Welding Tips and Tricks

building aluminum ramps with 1/8 plate and .60 angle and square pieces need to be welded to the plate. I have a dynasty 350. what are your recommendations for me? Please help as far as settings on the machine and and warpage to the material
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Practice on some scrap.
Set your frecquency high. pinpoint that arc.
3/32 tungsten (lanthinated) needle sharp.

A pic or two or your practice welds might help with fine tuning....

Good luck,

~John

"jayslice1221
Please help!! I am working on a project for work here at Fluxtronic where our owner has bought a Dynasty 350 and asked me to learn how to tig aluminum .. So I have and Im not bad at all. But just as soon as I THINK, "Hey, Ive got this".. he wants me to fab these two ramps for our airplane. Little 36x14 aluminum ramps that im trying to weld on .060 angle with holes drilled out every inch or two onto the 1/8" plate. Reason for this is we are going to use silicon as the support and have a perfect mold to the ground so we need holes in the angle and square so the silicon can grab onto and stay on the bottom of the ramp... So my problem here is warpage and if I should use pulse or not. I have been using 130a average with 70 percent balance and 200 htz. soft square. Please help me or post video of technique or settings and even set up of material because my dumbass can keep the ramps from warping. Im using a number 7, 1/16 gas lens, 1/16 electrode cs310 torch watercooled"

I copied your other post here since this thread took off. I believe a picture would help out a lot on this question. I don't understand why you are using .060 alum for a ramp. I am guessing this is because the alum is just a structure to hold the silicon together and it itself is not supporting all the weight.
For me it is hard to answer the warping issue without more detail. I can assure you that 130 amps is way to much for the .060. I guess unless this is being welded to the 1/8". Also, go up to 3/32" tungsten.
Get some pictures and more detail on the actual weld joint and I will be able to help better.
-Jonathan

Pics please.
How long are these ramps, and what joints??

We're here to help,
John

This was 3/8" flat stock welded to a thinner 1/8" wall extrusion for a hinged floating dock ramp. My machine only went to 250 amps and I had to use every bit of it and would have wanted more for at least the tacking during fit up. Either way, you have to concentrate the heat on the thicker material and push the puddle onto the thin. Aluminum responds well to capillary welding, where the heat from welding heavier material allows the weld puddle to be hot enough to melt into the surrounding thinner stock instead of the arc stream munching it away.



I build aluminum almost entirely in sub assemblies. If warpage is a concern, I build it to a point where it can be straightened out after welding before it is subdued by other bracing or structural components. Otherwise, I use strong backs such as angle iron to help hold it's shape. It also helps to know how much error to start out with so that it lands close to what the target is, so that any straightening will be at a minimum.

What you are describing almost sounds like a better candidate for Aluminum MIG. I am a seasoned aluminum TIG welder and I earn my pay on these heavier projects.

These fence sections were all TIG and it worked me hard. I would have killed for an additional 30 amps or a spool gun. Welding in and around the heavy I-beam gets one used to the smell of leather cooking. They had to be straight and square with no woop-dees in between.