Tungsten question

Hollywood1 · Wed Mar 25, 2015 9:21 pm

When welding aluminum I always get a balled end. Is this normal? 30% cleaning, 120 freq. 2% lanthinated sharpened to a point. Welds look great! Machine set at 75 amps. thanks for any help john.

Hollywood1 · Wed Mar 25, 2015 9:25 pm

Forgot to mention 1/16th diameter tungsten.

Bill Beauregard · Wed Mar 25, 2015 9:26 pm

Is it objectionable? Are you using a machine you can't tweak the settings such as a Diversion? I grind a very blunt point. It produces a narrow arc. bump up one size tungsten if it's a problem.

Hollywood1 · Wed Mar 25, 2015 9:31 pm

thermal arc 186 lots of settings. Miller welding video shows a guy sharpening to a point and keeping it like that throughoput the weld.

exnailpounder · Wed Mar 25, 2015 9:38 pm

Hollywood...I have a new Miller Syncrowave 210...inverter... I use 1.5 lanthanated it always balls. It is still relatively sharp but always gets a small ball at the tip. I dont know if its possible to keep a sharp tungsten on AC

Hollywood1 · Wed Mar 25, 2015 9:40 pm

here is a picture.

Hollywood1 · Wed Mar 25, 2015 9:42 pm

I appreciate the info from everyone. I see people purposely balling the tip on dc but it just happens on ac for me.

exnailpounder · Wed Mar 25, 2015 9:57 pm

Looks like you got it nailed. I have heard Jody say that he starts with a shap tungsten and let it ball as it may so that what I do and it works great. Jody explains how to ball tungsten on one of his vids but I don't bother. You should see pure ball up on a transformer. Your welds look great!

Hollywood1 · Wed Mar 25, 2015 10:43 pm

Thanks for the info exnailpounder. I sure appreciate this forum and the tips from everyone. thanks, John

massacre · Wed Mar 25, 2015 10:55 pm

I have an HTP Invertig 221 and I sharpen to a sharp point also on A/C, usually 3/32 2% Lanthanated and it will form a small ball at the end after a while. As long as the ball stays small and the bead narrow, I just leave it. The arc stays very stable even with slightly balled electrode.
I was using pure tungsten on my Eastwood TIG200, that would end up with a huge ball after a while, unstable arc, bad news lol.

Hollywood1 · Wed Mar 25, 2015 11:24 pm

Thanks massacre. I thought I was doing something wrong.

Bill Beauregard · Thu Mar 26, 2015 7:10 am

Nothing wrong. Don't let the ball get bigger than the diameter of the tungsten. Set post flow to keep tungsten clean. Consider larger tungsten, and blunt grind. Consider a water cooler & torch, nice anyway, they are smaller. On very clean aluminum you'll do very well as high as 80% EN,

Hollywood1 · Thu Mar 26, 2015 7:16 am

thanks Bill.

Hollywood1 · Thu Mar 26, 2015 6:14 pm

I just looked at the tungsten and the ball is the same size as the tungsten and there is no more taper. Should I have blunted the tip more.

Hollywood1 · Thu Mar 26, 2015 6:17 pm

Currently welding at over 110 amps with 1/16th. Is this possibly the problem?

Bill Beauregard · Thu Mar 26, 2015 7:36 pm

I'd go to 3/32.

massacre · Thu Mar 26, 2015 7:42 pm

I usually use 3/32 and set the point either sharp or blunted depending on use?

Hollywood1 · Thu Mar 26, 2015 8:06 pm

Ill try a 3/32 and blunt the tip some more. Thanks. John.

TRACKRANGER · Fri Mar 27, 2015 3:25 pm

Hollywood1 wrote:thermal arc 186 lots of settings. Miller welding video shows a guy sharpening to a point and keeping it like that throughoput the weld.

Is he welding aluminum in the video?

If I recall correctly, Fronius has a setting for automatically putting a ball on a new tungsten that was specially designed for welding aluminum.