Welding Tips and Tricks

I'm getting better but have a major problem sticking the tungsten in the aluminum puddle. It seems when I get a good bead run I can't get my torch hand to move smpothly. Almost like it sticks then Jerks then stabs the puddle. Any pointers you can give me?attached is the last practice run.

It's really mostly just seat time.

Do you have your hood adjusted so that you can see the puddle clearly? You should be able to see the puddle and the glowing tungsten rather than just a ball of bright white.

Remember that the aluminium puddle 'grows' - swells and rises towards the electrode. Jody often talks about backing the torch away slightly for just a moment as you add filler and I have to say that this helps a lot; it also means that you are only really moving one hand at a time.

If you just stay put and add filler, often the result is the puddle rising to meet your electrode.

Get comfortable, find a prop that will allow you to smoothly move both of your hands. Good luck!


Kym

Thanks kym, I'll give it a try.

Like Kym said....seat time. Have you done any mild steel or did you jump right into aluminum? Mild is great for getting your timing and movement down before you move on to trickier aluminum. You aren't the first, or last to show up here all frustrated and frazzled about trying to get aluminum to behave. Put one foot in front of the other and do short beads at first and as you get your timing down then go a little further and then further and before you know it, you will be welding aluminum. You have to have good pedal control also because as you move your weld forward you are soaking your piece with heat and then it takes less amps to maintain your puddle. The smaller the piece, the quicker it happens. And as Kym also stated, when you add filler to your puddle, it swells up so you need to back your tungsten up a bit otherwise you will dip.. Just like everyone of us around here...you will become an expert tungsten grinder way before you become an expert aluminum tigger. You know how to get to Carnegie Hall don't ya? You'll get it...it only takes practice. Make sure you watch Jody's videos and then go back and watch them some more because you will catch things you missed before.

To be honest I did very little steel before jumping to aluminum. thanks for the encouragement, I am getting pretty good at grinding tungsten. I wonder what a tig welding aluminum flowchart for beginners would look like???

Do yourself a favor and practice on some mild steel for awhile. I know welding aluminum is a goal for a lot of tig welders but you need to be doing everything right when you weld it or you just end up frustrated with half of your tungsten ground into dust. Even experienced welders sometimes have trouble welding aluminum if they don't do it often. My friend welds in refineries, mostly stainless and knows what he's doing. He brought his aluminum framed golf cart over for me to fix a couple frame cracks and I let him give aluminum a try and it wasn't pretty. You're putting the cart in front of the horse by trying to learn aluminum before you get your basic skills down.

Thanks Exnailpounder, I have some 3/16 cold roll I will get busy on. Thanks alot for everyone's help!

One thing you should also learn is how to float your wrist. It doesn't matter what metal you're welding, this is pretty helpful since you say you can't get your torch hand going. Using something like a wood block or something even smoother while you run along the smoothest path you have will help but not all projects allow that so just learn to float.

A VERY common problem for many welders, new and old, is the body's natural desire to lean all your weight onto your forearms, elbows, and wrists to take off the weight from your spine and get you comfy since you're usually leaning a bit forward at the bench. Unfortunately this will not do with TIG welding, unless you don't mind inconsistent beads. This is probably the hardest habit to break as well.

You can place some weight on your wrists and a bit on your forearms but really you want none or the lightest touch possible and zero weight on your elbows. Otherwise you'll start using your hand like a paint brush to lay your beads and then you'll start seeing "paint strokes". You'll also have a great risk of dipping tungsten as well.

Have fun, keep learning, and honestly Aluminum isn't that bad once you get into it. Mild steel will help make sense of things but don't set down the Al completely either. There are key differences in behaviors between the two and just one reason why you use AC for one and DC for the other.