Welding Tips and Tricks

Oscar wrote:CRANK UP THE AMPERAGE! If you need to get one of those AC clamp ammeters, so be it, but you need to get a lot of amps fast to get the puddle going.

AC Frequency is Hz, not %. 60-100Hz is typical.

AC balance is %. 65 - 70 % EN is typical. Equivalently, it can be stated as 30 - 35% EP. Double check your machine so you can know which is which. Blindly adjusting things will get you nowhere fast. As was mentioned make sure you have a good "ground" connection. And make sure your aluminum is not anodized. You need to triple or quadruple your post flow because that inadequate WP9 air cooled torch will heat up so much the tungsten will not be able to cool off before the 5 second post flow is up, and will instantly oxidize as soon as the shielding gas is gone. Ideally, for aluminum you want a WP20 water cooled torch (which uses the same front-end consumables as the #9). If water cooled is not an option the big ol' clonkin' WP26 is the next best thing. It's size sucks, but AC TIG welding heats up torches and the torch cables so much faster than DC TIG welding it's easy to ruin 9/17 torches once you wrap your head around the fact that aluminum needs to start out HOT and gotta weld it fast, generally speaking, or else you risk heat-soaking the whole part and blowing out edges left-and-right.

cj737 wrote:Aluminum needs more amps than less. If the material is 1/16, you probably want to be set around 80-90 amps. The foot pedal will let you taper off as you go.

If the pedal is not ranging accurately, it may be the potentiometer internal to it that can be adjusted. The "popping" is often a symptom of a poor ground. If you lay aluminum on a steel table, clamp to the steel, the ground can go "hunting" while welding. Especially with thinner material that may warp as you weld. Maybe tack you practice piece to a larger, thicker piece of aluminum then clamp to that.

A #6 cup wants about 12-15cfh of argon (just an FYI). You didn't mention the AC Balance. Around 30-35% is normally very good.

914pete wrote:Thanks for the feedback! Ok, had a chance to practice again last night. I tried running anywhere from 30 amps to 120. 120 was HOT but I got to practice using the foot pedal. Using a WP9 air cooled torch 5 and 6 stubby gas lense. 15SCFH on the Argon. I tried 10SCFH up to 20SCFH no difference. I had better luck with the 30amps probably due to inexperience but either way, still a lot of sputtering and popping along with the normal "buzzing". I also found around 70hz on the AC Freq. worked better then say closer to 100. I've tried the AC Balance to basically every setting....still confused what cleaning action is going on since I'm not really noticing any difference where I set it....If I crank it up all the way to 80% it does melt the 1/16" 2% Lanthanated pretty fast. I'm wondering if its simply oxidation. I've been using a dedicated SS brush and Acetone to clean the practice .070 6061 plate but this is scrap I bought at a local Metal Supermarket so it could have been sitting around for a long time. And I tried clamping the ground to the work piece which made no difference. No issues with getting an immediate arc resting the plate on the welding table and the ground clamped to the table. Although, I'm wondering how accurate the setting positions are considering the Amp dial reading is WAY different then what the digital readout is. Is that normal? Like I'll set the dial to say 50 amps but the digital readout will be around 30. One thing I noticed immediately was the difference between HF 4043 and 4043 I picked up at a welding store. The 4043 from the

914pete wrote:Hi, first post. Really like Jody's videos. I bought a AHP Alpha Tig 201XD recently and have been practicing with it this week mainly on AC and 1/16 6061 sheet. Just running beads for now. I have zero experience tig welding. Pretty good with a MIG and O/A torch. Anyway, I keep getting popping sounds while running beads. I can hear the usual buzzing AC sounds (like Ive been hearing in youtube vids) in the back round but I'm also getting erratic popping sounds similar to mig welding. I'm practicing on clean scrap 1/16 6061 sheet. I even thoroughly cleaned it with a dedicated SS brush and acetone. Still getting the popping sounds. I've been using 3/32 and 1/16 2% lanthanated tungsten and two different 4043 filler rods which I cleaned as well. I'll be honest, my beads are not that pretty and I've tried all kinds of settings and the popping is always present throughout a 1-3" bead.

I just practiced again a little. 1/16 2% Lanthanated, 1/16 4043 filler, 1/16 6061 sheet thoroughly cleaned. AMP 30, switch to TIG, AC, 2T, pulse off, AC FREQ 50%, Post flow 5S. Standard #6 cup on a #9 head (this machine came with an interchangeable #9 and 17 head. I keep the amps low around where I can achieve a decent bead at full amps because I still am not use to using the foot pedal.

Any suggestions?


Also, does anyone have this particular machine? The main amp dial is WAY off. Like setting the dial to 50 amps shows only around 30 amps on the digital readout. Normal? Can I expect ALL the dials to be way off? I wish I knew someone that had this machine and has used it a lot because I have so little experience with TIG welding, I'm not even sure if it's working correctly. LOL

martinr wrote: ↑Wed Aug 18, 2021 1:27 pm I know this is a fairly old topic, but just in case anyone hits it in future, I got hit with this popping sound caused by the arc going unstable, whilst welding aluminium. After messing around with grounds, gas flow, AC balance etc, I upped the electrode from 2.4mm to 3.2mm and that did it for me. I think I got complacent/lazy, using a 2.4mm electrode all the time.

I’d be interested to know if this fixes it for anyone else ie if using an undersized electrode is a common cause of this irritating instability.