Whats up guys, Just want to say this is my first time ever welding anything! Ive been into cars now for your years and got tired of buying turbo kits, and going places to get small things fixed or changed so i went and bought a tig welder. I have never touched a welder before a couple months ago. I have done a few things so far, but need a ton of work on things! Thats why I'm here! lol
When i first tried it i couldn't stick two piece of aluminum together! lol This is about 1 month later with just watching some videos here and there.
Looks like you're letting the arc hypnotize you a bit. Watch the puddle behind the arc and put in filler until the drop you're laying is the same width as the drop that you layed before it. Sweep youre eyes to the toes of the weld to ensure consistent tie in.....this is what will make or break you on aluminum because as soon as you see the puddle begin to flatten and spread out, you know that it's starting to overheat. That's when you begin to back off of the pedal. You want uniform bead width and height. Looks like you're welding a bit cold as well. You want it to puddle instantly on steel. If it doesn't then you don't have enough heat. 2 - 3 seconds puddle time on aluminum otherwise you're just gonna ball up your rod when you try to stick it in the puddle. First few dabs on aluminum are gonna be slow going, then it will speed up and then you'll have to back off the pedal as it begins to overheat.
After you dab and see the toes tie in, sweep your eyes forward and move the torch. Sweep your eyes back to the rear of the puddle. If the puddle didn't follow the torch then it wasn't quite hot enough. This last part really only applies to aluminum. The aluminum only follows forward when everything is good and hot. If aluminum starts to look speckeled and spattered then it's too hot.
If your rod sticks a bit when welding steel then you're not quite hot enough or you stuck it too far in front of the puddle. Kepping about 25% more amperage on tap than is actually needed for the weld makes things a WHOLE LOT EASIER. This alows you to pulse with the pedal which greatly controls heat input. It also gives you a more easy to control bead profile. It generally yields a more artistic look as well. This is what allows you to get that real stack of dimes look. Steady travel speed with even heat input doesn't give the stack of dimes look. It gives you a more smoothly flowing river of ripples.
RamboBaby wrote:Looks like you're letting the arc hypnotize you a bit. Watch the puddle behind the arc and put in filler until the drop you're laying is the same width as the drop that you layed before it. Sweep youre eyes to the toes of the weld to ensure consistent tie in.....this is what will make or break you on aluminum because as soon as you see the puddle begin to flatten and spread out, you know that it's starting to overheat. That's when you begin to back off of the pedal. You want uniform bead width and height. Looks like you're welding a bit cold as well. You want it to puddle instantly on steel. If it doesn't then you don't have enough heat. 2 - 3 seconds puddle time on aluminum otherwise you're just gonna ball up your rod when you try to stick it in the puddle. First few dabs on aluminum are gonna be slow going, then it will speed up and then you'll have to back off the pedal as it begins to overheat.
After you dab and see the toes tie in, sweep your eyes forward and move the torch. Sweep your eyes back to the rear of the puddle. If the puddle didn't follow the torch then it wasn't quite hot enough. This last part really only applies to aluminum. The aluminum only follows forward when everything is good and hot. If aluminum starts to look speckeled and spattered then it's too hot.
If your rod sticks a bit when welding steel then you're not quite hot enough or you stuck it too far in front of the puddle. Kepping about 25% more amperage on tap than is actually needed for the weld makes things a WHOLE LOT EASIER. This alows you to pulse with the pedal which greatly controls heat input. It also gives you a more easy to control bead profile. It generally yields a more artistic look as well. This is what allows you to get that real stack of dimes look. Steady travel speed with even heat input doesn't give the stack of dimes look. It gives you a more smoothly flowing river of ripples.
Exactly what I was looking for ! I do have puddle control trouble with aluminum. I need to learn this because I need to change the flanges on my car to a different style and they are all aluminum. I will some more and try that as far as amperage. The long bead I had some contaminTion halfway in and had to change tungsten. I know what you mean by the "toes". As you move the puddle both halts kind puddle a little on each side. I hope I am correct there. The machine does have a pulse setting but haven't messed with it too much yet. Does the stainless look to cold as we'll?
hypforlife32 wrote: As you move the puddle both halts kind puddle a little on each side.
What? I can't decipher that statement.
Stainless looks fine. Just watch that bottom edge and your dabbing will become much more consistent on that fillet weld.
Puddle control on aluminum is from lack of heat. When it gets hot enough the puddle will follow your tungsten just like a 7018 stick rod does. Crank it up a couple of notches and be sure to feed enough wire in. Aluminum is a very thirsty puddle.
hypforlife32 wrote: As you move the puddle both halts kind puddle a little on each side.
