Welding Tips and Tricks

Got the independent AC expansion for the Dynasty and played around with it today. In short, my findings were the same as Zank. The recommended Miller settings didn't do anything for me except cook the tungsten because decreasing the EP makes you have to jack the EP balance. But doing 50% more EP allowed me to reduce EP balance a lot. On clean metal I could run as high as 90 successfully. On dirty metal, 80% was still no problem and yielded a very small etching zone and a nice clean puddle and weld.

I welded up my bumper which is around 3/16" thick with a 1/16" fillet. It's a 30 year old bumper which was clearcoated with something evil, which seems to be impossible to get rid of completely. But the bead still looked quite nice. Notice how there is nearly no visible etching zone. Ran around 150 amps EN, 210 EP and 80% balance, 3/32 2% lanth which never lost its point. Previous to this I also welded two 1/4" plates to my aluminum motor mounts which required full jam out of the Dynasty and then a good half hour welding the bumper, and the watercooled CK never even got warm. I am in love!

Yep, it does have it's advantages. I love it on my HTP Invertig 221.

This what I get paid for half a day of work normally when I have the shop fully staffed and am not supposed to be welding. I set a machine for someone and ask them to articulate what they do and do not like about the way that it welds and adjust accordingly, while trying to impress upon them the importance of knowing the innate details of what they are doing.

My typical go to is 275/350 (dynasty 350) at 80% and right around 90hz. A lot of the stuff we do is 16ga and thinner to 3/8 or 1/2 plate, so the lower frequency works better to get the thicker piece puddled and maintain a fluid puddle.

I've taken it down to 20hz to do two pass welds on 1" castings though, mainly because I wanted to see what would happen [FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY] it's disconcerting how quiet it is, and it's like welding on DC at 20pps, you have to see past the cycle while welding or you get all whacked out.

My reasoning when people ask is in line with Jody and Zank: the puddle just doesn't magically stop when it's on the EP side, you have to maintain the heat to allow it to move fluidly. The "guru" (I use the term about as loosely as you can) has every machine set up with 316/211/85/75 and they weld everything with it on first shift and never change balance. And then ask why the parts welded like shit, or broke, when you can see carbon inclusions and dirt/oxide trapped in a cut section of their weld... But I'm the black sheep because I know how to use the machine to my advantage.

The same guy is also doing test pieces for management for a big project we have coming up where they are trying to minimize distortion using pulse. I told the plant manager "If he, and your prototyping guys can't come up with a satisfactory result in a reasonable amount of time, give me a set of test pieces and some overtime to stay after and weld them, and I can get it done in less than a week." Understanding what you are doing when changing any setting on a welder is 90% of the battle. I'd help the guy, but I'll get no credit while he looks like a hero. We'll see what happens though.

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Yeah, implied respect is a dangerous thing when it comes to technical knowledge and ability. It's one thing to be nice to grampa over his bigotries he expresses at Thanksgiving dinner but having to respect someone's opinion with regards to something scientific, just because they've held it for a long time, is a bad idea. This reminds me of when I tried to get 2% lanth electrodes at a local supply store. This old timer said here buy these instead and hands me a package of pure. I said this doesn't work well on inverters and doesn't hold a point with hot EP. He said trust me, I've been doing this for 30 years.

I didn't say anything but what he really should have said was, "I've been doing the same thing for 30 years".

This is an interesting discussion.

When I was considering purchasing my first machine (Metalmaster Elite 215, very similar to Everlast in spec) I had a queue of 'experts' tell me that as a new weldor, many of the advanced features would be lost on me and that I would be better off buying a far more basic machine.

Yet within 3 months of starting to weld I was playing around with pulse as well as the various advanced wave settings, and getting good results, learning without using anything as a 'crutch'. There's so much to explore with modern inverters, I think that discovery is part of the fun.

Of course the Dynasty and HTP take it to the next level. One day....



Kym

MosquitoMoto wrote:This is an interesting discussion.

When I was considering purchasing my first machine (Metalmaster Elite 215, very similar to Everlast in spec) I had a queue of 'experts' tell me that as a new weldor, many of the advanced features would be lost on me and that I would be better off buying a far more basic machine.

Yet within 3 months of starting to weld I was playing around with pulse as well as the various advanced wave settings, and getting good results, learning without using anything as a 'crutch'. There's so much to explore with modern inverters, I think that discovery is part of the fun.

Of course the Dynasty and HTP take it to the next level. One day....



Kym

The physical act of welding proficiently isn't all that hard to learn. What sets real experts apart from rod burners is knowing the characteristics of what you're welding on and using a modern machines electronic advantages to make you even better.