My question would be how is the lighting situation where you're working. If you have too much light coming in from the back of the hood it can make it difficult to see what's goin on. I will occasionally use a shop light too light up the joint better as well. Sometimes it's a night and day differenc...

Always make adjustments with gas flowing regardless of type of reg/flow meter. I'm using a cheap gauge atm and it's been workin fine. The diff between a gauge and a flow meter is the gauge drops to a true reading when gas is flowing. The flow meter will show true when flowing and the ball will drop ...

I typically run around 7 lpm. Where did the 30cfh come from? Take lpm a double the number for cfh and it'll be real close.

If you're penetrating all the way through the metal, the contaminates could just as easily be coming from the backside. I had a problem awhile back with zinc coated parts. Didn't matter how much I cleaned it I could see the bubbles forming as I was movin along. Turns out that zinc from the backside ...

I guess it was just the blurry pic that made it look like mill scale. 4 secs is a bit much for mild steel. I typically keep mine set at half a sec unless I have a need to flood the area first. Porosity like that is either gas coverage or contamination. I doubt with a 4 sec preflow that gas is to bla...

If your tungsten is turnin black at all I would say check your preflow.
What are you doing to clean the metal prior to welding?

TIG doesn't do well with mill scale. Hit it with a grinder and get it nice and shiny, make sure ya got no preflow issues and you should be good.

Yes you can tig with a dialarc. It can be run as a scratch start setup at a minimum. If you have a dialarc hf you are good to go for alu. If it's a normal one then you will need a high freq box like the hf-251.

I recently had a friend bring me his truck to remove a broken exhaust manifold bolt. With the obstructions I had to go lefty to get at it. Upside down, wrapped around a brake rotor and using a switch instead of a pedal is probably not the best time to start getting comfy with the other hand. Ya neve...

DCEP = dircet current electrode positive also called reverse polarity or DCRP
DCEN = direct current electrode negative also called straight polarity or DCSP

Switch to electrode positive andnfire it up again. If it works right then your leads are installed backwards.

What polarity are you running. If you run DCEP it will melt the tungsten real quick.

Dunno your experience but first thoughts would be too much stick out or wire feed set wrong. Have you tried setting the feed on the fly? Get one hand on the gun and the other on the feed knob and turn it till it looks/sounds right.

With a 480 volt generator you most likely do not have a problem as most machines have a tolerance. I would check the manual and if it doesn't specifiy then contact the manufacturer to confirm. As far as wiring goes, I would use a multimeter to make sure I got it all straight

Have ya looked at ssc controls for the pedal?

The HF has a remote port. You can just buy a pedal for it. I'm pretty positive it also has a gas solenoid built in as well. It's pretty much built for tig. Go to the Miller website and download the manual. It'll confirm what I'm sayin. If it's got the solenoid, it's an easy hookup. Connect It the sa...

Taking it easy will cause less deflection and blades will last longer. I've seen folks put shims in to square it all up. Best to figure out what the blade is square to and work from there.

You can also use SolarFluxB instead of purging, assuming there is no turbocharger down the line. You will get better welds with back purging, but SolarFluxB would also work as a 2nd best alternative. I've heard of that stuff a few times. Seemed a bit expensive to me. How good does it work? CB have ...

http://youtu.be/cFf_x97vcQ0

Spark test it

CBPayne wrote:The magnet sticks to it.

Is it cast?

You can also use SolarFluxB instead of purging, assuming there is no turbocharger down the line. You will get better welds with back purging, but SolarFluxB would also work as a 2nd best alternative. I've heard of that stuff a few times. Seemed a bit expensive to me. How good does it work? CB have ...

http://welding-tv.com/2014/01/21/6g-wel ... weld-test/

Here ya go.

If not sure what metal, go with 309 filler. You can do a purge with tape. Lemme find the vid Jody did on that.

http://store.cyberweld.com/tharcfa21miw.html

Look at these at all? It'll do everything the multimatic will for about 600 less.

The multimatic will give you the most versatility as it'll do mig stick and dc tig. Engine drive machines are great but the price tag jumps alot and you have to buy a wire feeder for mig and an hf unit unless you're fine with scratch start. If you mention aluminum add 1k to the price tag. If you wan...

Drag as mentioned. It burns noticably hotter and penetrates deeper than equivalent solid wire. Flux core wire is about equal to one size down in solid ie .035 flux core is about equal to .030 solid. The smoke is really difficult to see through more so than stick welding. It will take some getting us...