Welding Tips and Tricks

My work just recently got 4 new dynasty 350 machines. Just wondering if anyone has ever used any of the different wave shapes for ac and if so what are the advantages and disadvantages of each. And if you have you used one I have noticed that when welding t joints the tungsten tends to get a really wierd looking tips, almost like it break apart and not balling up, it gets a real nice small ball when welding outside corner and butt welds. Last job I did was on some .125 al running 225 amps eighth inch tungsten number 4 defuser 25 psi gas and about 70 on balance but have used it down to 50 on the balance cause of some really dirty stuff. Any advice would be greatly appreciated hate having to sharpen a tungsten every half hour cause the tip looks like a pitch fork.

i use a miller dynasty every day where i work. pretty much the same machine as the 350 just has more power. we use soft square wave. we tried advanced square wave and did not like it! i don't know why anyone would want to use sign wave, that is like a old school transformer machine. if i am wrong someone correct me! tri angle wave is supposed to work for anodized aluminum. it is supposed to punch through the coating well, i never used it or welded anodized so i cant say. if you can tell me your settings on your dynasty id like to help you out. these machines have indpendent amperage for - and +. get all your settings and what your welding i'll see if i can help you keep that tungsten pointed.

thanks for the response. Well I have been playing around with the wave shapes and I have kinda settled on the triangle wave shape. I did some cutting and polishing and I got the best penetration with that wave shape, so thats what I have been using on our thicker and more critical parts and for the thinner stuff I usually use the square waveshape. As far as settings go thats kinda hard to say but my kinda standard set up for 1/8 inch al. would be like 240 amps, 2 to 1 ratio on the dcep and dcen, usually I like to run around 70 balance for most stuff but sometimes have to go as low as 50. In our shop everything is punched on a turret and they spray the blanks down with oil and then it goes to grinding and gets beveld and that can make one nasty combination of crap. The freq I use for the most part is 200 but for big corner to corner joints I will use like 100 to 125. I have recently starting running a 3/32 2 percent thoriated with those setting and have acutually had a little better tip life than the 1/8 inch 2 percent thoriated. I run a number 4 defuser for almost everything, on t joints I will use about 10 on the reg and for everything else like 25.

wow only a number 4 cup? have you tried a larger one? i have always liked large tig cups. like a 7 or 8. when you say square wave, do u mean advanced or soft? your machine set up is alot like i use. 2:1 for amps, i like 65-70 on balance. i realy like 150 on frequency. sometimes i do go to 200 or 250 for a real narrow bead width. 100 i like for a wider bead. see if you can try some orange stripe ceriated tungsten. thats what we use and it holds up really well on AC.

ya sorry meant the advanced square wave shape. I am trying to get my work to get a couple sticks of that 2 percent than. tungsten. Jody had a video on here that made me want to try that. I guess the reason i use the number 4 is that is what the old timer, that was the lead welder that just quit, always used. I have played around with the bigger cups. I really liked them for outside corner to corner joints and butt welds but I had problems with welding t joints with the larger cup. It seemed like I was running way hotter than witht he number 4 cup. I did try out today changing cups for the different welds on the parts I was doing on these giant aluminum cabinets we make, but it got kinda annoying changing cups so much cause the cabinets have outside corner joints, butt welds and t joints all in one part.

what size torch are you running? since we run high amps where i work, we use the super cool 18. the water actually cools around the torch head. its different then a regular 18. looks similar in size but uses short collet body. the super cool 18 uses a gas lens cup even if your not using a gas lens. i have always liked the #8 cup. #6 works good for more view of the tungsten. when i have problems with reach we use a #5 long.

i believe they are a size 24 torch might be wronf though, they are a water cooled flex head, I know they take the small hardware. Your torches sound really awesome.

for the work we do I really like them. almost all people do NOT like large torches. its a preference thing. ive never seen a 24 yet. interesting!

Sorry forgot to look today when i was working, I will let you know exactly what they are tommorrow.