Welding Tips and Tricks

First I'll start out by saying I'm using a Chinese tig it's ac/D.C. 200amp output. I welded aluminum with it before and it welded pretty good then one day In the middle of a project every time I add filler it gets this black stuff all over it and won't weld it .. it welds perfect without filler as soon as I add filler it gets black stuff all over it .. this is the same 100% argon and same filler material I welded with and it worked perfect .. I clean all parts with scotch brite and acitone. I checked for leeks and there are none also tried different filler and tungsten . Red.blue and green . I have been messing with it for 4 days and can't get it to work correctly I tried every different settings and more or less argon and it don't help .. argon is set at 16cfh

Is your collet put in the torch the correct way? The reason I ask is I recently read that if put in backwards it can block the shielding gas. What filler are you using 4043? Is the high frequency switched on? Simple mistake but it happens.

Yea it is on correctly .. yes 4043 filler .. yea i went trough all the setting and not helping much at all.. I am new to tig welding I only have been doing it for 2-3 weeks so if there is anything I could try let me know .. thanks !

Thats looks like moisture in your argon. Is your bottle low? Moisture will come out of a bottle if it wasn't purged correctly when filled. I had the same thing happen and it looked just like that...welding fine and then started getting pepper flakes and then I couldn't weld anymore. Is your arc sputtering when this happens?

Arthurbl wrote:Yea it is on correctly .. yes 4043 filler .. yea i went trough all the setting and not helping much at all.. I am new to tig welding I only have been doing it for 2-3 weeks so if there is anything I could try let me know .. thanks !

Well I wouldn't use scotch brite for starters but a stainless steel wire brush instead. The torch angle should be slightly tilted and the tungsten stick out should be minimal as too much stick out and angle will cause problems. You need to add the filler to the puddle and not to the tungsten. How many amps are you running it at?

edit: May be not hot enough. The puddle needs to be shiny before you start adding filler.

Are you holding your filler in the gas plume? If not it is getting oxidized and contaminating your weld.Try a little longer arc length if you're sure it isn't a gas/moisture issue.

exnailpounder wrote:Thats looks like moisture in your argon. Is your bottle low? Moisture will come out of a bottle if it wasn't purged correctly when filled. I had the same thing happen and it looked just like that...welding fine and then started getting pepper flakes and then I couldn't weld anymore. Is your arc sputtering when this happens?

This is the second bottle it's doing it on and it's full what's the chances of both bottles having moisture ?

electrode wrote:

Arthurbl wrote:Yea it is on correctly .. yes 4043 filler .. yea i went trough all the setting and not helping much at all.. I am new to tig welding I only have been doing it for 2-3 weeks so if there is anything I could try let me know .. thanks !

Well I wouldn't use scotch brite for starters but a stainless steel wire brush instead. The torch angle should be slightly tilted and the tungsten stick out should be minimal as too much stick out and angle will cause problems. You need to add the filler to the puddle and not to the tungsten. How many amps are you running it at?

edit: May be not hot enough. The puddle needs to be shiny before you start adding filler.

I also tried a ss brush and got the same results . I think I'm about at 120 amps I tried hoter or cooler same results .. what I don't get is how it weld good without filler and with zero changes only adding filler it dose that

Pretty slim. You could be holding your torch at too much of an angle. Things may have been going good for you but maybe your doing something alittle different now. Your dragging in air or bad torch angle. Steep torch angle and not too long or short of an arc length. Too short and you will dip or cause your arc to sputter , too long and your arc will wander and you raise the voltage of the current.

I was holding the phone with one hand and welding with the other

From what I can see in the pics from when you weren't using filler, your cleaning zone is a narrow band. From the pics where you were adding filler, your cleaning band is huge. Too long of an arc length or bad torch angle. Too much of an angle draws in air.

exnailpounder wrote:Pretty slim. You could be holding your torch at too much of an angle. Things may have been going good for you but maybe your doing something alittle different now. Your dragging in air or bad torch angle. Steep torch angle and not too long or short of an arc length. Too short and you will dip or cause your arc to sputter , too long and your arc will wander and you raise the voltage of the current.

I try and hold it straight up and down for torch angle .. I tried different arc length . I pressure checked the whole system and under 15 psi it was leaking a little by the cup .. if I had a leak won't it affect welding with no filler also ?

exnailpounder wrote:From what I can see in the pics from when you weren't using filler, your cleaning zone is a narrow band. From the pics where you were adding filler, your cleaning band is huge. Too long of an arc length or bad torch angle. Too much of an angle draws in air.