What? I can't decipher that statement.
Stainless looks fine. Just watch that bottom edge and your dabbing will become much more consistent on that fillet weld.
Puddle control on aluminum is from lack of heat. When it gets hot enough the puddle will follow your tungsten just like a 7018 stick rod does. Crank it up a couple of notches and be sure to feed enough wire in. Aluminum is a very thirsty puddle.
I will give that a shot and see what happens. Hopefully it goes well. I was using 1/16 filler for the aluminum at first and could never get any consitencey and when i tried to use 3/32 it would just ball up. But from what you said i just need more heat! Now for example if your doing a butt weld and the edges start to peel/pull back is it too hot? or is that the time you dab and move? within reason.
If you try to start on the edge of thin aluminum it is always gonna peel back. You can weld up to the edge but you can't really start from the edge. Maybe some guys can, I can't. You won't ever see Jody do this in his videos either. Tacks are always placed a few millimeters from the edge. The reason why it peels back is because the heat can only spread out in one direction. That gives you instantaneous overheat and melt down.
I sort of had an advantage when I was learning to tig weld. Almost all of my practice pieces were thin walled square aluminum tubing. Yep, I started with aluminum, not steel. Once I got a firm grasp on laying beads I started on percise heat control. It was easy to determine because if I put in too much heat it would sag through to the inside of the tube. 1/16 aluminum tubing requires about 70 amps to weld. It took me forever to realize that I need a good bit more anperage to get it started though. I also went to a hypnotist armed with the academic knowledge from Jody's videos. The first two days after hypnosis yielded no results. But damn, after that my skill seemed to double every day until it plateaued after about a week.
You really shouldn't be doing butt welds with tig unless its an open butt or groove. Tig doesn't penetrate nearly as well as mig and stick do.
RamboBaby wrote:If you try to start on the edge of thin aluminum it is always gonna peel back. You can weld up to the edge but you can't really start from the edge. Maybe some guys can, I can't. You won't ever see Jody do this in his videos either. Tacks are always placed a few millimeters from the edge. The reason why it peels back is because the heat can only spread out in one direction. That gives you instantaneous overheat and melt down.
I sort of had an advantage when I was learning to tig weld. Almost all of my practice pieces were thin walled square aluminum tubing. Yep, I started with aluminum, not steel. Once I got a firm grasp on laying beads I started on percise heat control. It was easy to determine because if I put in too much heat it would sag through to the inside of the tube. 1/16 aluminum tubing requires about 70 amps to weld. It took me forever to realize that I need a good bit more anperage to get it started though. I also went to a hypnotist armed with the academic knowledge from Jody's videos. The first two days after hypnosis yielded no results. But damn, after that my skill seemed to double every day until it plateaued after about a week.
You really shouldn't be doing butt welds with tig unless its an open butt or groove. Tig doesn't penetrate nearly as well as mig and stick do.
I had my amps around there as well. I will be doing some aluminum tubing but that is were i was struggling but i feel that was most of my pain with using 1/16 filler when i shouldn't have been. Im going to retry using 3/32 filler like i should have been. I couldn't ever get enough to stay steady and move. was always trying to feed a lot. just recentley switched to 3/32. I'm gonna give it a try like i said and see what happens. Ill post a picture up on wednesday what comes of it lol
Size of your filler wire is gonna shape your bead profile. Wide filler equals wide beed, same for narrow. You just have to feed more filler into the puddle if you choose a smaller diameter fill wire. Speed of filler wire feed is going to determine your ripple pattern.
You didn't mention what machine you're welding with either. Depending upon the box, changing the frequency or AC Balance can effect your welds quite a bit too. Also, on thin tubing, setting the background pulse helps a lot to prevent blowout.
When you weld aluminum, it takes a bit of time for the filler metal to reach the same temperature as the base metal (3/32 rod to thin aluminum) so you may need to loiter over the puddle to get it to tie in. I tend to wait for the puddle to "keyhole" on the front then dip, travel and wait for the keyhole, then dip, etc. Once the base metal gets hot enough, you can dip and run like hell as the puddle flows really well. You might also lay your thin plate atop some thicker steel to help suck some heat out as you weld to prevent blowout (if you're having that problem).
Getting consistent beads requires equal travel to dip the entire length and those who can do it, are very experienced.
Personally, I find a Green tungsten to perform best on aluminum. It balls up perfectly and creates a very consistent arc.
This is about 1 month later with just watching some videos here and there. 
