shielding gas problem solved with toy balloon
Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2014 4:29 am
Thought I would share this with the forum. I am new to tig and have been practicing daily. From the very beginning I had problems with oxidation while welding aluminum. I would have to turn the argon up to twenty five or thirty to get the weld to behave. Lately it was getting worse. I checked everything with soapy water and could not find any leaks. I ordered a flow tester for my torch but it hadn't come yet. Not wanting to wait I decided to try strapping a balloon onto the end of the torch and sealing it with a rubber band. I then turned the after flow up to 30 seconds and operated the pedal. It immediately became clear I had a leak. The balloon would barely inflate unless I put the flow up to thirty or so. Once I brought it down to twenty the balloon would shrink quickly. Turns out the plastic valve body on my gas solenoid was cracked on the outflow side. I am running a Lincoln Square Wave 355. Anyway I made a temporary repair to stop the leak and tested it with the balloon again. Now the balloon will inflate at even the lowest settings and will stay inflated. I tried a few welds with it at fifteen and it was amazing how much better it worked. Now I just need to find another valve for my machine.