Those where both on the same setting and I try to keep the torch straight up and down . Should I turn up the balance some or down ? I tried both of those and got it a tiny bit better

Arthurbl wrote:

exnailpounder wrote:Pretty slim. You could be holding your torch at too much of an angle. Things may have been going good for you but maybe your doing something alittle different now. Your dragging in air or bad torch angle. Steep torch angle and not too long or short of an arc length. Too short and you will dip or cause your arc to sputter , too long and your arc will wander and you raise the voltage of the current.

I try and hold it straight up and down for torch angle .. I tried different arc length . I pressure checked the whole system and under 15 psi it was leaking a little by the cup .. if I had a leak won't it affect welding with no filler also ?

You have to have some torch angle...not much but some..straight won't work. With out filler, you are able to hold a more consistant arc length/torch angle. By adding filler, and adding another piece to the puzzle, you are varying your angle and arc length. Do short little beads, less than an inch and keep doing short beads until you have everything correct and then add another 1/2" until you have that right. See where this is going?

Arthurbl wrote:

exnailpounder wrote:From what I can see in the pics from when you weren't using filler, your cleaning zone is a narrow band. From the pics where you were adding filler, your cleaning band is huge. Too long of an arc length or bad torch angle. Too much of an angle draws in air.

Those where both on the same setting and I try to keep the torch straight up and down . Should I turn up the balance some or down ? I tried both of those and got it a tiny bit better

Your balance being off will definitely give you headaches. I don't know what your machines settings are but my machine works best at 75% cleaning. Your machine may be the opposite.

A video would be better than pics but you can't seem to upload one. Can you send it to youtube and then send from there to here? I gotta run to the post office before they close so I will check back in a bit. Crank the amps up and don't be afraid to punch the pedal down to get the puddle shiny and flowing and then taper off as needed.

exnailpounder wrote:

Arthurbl wrote:

exnailpounder wrote:Pretty slim. You could be holding your torch at too much of an angle. Things may have been going good for you but maybe your doing something alittle different now. Your dragging in air or bad torch angle. Steep torch angle and not too long or short of an arc length. Too short and you will dip or cause your arc to sputter , too long and your arc will wander and you raise the voltage of the current.

I try and hold it straight up and down for torch angle .. I tried different arc length . I pressure checked the whole system and under 15 psi it was leaking a little by the cup .. if I had a leak won't it affect welding with no filler also ?

You have to have some torch angle...not much but some..straight won't work. With out filler, you are able to hold a more consistant arc length/torch angle. By adding filler, and adding another piece to the puzzle, you are varying your angle and arc length. Do short little beads, less than an inch and keep doing short beads until you have everything correct and then add another 1/2" until you have that right. See where this is going?

Yea I do I welded multiple parts together with this pie cut pipe and it worked out well So I'm not sure it's how I have the torch angle or distance .. with how it is now I can't even start a normal bead with filler

electrode wrote:A video would be better than pics but you can't seem to upload one. Can you send it to youtube and then send from there to here? I gotta run to the post office before they close so I will check back in a bit. Crank the amps up and don't be afraid to punch the pedal down to get the puddle shiny and flowing and then taper off as needed.

I'll try and see if I can .. I tried giving her 200amps and bowing the part from so much heat and adding filler dose the same thing. Thanks I apriceate it a lot

Maybe your machine has a problem. You said it was a China-o-matic right? Can you do a bead without filler? Can you do one on steel?

https://youtu.be/jO9TZNsfWj4

Link to YouTube video don't mind how bad I was adding the filler I was holding he torch and adding filler with one hand.It's hard to see in the video but I did have a nice shiny puddle going before I tired adding filler

exnailpounder wrote:Maybe your machine has a problem. You said it was a China-o-matic right? Can you do a bead without filler? Can you do one on steel?

Yes it is a Chinese one got it to start out with .. I can run a bead with no filler and I can run a bead on steel with filler no problem

Hard to tell from the vid. Melted that drop of filler pretty good though. What size rod are you using?

exnailpounder wrote:Hard to tell from the vid. Melted that drop of filler pretty good though. What size rod are you using?

3/32 tungsten and 1/16 rod tried 3/32 rod and 1/16 tungsten same thing .. how can I record a better video I was recording through a spare welding mask

Arthurbl wrote:

exnailpounder wrote:Hard to tell from the vid. Melted that drop of filler pretty good though. What size rod are you using?

3/32 tungsten and 1/16 rod tried 3/32 rod and 1/16 tungsten same thing .. how can I record a better video I was recording through a spare welding mask

I'm running out of ideas.

One thing is when I add filler the filler melts and sags gets all soft even after it's dabbed into the puddle and sometimes leaves a string dangling off the filler