instructions makes it difficult to be a welder, makes for a good robot. Knowing how it works, why it works when it works and what all the little variables can change, then your cooking with gas.

Took me weeks of studying for 3-4 hours every day of just pure welding, metallurgy, shielding gases, welding technology and welding guides and welding different metals, oxidization, passivation, pickling and the list goes on. I searched far and wide online, this is so I can understand what I am doing and seeing and act accordingly.

To answer your question,

It is possible to hit contamination going along a piece BUT since the temperature at the point of your electrode is so fecking high, Its almost impossible for anything to stick to it unless you take the heat off. Consider this, 1/8" or 1/4"" away from your electrode your able to make a puddle of molten metal, right at the source will be way hotter. In terms of contamination like oil or grease or such things that's impossible, they evaporate far before they would ever get close to your electrode, dirt and other things can get into the weld even if its just carbon after the material got fried by the sun itself, that will contaminate the puddle. Like Nail mentioned, even if you dip your electrode, it still shouldn't make your welds too bad, its annoying but you can still get decent welds until you decide to get up and cut it back.

There, end of lecture 1 :lol:
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exnailpounder
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Golf clap for you Olivero.
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exnailpounder wrote:Golf clap for you Olivero.
You and these terms, what is a golf clap?
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exnailpounder
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Olivero wrote:
exnailpounder wrote:Golf clap for you Olivero.
You and these terms, what is a golf clap?
:lol: Nothing nefarious...just meant good response.
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exnailpounder wrote:
Olivero wrote:
exnailpounder wrote:Golf clap for you Olivero.
You and these terms, what is a golf clap?
:lol: Nothing nefarious...just meant good response.
Lol, thanks. now I get to google another word.

Having fun poking at the foreign guy aye?

That's some creepy looking clapping going on above me here.
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exnailpounder
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:lol: Not so much that your from another country..it's just that I'm getting friggin old :lol:
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exnailpounder wrote::lol: Not so much that your from another country..it's just that I'm getting friggin old :lol:
Haha, I guess that would do it too :lol:
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Olivero wrote:
exnailpounder wrote:Golf clap for you Olivero.
You and these terms, what is a golf clap?
Since no one actually answered this,

Have you ever watched a golf tournament, either on TV or in real life?

A "golf clap" is when the folks watching you putt out applaud, but very quietly, so as not to disturb the folks putting on the next hole. It makes very little sound.

It's also a movie reference to Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez in "Men at Work." I think this was were Jeff was going, for some odd reason... :roll:

Steve
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Otto Nobedder wrote:
Olivero wrote:
exnailpounder wrote:Golf clap for you Olivero.
You and these terms, what is a golf clap?
Since no one actually answered this,

Have you ever watched a golf tournament, either on TV or in real life?

A "golf clap" is when the folks watching you putt out applaud, but very quietly, so as not to disturb the folks putting on the next hole. It makes very little sound.

It's also a movie reference to Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez in "Men at Work." I think this was were Jeff was going, for some odd reason... :roll:

Steve
I already have the poor guy spinning...I knew he wouldn't know about the Men at Work movie. That shit bomb in the locker is one of the funniest things I ever saw in my life :lol:
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Badges we don't need no stinking badges
I have more questions than answers

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