Welding Tips and Tricks

I am using miller electric 951118 tig welder,syncrowave 250dx,230/575vac

AC, 100-200 amps, purple tungsten 1/8", 30 cfh Argon

I don't remember having this much trouble with the red tungsten the last time I was doing aluminum. But now that I'm using the purple tungsten I am having trouble getting it to ball up. I grind it new with a 30 degree cone and trim the tip off slightly and let the welding melt and ball up the tip.

After about 3-5 welds the arc starts circling. There is yellow powder on the rod and sometimes white. Should this be my expectation with this rod? That I have to grind it every 3 welds or so to make sure it can arc?

To be honest I've ground the tip on the sides a little bit for cleaning and made less than 1/8" and I wonder if the slight reduced diameter is reducing arc stability. But I think it must be something else than that.

I've tried putting the amps to 200 and slowly coming up to it to melt the tip or quickly blasting it to melt the tip and it will not ball the end. Maybe I haven't tried it correctly but even if I just weld as is at around 115 amps, yes the tungsten melts a little bit at the tip but after 3-5 welds the arc is not going straight anymore.

I'm not sure if this machine is on sine or square wave or whether I can control that. But what is the expectation I should have with this rod?

The yellow or white collecting on the tungsten I’ve only seen when the metal was contaminated. 30 cfh sounds a bit high. Could be that air is getting pulled in at the edge of the cup from the high velocity of the Argon.

Yes, I was welding at about 20 cfh and saw that the aluminum had a white coating over it and wasn't shiny. I bumped it to 30 and then it was shiny so I thought that was better. I will try to go back down to 10 and then slowly go up and see what the rod does along the way.

It could be my poor handling though why I was getting a white coating on the aluminum at 20 but I'm trying my best and can't see what I would need to change technique wise that would get cleaner looking welds.

I found the E3's fairly unreliable in terms of consistency.

I use blue boxed, white band Wolfram one's from Germany now. Now those can do aluminum like it's no one's bussiness.

Olivero wrote:I found the E3's fairly unreliable in terms of consistency.

I use blue boxed, white band Wolfram one's from Germany now. Now those can do aluminum like it's no one's bussiness.

Thanks for the tip. I will try my hand at them and see. But I found out why I was getting contamination with the E3.

I had turned my post flow down because I thought it was for the sake of the weld finish. So I turned it down to the minimum I needed to keep the weld from contaminating but didn't realize the tungsten rod was hot enough to oxidize in the air as well so the post flow did not keep the tip from oxidizing anymore. After I had tested 10-25 cfh I knew that I was getting the same contamination for every flow rate and it clicked, I remembered that I turned the post flow down. Once I turned it back to about 12 on the machine, the rod no longer was contaminated or even had any discoloration.

Nevertheless, I think you are right about these rods in their consistency. Sooner or later, no matter how I grind it, the tip melts back and the arc starts circling around the sides of the melted part. But it is able to weld much better now that I don't have any contamination with the right post flow.

trainingGrounds wrote:

Olivero wrote:I found the E3's fairly unreliable in terms of consistency.

I use blue boxed, white band Wolfram one's from Germany now. Now those can do aluminum like it's no one's bussiness.

Thanks for the tip. I will try my hand at them and see. But I found out why I was getting contamination with the E3.

I had turned my post flow down because I thought it was for the sake of the weld finish. So I turned it down to the minimum I needed to keep the weld from contaminating but didn't realize the tungsten rod was hot enough to oxidize in the air as well so the post flow did not keep the tip from oxidizing anymore. After I had tested 10-25 cfh I knew that I was getting the same contamination for every flow rate and it clicked, I remembered that I turned the post flow down. Once I turned it back to about 12 on the machine, the rod no longer was contaminated or even had any discoloration.

Nevertheless, I think you are right about these rods in their consistency. Sooner or later, no matter how I grind it, the tip melts back and the arc starts circling around the sides of the melted part. But it is able to weld much better now that I don't have any contamination with the right post flow.

Yeah, that would make sense.

I used E3's for a year or so and eventually it drove me crazy. I use them for DC welding still, but not A/C I think the alloy's in it don't like getting balled up which I like for aluminum so I don't use them for A/C anymore unless I'm in a pinch.

i have used Wolfram for several years and it always works at all my settings.
not cheap but IMOP worth it.

I got a sample of the Wolfram 3/2" 2% lanthanated and have only used it on Dc, can't say I notice any difference as far as improved,...anything.

Is it just me?

2% lanthanated should be the same whether you call it wolfram or tungsten. Wolfram is just the German word for
tungsten.

I use purple tungsten's for AC welding at work and at home, I've had good results with the 3/32 and 1/8 inch from Midwest tungsten co.

robtg wrote: Wolfram is just the German word for
tungsten.

Yes,
It's also a high end tungsten made in Germany, that Diamond Ground Products sells at a premium price claiming superior performance

Sure ,wolfram is Tungsten in German.

It's more of a brand name and it just reflects high quality, that's what they got.

Sometimes it can be difficult to notice the difference but if you get a bad batch of E3's or inconsistent results it can drive you up the wall whereas Wolfram's products won't do that to you.

So far, from what I've seen with the tungsten this is what I believe to be the consensus.

E3 Purple is not an all around but it is primarily good for DCEN and better than anything else for DCEN.

2% Lanthanated Blue is an all around, primarily good for DCEN but better at AC than E3.

Multi Mix Pink is an all around, better at AC than the Blue but worse at DC than the Blue.

Zirconiated White is not an all around but it is primarily good for AC and better than anything else with AC.

So, I might as well buy a good brand of E3 for DC and a good brand of White for AC and I should have the best of both worlds.

Oh and Pure Tungsten Green is good for the old transformer machines. But considering where I am at, I think I'll be good with just purple and white.

What is the difference between Brown and White tungsten though?

trainingGrounds wrote: What is the difference between Brown and White tungsten though?

CK lists white as .8% Zir and DGP lists brown as .3% Zir, DGP also has a white but it's their Wolfram product which = $$$, but I couldn't find a % of Zir listed for the white

LtBadd wrote:

trainingGrounds wrote: What is the difference between Brown and White tungsten though?

CK lists white as .8% Zir and DGP lists brown as .3% Zir, DGP also has a white but it's their Wolfram product which = $$$, but I couldn't find a % of Zir listed for the white

So a performance versus cost choice there I figure for the difference. Thanks