Welding Tips and Tricks

I just purchased a used 2016 AHP 200x a little over a week ago.

I have been trying to practice on carbon steel over the past week. Aside from contaminating my tungsten too often I do have additional problems that I hope someone can help me with.

I am getting VERY FINE spatter on my practice welds and am also getting what appears to be soot on my practice mild steel. The FINE SPATTER is also getting on the end of the torch cup.

Using an AHP Alphatig with a #9 CK torch. 2% Lanthanated 3/32 tungsten. Gas lens kit. 1/16" 70S filler wire.

Mill scale has been completely sanded off of the mild steel and the pieces have been wiped off with acetone. Filler wire has been wiped with acetone. Using 100% Argon and the flow meter shows 15cfm. I have tried increasing the cfm slightly up and slightly down, which does not seem to make a difference. Have tried both a #6 and a #7 cup, which doesn't seem to matter.

When I bought the welder I also got some "used" tungstens with it. I thought that perhaps they were contaminated so I bought some new 2% Lanthanated. That was not the problem, still getting spatter with totally new tungstens.. The screen on my gas lens collet body ended up with some fine spatter too, so I put a new collet body in the torch, which didn't help. Also changed the collet itself. Again still getting fine spatter. And, if I keep welding, my tungsten balls up badly. I have made sure that the back cap is on tight, so there is no gas leakage.

I am at my wits end. I would appreciate comments from anyone who thinks that they can help me or has suggestions.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Pics of the weld would help, but if your getting popping/sizzling at the puddle and you can see the orange/brown dust of death, you have air getting in to the shielding gas, or the shielding gas is contaminated.

Have you welded successfully with this gas setup before? You said you just got the welder but did you have something else before? Im asking because then we can know more about the gas setup. Have you tried a regular gas cup and not the gas lens?

I also have a Mig welder and use 75/25 with it. I do have the correct bottle (100% A) attached to the AHP.

I've had the Argon for about 6 months but never used it. It was purchased new at a established welding store.

I bought the welder used and it came with a CK #9 torch and gas lens kit. The seller said that the original #17 torch that came with the AHP had been stolen. That being said, I have to original #17 cups but I do not have a #17 torch, so I can not try the original cups. I am going to try to get some photos in a couple of days and will upload them.

Same kind of question:

Material: 1018 and 1026
Electrode: 3/32
Gas lens on WP-17 torch.
Filler: 3/32 ER70S-2
Base Thickness: 0.125 to 0.200
Current: Between 100 and 130A
DCEN mode

Outcome: Arc quickly spreads, doesn't remain a tight egg shape.
Lots of brown-sugar around weld. Weld itself comes out grey. Never get the blue/coloration.
Yet, Wire brushed off, the weld is bright steel color. Tends to make craters and air voids in the weld, but not entirely porous. Ground down/through, it's still solid.

I found out later that I was using a Ar 75/ CO2 25 bottle. The bottle was labeled just "Argon" but I didn't know at the time it was from a MIG setup.

I can replace the gas and re-do this, but the main question is about the actual welds already made with 75/25: The metal/weld looks clean and solid, but I'm wondering about the strength and/or defects I cannot see with naked eye. Should I be concerned even if the ground-down samples look clean and solid?

Comments about the strength of the weld despite the 75/25 gas mixup are welcome.

slagmonkey wrote:Same kind of question:
I can replace the gas and re-do this, but the main question is about the actual welds already made with 75/25: The metal/weld looks clean and solid, but I'm wondering about the strength and/or defects I cannot see with naked eye. Should I be concerned even if the ground-down samples look clean and solid?

Comments about the strength of the weld despite the 75/25 gas mixup are welcome.

The surface weld may be decent, but I would suspect inferior penetration. If the welds in question are for something where the strength matters, I would grind them out and redo them with correct gas. Its like a MIG weld, they can easily look good, but have insufficient strength due to a lack of penetration. And welding is all about penetration in my book.

After thinking about things over the weekend I went out to my garage/shop yesterday and found a couple of issues.

#1 -- I checked all of the fittings for my gas line to insure that they were tight and discovered that the gas line was not fully seated in the quick dis-connect on the front of my AHP. The gas line was attached and would not fall off but it was not seated and "locked" fully. I pulled it out and re-installed the gas line making sure that it was fully seated and that the locking ring snapped fully closed.

That was the problem and why I was getting spatter, which I am no longer getting.

#2 -- Over the weekend another thing that I had thought about was the fact that my filler rod could be bad. I had been wiping down my filler rod with acetone but never really looked closely at the rod itself. Upon closer inspection I found that the filler had an occasional tiny spot of rust on it. So, I will use the rod for practice only. I have ordered some new filler rod to solve the problem.

My welds are now coming out acceptable to good. I will continue to practice different set-ups on steel and will be making my first attempts at welding aluminum with a day or so.

Thank you to everyone for your help.

cj737 wrote: The surface weld may be decent, but I would suspect inferior penetration. If the welds in question are for something where the strength matters, I would grind them out and redo them with correct gas. Its like a MIG weld, they can easily look good, but have insufficient strength due to a lack of penetration. And welding is all about penetration in my book.

After swapping the shielding gas with a Argon bottle (98/2 Ar/He, I believe it is) and purging the lines for a couple minutes, replacing the gas lens, re-sharpening the 3/32 red electrode, things seem to be OK now. No more shenanigans.

Still get a slight bit of brown sugar, but I think that's just poor quality of the base metal cleanliness. I'm surprised how it can pull impurities in that seem distant on the sample work.

I'll grind out the weld and lay in new. Thanks.