Oh yeah, ive only had 1 leak so far, suspiciously right where one of those tack welds are.

Did a small batch if these and getting used to it, what a pain lol. I am melting down the god aweful tack and letti g it crater as much as possible. Seems to help. Pedal pulsing seems to help also. The bevel actually doesnt locate it its just there to piss me off, it does look just like those mcmast...

Yeah its pretty bad, i took the torch and tried to melt it down and blend them in but theres so many of these, i think it will take too much time to do that to all of them.
So in the future i will make a jig to eliminate tacking and lose the bevel.

Had time to try a couple. Need some practice lol

Its been a busy couple of weeks but Im getting back on this aluminum today. I am happy to report there are zero leaks in the first batch of filter housings! I really feel they were leaking due to porosity in the welds which was likely happening because of my old welders desire to completely skip cle...

Heres my reg Oscar, I thought I had the helium scale in the pic, Ill go get another. Flowing 10 cfh of helium on this thing is just about the minimum it can flow and very touchy at that low flow rate. Actually Im sure you dont need to see it, the scale starts at 20

Thanks for the compliments Olivero! I quit doing the fusion pass, it took a bit of getting used to but the welds are looking like the one on the last page, of coarse I didnt think to take a pic :( got into a hurry. I sent about 50 of these, they tested about 20~25 or so and not one single leak yet! ...

My reg is calibrated for helium but your right oscar, i was looking at the argon scale O.o


Havent had a chance to watch that entire vid yet, but i have tried welding AL on dc with 100% helium before not going to bother with it anymore lol it wasnt good to say the least.

Ahhhh i see that works. Still using a #6 cup with the 5/32? Were you welding some thick AL or do you just prefer the bigger tungsten?

I know i have one helium reg but its been so long since ive been in the welding booth im not 100% its on the right bottle. Ill check in the morning and report back

Hey Oscar, that last pic you posted is cut off a bit, cant see the tip of your electrode, same thing on my phone and pc at home. I assume its a blunt taper? Id like to talk about my gas setup. I used a "Y" going in to the machine with 2 shutoff valves so I can shut off helium when not in u...

To be honest there is probably no need for an inverter in my shop, we are a job shop and 90% of the work we do is just simple mild steel or stainless steel. I would just like to try adjusting the frequency on some aluminum jobs amd a pulser would be great. Funny ive never used anything but syncrowav...

This is the fusion pass. Still doing 2 passes it just seems to make it look better in the end
Once I do a few more of these they should start looking better

All I can say is WOW! The store didnt have lanthinated but they had 2% ceriated so I tried those and what a huge difference... The new setup I tried 3/32" ceriated w/ #6 gas lens using some helium set the ac balance around 7 and I feel like I could take even more cleaning out of it. Dropped amp...

As soon as I can get the blue electrodes im going to try dialing it back some, its about 50% right now

Heres my setup, looks strange but it works good.

And disregard my messy shop lol, hasnt been much time for cleaing lately

I am stuck with 60Hz square wave and no pulser unfortunately. Some day I will buy a good inverter machine with all the bells and whistles. The positioner is already almost as slow as it can go and if I up the amperage any it boils the aluminum. I can however try to tighten the ripples a bit. The one...

All good!
Yes sir I wire brush the inner parts plus the top of the caps and about 1" down both inside and out of the tubes. Basically anything thats anywhere near the weld gets cleaned. Surface finish is not a concern.
Ill check out the videos at lunch.

It worked that time! Oddly its showing up the first time you posted it as well now lol. Using 2% thoriated, Started out gorund like the 2nd from the right in the pic (30 degree) and balled slightly, it completely balled itself after welding 1 housing so I just ran with it. So I sent 4 of these for t...

Oscar your first pic where you are showing the tungsten grind isnt showing up for me.
We are about to get hit with some awesome winter weather so Monday I will make a trip to get some Lanthinated electrodes and 4943 filler.

Really appreciate the help everyone!

Thanks Bill.

Oscar, yes I can do a root pass. That way seems to be working better for me than 1 pass.
I did 4 this way and they all passed the leak test.
I am trying to keep the torch around 11 to 12 o'clock on the tube and angle slightly towards the tube.

Greetings all, Im using a miller synchrowave 250, red 1/8" tungsten balled using DC+ #6 gas lens 100% argon ( can mix in some helium if needed) 4043 filler positioner Did you mean to write that you're using DC- (straight polarity)? If so you should be using 100% helium and a sharpened tungsten...

Greetings all, So I have a job here that I am hoping to get some advise on. These are aluminum filter cans, the tubes are appx. 5.563" diameter 1/4" wall with a square cut on the end. The caps,are appx. 13/16" thick and profiled to form a single bevel weld groove. Im using a miller sy...

Hi everyone, New guy here seeking the expertise of this forum. I own a small metal fabrication shop in Missouri and I have been fabricating for 21 years now and Mig/Tig welding for at least half of that time. Self taught watching Jody's videos and hands on experience I feel I still have much to lear...