Welding Tips and Tricks

Hey guys just got my prime weld 225. First time trying aluminum. Definitely a whole different ball game. Welding on thin metal. Looking for advice on what to practice and in what order.

Forgot to add pics of weld

1/8” flat stock, about 12” long, and 4” or more wide. Scribe parallel lines about 3/32-1/8” apart and run beads. Focus on consistent travel, wetting in the filler, and not leaving a crater at the end of the weld (hint: you need to taper off your heat before the last dab).

Run 120-150 amps, 30% cleaning, and 120Hz for practice. Chill your piece every 3rd bead because it will become smoking hot! A #5 cup and collet body is great training and uses less gas for practice. 3/32 tungsten in Sky blue, about 8-10cfh of argon.

Have fun!

Thank you brother I appreciate it

I meant to ask what size filler wire should I use with the 3/32

The answer depends upon your goal. Do you prefer to learn to be competent or would you rather put a bit more time in and learn to “master” something?

It’s easiest to use 1/16”. It’s also more expensive because you stuff more filler in. It’s “best” to use 1/8” because it’s more economical (important for practice) AND it teaches you to vary how much filler to add. You’ll likely need less than a full dip so having the extra filler in your hand will teach you to “nip” just enough off to make a good, consistent bead.

This is how “I” do it. There’s a dozen different approaches and all work. Find what works for you. I’d rather have more wire while TIG welding than I need. It’s easier to chill the puddle, I can make up the difference in a gap, I can work it back-and-forth if needed. Hard to do that when you have a 1/16” in your hand and you run short of wire upside down and only 3/4” more seam to weld

Sounds great thank you. My 3/32 rod should be arriving tomorrow

Got some 3/32 rod today 4043. Having a really difficult time trying to make beads. Not sure if it’s because it heats up so quick on practice metal or what.

Also what happens if the cfm is too high on the gas.

Depends upon the size of the cup. What size are you using and how much CFM?

If you use a standard collet body, any more gas than 1.5x the cup size tends to be a waste, plus, you can introduce turbulence in certain joint configurations that don’t work well. Also, you don’t need a gas lens below a 6 because there’s simply not enough aperture to take advantage of the gas lens.

I’ve never found any benefit welding aluminum with a cup larger than a #8. With that I run a gas lens and about 15-20 CFH.

UniqueTouch wrote: ↑Thu Mar 07, 2024 5:04 pm Got some 3/32 rod today 4043. Having a really difficult time trying to make beads. Not sure if it’s because it heats up so quick on practice metal or what.

What thickness of metal, how many amps? If you’re using 11ga stock, no more than 120 to start, back down to 95ish with the pedal as you get going. Remember, between practice beads to quench the material because the ally gets super hot and stays hot for a long while. 4043 welds poorly on really hot material. It gets very grainy very quickly.

Need to pic up some thicker aluminum next week. Tried again. Switched to a stubby gas setup. 8 cup. Def better. Now I see what you mean about once the material heats up. Had it on about 90 amps. Here’s a pic of the little bit I tried. Was short for time but wanted to do something at a minimum each day

Sorry always forget to wait for the files to upload

You’re adding too much filler, that’s why your bead is so tall. Be a bit more patient and get a good, fluid puddle before you start adding filler, then dip, move, pause, dip, move, pause, etc. Watch the bead to make sure it’s spreading out to the proper (desired) width before advancing.

Last thing, at the end of your bead and on your tacks, you’ll see the “fish eye”. That’s an indication you’re snapping out of the bead. You need to get into the practice of tapering off as you finish, or swirling around the torch to prevent those because they’ll lead to cracks later.

Thank you for taking the time to help me i appreciate it. I feel like I’m learning a little already. Should my bead cover the outside of the material as well or no because of where the joint was?

Also is it the opposite of pipe welding as far as wanting a key hole. Am I running too hot if there is a key hole forming. I remember watching a lot of vids when I was teaching myself to stick weld pipe. I feel like I heard in a video that you don’t want a key hole if your tig welding aluminum? Not sure if I imagined that or I heard that.

UniqueTouch wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2024 4:56 pm Thank you for taking the time to help me i appreciate it. I feel like I’m learning a little already. Should my bead cover the outside of the material as well or no because of where the joint was?

Both of those joints are "butt" joints. So the bead will span half the thickness of the edge (vertical piece) and half onto the flat piece. You will really have to punch in pretty hot to get full penetration on that joint. Many times this is aided by a bevel on both pieces to alleviate that extra heat.

If you align the flat piece so that half of its thickness is above the vertical piece, you get an automatic "bevel" you can weld into (picture below to illustrate my point). This alleviates the need to bevel the pieces. And by the way, I STILL punched in for full penetration because it's a marine fuel tank.

UniqueTouch wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2024 5:14 pm Also is it the opposite of pipe welding as far as wanting a key hole. Am I running too hot if there is a key hole forming. I remember watching a lot of vids when I was teaching myself to stick weld pipe. I feel like I heard in a video that you don’t want a key hole if your tig welding aluminum? Not sure if I imagined that or I heard that.

Keyholes are for "root" passes normally. As above, because you have thick-thickness joints, its okay to keyhole (in my opinion) if full penetration is the goal and bevels are not present. Besides, its practice right?

During practice, punch the parts to learn to control the puddle is my advice. Use thicker wire to chill the puddle. Basically, learn how and when to do something to control that puddle! That is the real magic to welding. Only once you learn to see and understand whats happening before it happens will you need to force things to happen. And learn to recover from it. If you aren't making mistakes, you aren't learning. Make lots of mistakes now so you can learn as much as possible. Heck, its practice!!!

Great information and explanation. I really appreciate it more than you know. I enjoy this a lot. Hope I can get good at it.