Welding Tips and Tricks

Welcome.

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Perry welcome to the forum.

Welcome, and post some pictures of your welds. Alot of good experience on this forum to help you out. But from my experience, sight unseen, I'd say wrong torch angle and too long of an arc length.

dsmabe wrote:Welcome, and post some pictures of your welds. Alot of good experience on this forum to help you out. But from my experience, sight unseen, I'd say wrong torch angle and too long of an arc length.

dsmabe,
As for posting a pic of my welding, that would be an embarrassment indeed! But I will try to get a shot or two in the future.
I have been watching to keep the tungsten close to the puddle, but had trouble seeing that with the Speedglas helmet.
The Lincoln Polar Arc seems to give me a much better view, so I will give it another try soon.

Hello new here myself

Most people on here won't put you down for a bad weld when you're trying to learn. I definitely won't when you trying to learn. There are guys where I work that have been "welding" for 20+ years that want to do it their way. If I had a chance to show one of their welds I would, but where I work they don't like us using our phones.

Welcome to "The Hood" Perry.

Nothing beats seat time for learning tig.
Grab some aluminum and work with that.
Master aluminum and carbon and stainless will be a snap.
A steady hand makes for a better looking bead so don't be afraid to
prop. Oh, and, get a tig finger! (shameless plug)

rake wrote:Welcome to "The Hood" Perry.

Nothing beats seat time for learning tig.
Grab some aluminum and work with that.
Master aluminum and carbon and stainless will be a snap.
A steady hand makes for a better looking bead so don't be afraid to
prop. Oh, and, get a tig finger! (shameless plug)

I have had a Tig Finger for some time now and it is indeed a very useful item.
Seat time does not seem to be working for me.

With aluminum....... I seem to be making a puddle and as I advance the tungsten I begin dipping rod into it.
The weld is nasty looking and sometimes the 2 pieces of aluminum just fall apart when I remove the clamps.
In other words I have failed to obtain penetration to join the 2 pieces together.

The aluminum is 1/8 inch thick.
Dynasty 200 Welder set to AC.
Amps are set to 125. (I have also tried 0ther levels of amperage with no good results)
Balance set to 65% electrode negative/35% electrode positive.

I do better welding steel but this aluminum is very frustrating. I cannot even get to first base with it.
I have watched every video ever made on welding aluminum and I seem to get nowhere.
pg

hey,

bung your cleaning action higher, and make sure to give your parts a good wire brush with a dedicated stainless steel wire brush.

You haven't accidentally got some annodised alum,? that will give you the fits if you are not used to it. Or even some magnesium, that will fall apart if you try to weld it with aluminium wire.

Mick

weldin mike 27 wrote:hey,

bung your cleaning action higher, and make sure to give your parts a good wire brush with a dedicated stainless steel wire brush.

You haven't accidentally got some annodised alum,? that will give you the fits if you are not used to it. Or even some magnesium, that will fall apart if you try to weld it with aluminium wire.

Mick

Thanks for the suggestions Mick but I am using a stainless steel brush dedicated to aluminum.
The aluminum is brand new material.
First I wipe down the aluminum with acetone and then give it a good wire brushing.
I use acetone to wipe down the aluminum welding rod as well.

Like I have said, I can read and follow instructions and I have watched many videos.
The problem I have is I cannot weld 2 pieces together for some unknown reason.

When I first got the Dynasty 200 I was in the process of building a single rail motorcycle trailer.
My first time to ever Tig weld I decided to use it to weld the trailer tongue piece together and then weld the hitch piece to that.

The material was 2 inch square 1/8 inch wall steel tubing.
Not knowing any better, I decided to not use any rod but to just 'fusion' weld it together.
I got the puddle going and finished the 6 or 8 welds required for this piece. The bead was really pleasing to look at.

That made me think......Tig welding is no problem! And I prefer it to Mig because it is so clean.
Well, instead of improving my skills it has been pretty much downhill since the day of my first weld.

I haven't really got any real world experience with alum , the only thing I can think of is that you have some incompatible filler rod, that for some reason will not bond with your base metal under your specific conditions, or that while not using any filler, your particular design falls victim to the "hot shortness" of alum. Here fusion wlds lack strength while hot, and simply crack, but it seems cracking isn't an issue , Mearly something in the detail, a devil, if you will, that we are missing.

Pictures will help, and are you using pure argon? We will get to the bottom of this.

I may well split this topic and move some of it to the tig welding thread.

Mick

Move this post to the proper place if you want Mick.
I realize this is not the proper place to hold a discussion regarding welding problems.
I just introduced myself and the post grew from there.
Thank you,
Perry

What part of Houston are you in? I'm in the Humble area. If you are close enough maybe I. Could help. I'm just learning too, but I haven't had too much problem with my aluminum welds.

TxBigRed wrote:What part of Houston are you in? I'm in the Humble area. If you are close enough maybe I. Could help. I'm just learning too, but I haven't had too much problem with my aluminum welds.

TxBigRed........
I live about 1 mile west of Reliant Stadium just inside South Loop 610.
So that is a ways from the Humble area, but thanks

Closer than Australia.

weldin mike 27 wrote:Closer than Australia.

Ha-Ha..... a lot closer!
Question..... What do you have for voltage in the downunder? Is it 50 cycle and 220 volt? Three phase?

Hey,

Our everyday house voltage is single phase 10 amp 240 volt. Single phase welders usually have 15 amp plugs which have a larger earth pin.

Industrial three phase stuff starts at 20 amps 414 v and goes up to big 63 amp 500v Cast alum plugs for big ass welders.

Mick

weldin mike 27 wrote:Hey,

Our everyday house voltage is single phase 10 amp 240 volt. Single phase welders usually have 15 amp plugs which have a larger earth pin.

Industrial three phase stuff starts at 20 amps 414 v and goes up to big 63 amp 500v Cast alum plugs for big ass welders.

Mick

Thanks for your reply Mick.
That is different than here in the states.

All of my equipment is in my home shop and my house was built in 1957.
Back then there were fewer restrictions and so the original owner (an engineer by profession) who built this house had 220V 3 phase run to the house for the air conditioning.
I am the only house on the entire block that has 3 phase power. So that is a bit unusual too.

I have a Quincy air compressor, a Bridgeport mill, South Bend lathe and my Dynasty all running on 3 phase power.
I like the efficiency of the 3 phase.
Perry

That's handy to have. It seems big power is rare in the US.
Mick