Welding Tips and Tricks

Just looking for some advice on how to minimize the etching or"frosting" around my aluminum welds.. I have an aluminum hood that I will be doing next week and would like the corners to have minimal etching as it doesn't get painted or anything.. It's 1/8" 6061.. I am using a snycrowave 250 cleaning action usually is around 5.. my company provides pure tungsten so can't do much about that and have convinced them to switch once I run out... Any tips would be appreciated

If your balance is turned down as much as practical, then increase amps to weld faster.

Low amps leads to slow speeds - that increases the size of the etching line on each side.

Pure tungsten doesn't bother me any - but I understand that a lot of guys don't like it.

If you crank up the frequency, the etch zone will be thinner as the arc narrows.

cj737 wrote:If you crank up the frequency, the etch zone will be thinner as the arc narrows.

Correct me if I get it wrong, but I don't believe any syncrowave 250 will have adjustable frequency output?

Pretty sure that's only on an inverter based machine.

Correct it's set to 60Hz so nothing I can do there

I usually weld 6061 aluminum with a balance of 7 or 8 assuming it is cleaned well before hand. start there

MinnesotaDave wrote:

cj737 wrote:If you crank up the frequency, the etch zone will be thinner as the arc narrows.

Correct me if I get it wrong, but I don't believe any syncrowave 250 will have adjustable frequency output?

Pretty sure that's only on an inverter based machine.

You are not, I am unaware. (I did say, "if you...")

You can switch to number 5 standard collet body cup and run your gas flow at 10-15 cfh. Lower cfh and small cup helps narrow the etch zone. But you can also scotch brite it afterwards.

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