Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi,

I give a first try to aluminum today.. Clean with an SS brush and acetone. I'm using 3/32 2% lanth that I balled. Balance is at 35% I have an Everlast that work backwards.( so 65% ), 120hz. And when I hit the pedal, the arc is unstable and moving around the tip until the puddle is created. After that its going ok, but at the end, when i slow down the amp, the arc stop instead of getting smaller.. Here's a few pictures of the test..

any input?

thanks,
Marc

With a balled electrode the arc wanders until the amps are high enough.

"Sneaking up" on the amps, like on steel, does not work very well.

Full pedal will straighten out the arc, and use enough amps to puddle in 3 sec or less - otherwise you're just saturating the piece with heat instead of welding.

If your machine is an inverter, balling the electrode is not needed by the way.
Most of the time I just let mine ball as I weld even though I don't have an inverter.

How many amps, what is the thickness of material?

I ask because your cleaning band is huge - indicates either too little amps, so too slow of travel speed.
Or wrong setting for balance.

You NEED to post AMPERAGE and MATERIAL THICKNESS. This is a welding forum, after all. What more important operating parameters are there?

What the others posted, also try adding an extra dab of filler at the end and circle as you extinguish the arc to avoid the crater pits/cracks at the end of your weld.

Sorry guys, I totally missed those info..

Metal thickness : 1/8"
Filler rod : 4340 1/8"
Amps : 160A, with pedal control
Cleaning is at 35% EP
Machine : Everlast 200DX


As the running amperage, I cannot see the display as I'm welding, but I'm not running full throttle> Im gonna try tomorrow
to mash the pedal to start instead of going gently to see if I can fix this wandering. but indeed, the cleaning band is
quite large, I'm almost running min cleaning that the machine allow ( 30% EP )

Try electrode EN
My Everlast 250EX adjustment opposite typical Miller etc

rick9345 wrote:Try electrode EN
My Everlast 250EX adjustment opposite typical Miller etc

I'm almost full left on cleaning which is minimum...

Frankly, the weld is not that bad except for the size of the cleaning zone and the crater.

Like Dave mentioned, you need to get a mirror puddle in 3 seconds - max. If you cannot, you are just heating, not melting, and you'll never weld like that.

I think your parameters are definitely in the ballpark, just need a little tweaking. Especially try to back-off the heat at the end of the weld, while dabbing your last chance with the filler rod.

I get the same huge cleaning band with my Syncrowave no matter what setting it is on..WITH cheap junky aluminum that I get at Lowes to practice on. I picked up some scrap from the metal supplier and it is a whole different story on quality material. The aluminum from the big box stores is very soft and I am betting of garbage quality. Try some REAL aluminum and see if it makes a difference. I think your beads look great! You definitly are on the right track.

I forgot to add that I did a repair on a Club Car golf cart last week for a friend and the metal was all quality stuff and almost no cleaning band. The mig welds on those carts are almost the worst I have ever seen. Almost every one has a crater crack at the end of the weld. I fixed all the crater cracks I could find for almost an hour. If you ever get the chance to look at a golf cart under the body, you would be horrified at the garbage work on them

Suggestion on your large cleaning band, if your cleaning is set to minimum currently and you are getting that large etching band I would bet you have a very long arc length. The long arc length will raise voltage, give large etching zone, put excessive heat into part, cause unstable arc. I have found if I start to have issues before blaming settings check form and arc length is a big one with TIG. You want very very close arc lengths that gives you that precision arc one expects with TIG. If you get a large arc length you loose precision and make TIG weld like oxy/acetylene.

I should add arc length is 1 to 1 1/2 diameter of your tungsten. so since you using 3/32 tungsten your length should be 3/32 to 9/64. Lay piece of 3/32 tungsten down on material and use that as a gauge to see how close your torch should be. I would bet it miss closer then you are currently welding at. Jody uses a great technique of increasing arc length just a bit when he adds rod, cause of the way aluminium puddle rises and seems to enjoy jumping onto tungsten, but first you need to get close to material and just increase a little bit when you add rod.

I assume you watch Jody's videos, and camera is zoomed in so it gives an appearance he uses a long arc length he don't pay close attention to how big the tungsten and material thickness appears in videos. He is actually very very close.

TIG Welding Tips - 3 Tips that Matter Most: http://youtu.be/UNAAhwieNhU

Here is a great practice technique
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWNZioJ_FOc#t=53

A little update, no pictures yet.. I've been able to mostly fix the arc wandering by hitting the pedal to
get high amperage at start up and mostly form the puddle withing 3ish second, so that's an improvement.. but,
the cleaning band is still large.. I tried to tight the arc as much as i can, but still the same result but some more
dipping tungsten

I'm using aluminum from a metal supplier, and not at some ware house.. It's left over from jobs they do.

and yes, indeed, I watch Jody's video, and many time each to pick up the most out of them..