Welding Tips and Tricks

Hello everyone,

Daniel here from Vancouver BC, Canada

Hobbyist metal fabrication and hobbyist. I figure I'll finally tackle aluminum TIG welding

Stuff I'm into aside from shop / fabrication:
Guitar (collect and play) , boats / fishing / crab / prawning, Duramax, tech / programming / electronics / microcontrollers, ski and swim, baking bread (not joking, I'm really good at breadmaking

'I'm here because I cant TIG Aluminum even after 20+ years of MIG and TONS of MIG projects, can't TIG weld Aluminum

daddytroopa wrote:Hello everyone,

Daniel here from Vancouver BC, Canada

Hobbyist metal fabrication and hobbyist. I figure I'll finally tackle aluminum TIG welding

Stuff I'm into aside from shop / fabrication:
Guitar (collect and play) , boats / fishing / crab / prawning, Duramax, tech / programming / electronics / microcontrollers, ski and swim, baking bread (not joking, I'm really good at breadmaking

'I'm here because I cant TIG Aluminum even after 20+ years of MIG and TONS of MIG projects, can't TIG weld Aluminum

Well, with all the strengths and hobbies you've listed, perhaps you finally met your match? A man's got to know his limitations

Only kidding of course. TIG aluminum is really more about settings than anything else. If you can TIG steel, you can TIG aluminum. But, you need WAY MORE amperage than you realize, and reading the puddle is a bit tricker. Aluminum soaks up heat very quickly. So you start a weld using 160-180 amps to get a puddle, but within 1-2" you've dropped to 85 amps due to heat saturation. Literally. And arc length seems to be more critical with aluminum due to the amps required to blast the oxide layer.

Throw a few snaps of some practice pieces, a picture of the front of the machine/settings, and I reckon someone will get you dialed in.

Welconme, and cheers-