Troubleshooting DCEN for Al setup
Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 8:35 pm
Hi, everyone. This is my first post on here and its great to see a community with so many experienced guys trying to help each other.
I've got some background with MIG on mild steel, mainly fabricating parts for turbocharged setups on cars and some art work. I'm just self-taught.
I always wanted to learn how to TIG, and a few months back found out that my company had a little Miller DC TIG unit that I've since been practicing on over my lunch hours. I've gotten to the point where I can get a decent bead on stainless, so I decided to give aluminum a shot.
I read some previous threads on DCEN and Al, and I think my main issue is failing to get the oxide off before welding. I'm running 100% argon, which I know is not optimal, but it's what I have available, so I'm trying to make it work.
Today, on my latest try, I used a new stainless steel wire brush wheel on an angle grinder to grind away material in an attempt to remove the oxide layer. The aluminum looked bright, but still wouldn't form a puddle like I'm used to with stainless. I used a larger cup (7) and upped the argon to 25-30 cfm, but still couldn't get a decent puddle going. These were all just autogenous passes on 1/8" stock.
Instead of pudding up, the metal would just darken and then eventually begin to melt away underneath the outer skin as the heat built up.
Can anyone offer any tips for getting a really basic setup like this to do crude work on aluminum? I'm not expecting it to be great, but I've seen some excellent results from far more experienced welders working with similar setups, so I feel like there may be something technique-oriented that I can fix to get some sort of improvement. Eventually, I plan on getting a proper AC rig but, in the meantime, it would be nice to have some ability to build with aluminum.
Thanks for any advice.
-Rob
I've got some background with MIG on mild steel, mainly fabricating parts for turbocharged setups on cars and some art work. I'm just self-taught.
I always wanted to learn how to TIG, and a few months back found out that my company had a little Miller DC TIG unit that I've since been practicing on over my lunch hours. I've gotten to the point where I can get a decent bead on stainless, so I decided to give aluminum a shot.
I read some previous threads on DCEN and Al, and I think my main issue is failing to get the oxide off before welding. I'm running 100% argon, which I know is not optimal, but it's what I have available, so I'm trying to make it work.
Today, on my latest try, I used a new stainless steel wire brush wheel on an angle grinder to grind away material in an attempt to remove the oxide layer. The aluminum looked bright, but still wouldn't form a puddle like I'm used to with stainless. I used a larger cup (7) and upped the argon to 25-30 cfm, but still couldn't get a decent puddle going. These were all just autogenous passes on 1/8" stock.
Instead of pudding up, the metal would just darken and then eventually begin to melt away underneath the outer skin as the heat built up.
Can anyone offer any tips for getting a really basic setup like this to do crude work on aluminum? I'm not expecting it to be great, but I've seen some excellent results from far more experienced welders working with similar setups, so I feel like there may be something technique-oriented that I can fix to get some sort of improvement. Eventually, I plan on getting a proper AC rig but, in the meantime, it would be nice to have some ability to build with aluminum.
Thanks for any advice.
-Rob