Welding Tips and Tricks

Jody's videos have helped me get through learning MIG years back and now helping me get decent at TIG. Normally I just look for answers, since just about every question has already been addressed on the internet but sometimes you have to ask your own and here I am!

Aluminum fillets have been the hardest to become consistent at so I try to do at least one every practice session. The hardest thing has been to buy into the idea of starting tight and hot and moving out quickly. I tend to want to bleed on the heat and stay too far away, and the faces overheat before the root puddles and I either blow it out or end up with a giant fillet and a cold root. But I'm getting better.



Just running beads for fun after the fillet, experimenting with the settings



Spot the Monger!

welcome to the forum
looks like you are getting the hang of it!
nice to see you post photos with your intro.
craig

Hey BigD.

Welcome! I had the same problem with aluminium fillets, made worse by the fact that most of the material I work with is very thin. But yes, start tight and hot and then get moving fast, for sure.

Your practise pieces are looking good.


Kym

Your stuff looks very good ! The Aluminum fillet took a lot of practice for me too.
If you creep up on it, more heat moves out everywhere into the piece , making things difficult.
Like many have said, if you get a puddle faster and start moving, the heat hasn't spread out as much yet.
Alum is a great conductor of current and heat, so more heat absorbs and spreads everywhere fast !
Good luck and welcome to the forum !

Thanks a lot guys! My current bane of welding existence is thick to thin aluminum (say 1/16" to 1/4"). Once I get a tack I can move out and weld fine by focusing the heat on the thick stuff. But for the life of me I can't get it to tack without filler. No matter what I do, the thin stuff blows back. I've tried sneaking up on it with a butt load of amps in a short burst, the thin stuff melts before the thick puddles. Tried puddling the thick and washing the puddle onto the thin as I back off the pedal - as I push the puddle over, the thin melts... I concede that this is probably my lack of skill but it's the only thing I haven't been able to do yet. I've managed to do the welds but only by building up a tack weld with filler first.

Welcome to the forum.

Try to make your fusion tack out on the end of the T-joint , not in the root . This is how I tack up my practice piece T joints , no filler, one hand free. Alum fusion tacks are very weak , but good enough just to hold it in place til you weld .

Yup thats what I do, picked it up from Jody's videos. Jack the amps by 50% and smash it while holding tight. It makes a nice surface tack without melting back the corner. Strong as wet tissue paper but keeps it in place while not putting much heat in the work