Tig welding tips, questions, equipment, applications, instructions, techniques, tig welding machines, troubleshooting tig welding process
Did you use a chemical to clean the aluminum before you welded it? That blue is not something I've seen, but it certainly looks as though the start of that weld is rather wonky. No gas, or tungsten touching the alloy, or both...
Strange blue. Your practice looks good to me, even and structural. Those craters are an easy fix if you want. You using pedal, 4T or 2 T?
Nelson
Nelson
Stone knives and bearskins.....and a NEW EVERLAST 164SI !!!
That's my newly shared work welder.
At home I got a Power Tig 185 DV. Nice, but no plasma cutting... Nice tight arc after a second.
That's my newly shared work welder.
At home I got a Power Tig 185 DV. Nice, but no plasma cutting... Nice tight arc after a second.
There I was minding my own business when this wasp attacked me. Well, not exactly me but the arc! All I knew was that the arc went funky just as I started. When I looked, there was a wasp laying right there.
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- Wasp.JPG (28.5 KiB) Viewed 2034 times
This thread is a great idea!
I'm also soon to be a hobby welder, so it's nice with a thread like this to learn from others that's just starting.
Which size tungsten and filler?
How many amps do you set on the machine?
I'm also soon to be a hobby welder, so it's nice with a thread like this to learn from others that's just starting.
Which size tungsten and filler?
How many amps do you set on the machine?
When you stop your car you lighten up on the brakes just before you stop to prevent that lurch when the wheels stop but the cars still moving a bit.Gene.243 wrote:I'm on a pedal. Don't have 2T or 4T.
When I weld I do the same and dab a bit extra filler before the pool cools.
The thin aluminum is my toughest problem. If I haven't in a while I have to practice a bit before doing the actual parts.
Stone knives and bearskins.....and a NEW EVERLAST 164SI !!!
That's my newly shared work welder.
At home I got a Power Tig 185 DV. Nice, but no plasma cutting... Nice tight arc after a second.
That's my newly shared work welder.
At home I got a Power Tig 185 DV. Nice, but no plasma cutting... Nice tight arc after a second.
I'm glad to see someone likes it. I'm welding 1/8 inch Al with a 3/32 Tungsten and filler, with a 90 amp starting point.Futterama wrote:This thread is a great idea!
I'm also soon to be a hobby welder, so it's nice with a thread like this to learn from others that's just starting.
Which size tungsten and filler?
How many amps do you set on the machine?
No pictures today because Fido's butt.
nelson wrote:When you stop your car you lighten up on the brakes just before you stop to prevent that lurch when the wheels stop but the cars still moving a bit.Gene.243 wrote:I'm on a pedal. Don't have 2T or 4T.
When I weld I do the same and dab a bit extra filler before the pool cools.
The thin aluminum is my toughest problem. If I haven't in a while I have to practice a bit before doing the actual parts.
Many of my welds that I don't photograph get wide at the end. There is a point after about an inch that sometimes I remember to back off the pedal a bit. Sometimes I can get a button on the end, right now I am pleased if it does not crack as it cools. Yesterday I narrowed the width of my lap joints to about 1/4". Getting close. Today, Fido's butt.
I finally remembered what I changed on my power supply. I wanted to play with the cleaning balance and moved it toward more penetration. The result was not enough cleaning to see what was going on.
The good news is I'm back to my normal skill level.
The good news is I'm back to my normal skill level.
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Try reducing the amount of filler rod you add each dab, and increase your travel distance between dabs. This will help even out your beads and flatten the fillet some.
A trick I've found helpful when approaching the end of a weld, is to begin tapering the foot pedal so I have to hold longer to get the same penetration. This does 2 things: it greatly reduces the cratering at the end, and it keeps the puddle from spreading out too flat due to accumulated heat in the base metal.
You can practice this on flat beads. Just make a 3-4" bead, get the start hot, dab, slide, dab, slide and when you reach the approximate end, ease back the pedal and make yourself hold there until the bead soaks in to be as wide as the rest of the bead. It's a very good practice drill to help with aluminum welding.
Your latest pictures show a tendency of over-filling and I would suspect that the root of that weld is probably cold or even hollow. You're melting the top of the plate (upper toe) which tells me you have lots of heat, but your arc length is either long, travel too slowly, or you're not pointing the arc into the joint. Or all of the above But you are doing pretty good work for being self taught on challenging alloy!
A trick I've found helpful when approaching the end of a weld, is to begin tapering the foot pedal so I have to hold longer to get the same penetration. This does 2 things: it greatly reduces the cratering at the end, and it keeps the puddle from spreading out too flat due to accumulated heat in the base metal.
You can practice this on flat beads. Just make a 3-4" bead, get the start hot, dab, slide, dab, slide and when you reach the approximate end, ease back the pedal and make yourself hold there until the bead soaks in to be as wide as the rest of the bead. It's a very good practice drill to help with aluminum welding.
Your latest pictures show a tendency of over-filling and I would suspect that the root of that weld is probably cold or even hollow. You're melting the top of the plate (upper toe) which tells me you have lots of heat, but your arc length is either long, travel too slowly, or you're not pointing the arc into the joint. Or all of the above But you are doing pretty good work for being self taught on challenging alloy!
cj737 Thank you for your input. That was very constructive advice.
I'll give those things a try.
I can't take credit for being "self-taught," I did take an evening class at the vo-tech and the teacher still gives me advice.
I'll give those things a try.
I can't take credit for being "self-taught," I did take an evening class at the vo-tech and the teacher still gives me advice.
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