Welding Tips and Tricks

What do you guys think about this? 6" alum pipe with two .080 caps and a neck in the middle...130 amps, 150hz, 70%eneg controlled with a foot pedal on a homemade turntable. Been tig weldin aluminum for 3 months and welding and fabricating about 2 1/2 years.

I'd say....looks pretty damn good.

Thanks Rick! It took me awhile to get it where it looks like that, if I welded for a living I'm sure I could have shortened the amount of time it took. Also, I was using a #8 cup with a stubby 3/32 gas lens with 2% lanthanated tungsten. If this helps anyone I've found that amperage and travel speed are the biggest issue with aluminum(to me) and don't be afraid to push that pedal down, a cold aluminum weld looks like fidos butt! I had a lot of bad welds because I didn't put enough heat in the puddle.

Okay, here's where the

"LIKE" button applies.

That's a very nice finished product, and THANK YOU for posting the early attempt for comparison.

Steve S

Very nice work

Homemade turntable? Powered? Got pics?

Nice!

Nicely done!!

I second the request for information on the turn table....

So there is the homemade turntable, it's a pneumatic motor with a belt that turns a pulley which turns a shaft that's connected to a piece of 1/2" aluminum plate that has been drilled out. It's rather simple and very effective. Any box with wheels could be used that just what I had available to me, the motor is around 150 from McMaster and the rest of the stuff was just scrap yards and old equipment.

Ah, an air drive motor

I had not considered that air could be a good choice due to adjustable air flow - cool

I never considered that either, good to keep tucked away.
-Jonathan

do you control the speed with a foot pedal?

You can adjust the speed with your foot, and I do sometimes but it's really touchy. The best way I've found that works is just setting the speed with the inline air adjustment knob and speed up or slow down accordingly.

That is a very nice design! Looks like it works good.

Count me in on the list of people impressed with that weld job. Really nice!

i agree nice tool, great welds