Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi my name is Derek and i am a welding student at my local high school and i recently had some people mess with my TIG welder I'm using and today i started to weld with everything prepped and cleaned just to run some straight beads and I got my puddle started and kept moving when all of the sudden my aluminum I was welding started to get kind of a tin foil look to the metal so i turned my heat down and it did the same thing, so i turned it up and it did the same thing and my teacher and i couldn't figure out what was wrong our gas was the right pressure and everything

Please help

Hey mate,

welcome along,

Does your machine have adjustable ac balance? That could be set to far wrong. Generally its good around 50/50.

However some machines in that category dont have it. If possible snap some pics of your machine and welds and post them for us.

Mick

Hi, Derek, and welcome!

If you're sure the machine was messed with, here's the short list of practical jokes for HFAC TIG.

Swapping your polarity... Yeah, I know it's AC, but this makes your arc balance function backward. Did your tungsten ball more than normal?

Loosening the gas fitting at the machine/torch connection. This will make the torch line draw air, and oxidized the surface of the weld.

You also said what I took to mean you got a short bit of good weld (at least established a puddle and advanced) before the trouble started... The gas line could be loosened slightly between the flowmeter and the machine. If you have a "regulator" style flowmeter, this would be harder to spot than with a "floating ball" flowmeter, but it can be done either way. Check all these connections, and do the soapy water test on the entire gas line if the connections seem solid.

Two other possibilities... The tungsten (or cup or collet) has been contaminated with something. WD-40 will give you fits. Or someone cut or removed the o-ring from the back-cap.

This all that immediately comes to mind in terms of "practical jokes". Some pics of the weld and more information about the machine may be helpful, as Mick said.

Steve S

Welcome to the forum, Derek.

thanks for the help guys but i first replaces the cone and saw it was cracked and replaced it then I did one good bead and and then they did the same thing they did before so i checked the gas lines and turns out the regulator that was telling me how much pressure was in the tank was broken and i had no gas.


so then I got put on a older Miller syncrowave 250 and i couldn't even get a puddle to form and I had it set at 110A and i could only see the electricity flowing to my work piece so I just turned it up to 120 and started again and as soon as the arc started i got shocked by the welder and iI couldn't figure out what was wrong with it for the rest of the class period.

It sounds like you're having some real trouble that is taking up your valuable time that should be spent on learning to weld. My advice is to grab your instructor and have him help you with the initial setup. Then, you can proceed to learn in a proper environment. Trying to learn without the proper tools and instruction is a total waste of time. If you are paying for this instruction then it's even worse, as you are being ripped off financially of what you are paying for. Get the instructor's attention and get him to help out.

dewdrop9 wrote:thanks for the help guys but i first replaces the cone and saw it was cracked and replaced it then I did one good bead and and then they did the same thing they did before so i checked the gas lines and turns out the regulator that was telling me how much pressure was in the tank was broken and i had no gas.


so then I got put on a older Miller syncrowave 250 and i couldn't even get a puddle to form and I had it set at 110A and i could only see the electricity flowing to my work piece so I just turned it up to 120 and started again and as soon as the arc started i got shocked by the welder and iI couldn't figure out what was wrong with it for the rest of the class period.