Welding Tips and Tricks

I have been trying to weld aluminum with a new miller inverter welder and new gas bottle I just purchased. I cannot create a weld pool and I have a yellow powdery substance around what looks like a lava rock type surface.
Do I have the wrong shielding gas? I asked for 100% Argon, but I am afraid it is not.

My settings are
1.AC
2.Frequency set @ 100-120
3.65% EN
4.AMPs 120
5.Tungsten 3/32 Thoriated ground to a point length wise
6. I have even ground the entire surface of one of the plates with a new flap wheel,still the same results.
Unfortunately I do not have another bottle of gas to try. I have tried welding 1/8 and 1/4 inch aluminum plate with the same results. Any help would be apreciated

what is the flowrate?

I tried adjusting flow rate anywhere from 15 to 22 CFH. Same results

Not trying to be insulting or anything, but are you 100% sure that is aluminum? If you rented your bottle, it will have a sticker on it that tells you the gas type.

That looks like to me that you have a bottle of CO2 insted of Argon.. I had that type of result when I bought my TIG aand had a bottle left over from my MIG and that was the same sugaring crap that would come up. But check your gas , if you take it back to the supply they can just smell the gas difference between CO2 and argon. Argon has a wangy smell to it and co2 barely has a smell.
Gary

Thanks for the reponse,

Material is 6061 aluminum, dead soft, no anodizing. actually cut all of the pieces on the band saw. Bottle is a 1800 psi 55CF bottle and was purchased new. It was supposedly filled with 100% argon when I picked it up. Bottle has absolutely no markings on it whatsoever.
There is a yellow powdery substance around where the weld puddle would occur. I guess I will attempt this bottle on my Mig welder and see what results I get.

Will a company like Airgas clearly mark their bottles when they exchange?

Yes, they are mandated by law to clearly mark every bottle as to its contents.

dont know if it matters, but Thoriated tungstens are for steel, not Ali. (as far as i know)

the type of tungsten doesnt matter persay..there are types that are better...but thoriated is just fine. what you have is a gas issue....argon has a um..fishy type smell to it, i would stop using it and take it back asap for a refund/exchange...

Thanks for the reply.

It is a pain in the @$$ learning tig as it is, I dont need the wrong gas to complicate matters further.
As for the wrong tungsten, I have not heard that Thoriated is bad for Aluminum, is this the case? I have pure tungsten, but was told not to use them with my Dynasty.
If Airgas clearly marks the bottles with what gas is in them I will buy and exchange through them
I just happened to buy this bottle @ a local welding supply store and had it filled before I left. Asked for 100% argon, but who knows what I received, no markings, etc.

I am simply amazed what a difference the wrong shielding gas can make.

Lesson learned

thoriated is probably the best for aluminum, but jody did a shootout a while ago and the 2% lanth held a point the best on ac. it's harder to find than the 1.5% lanth, which the thoriated beat. I'm not a huge fan of the ceriated, I've had splitting issues w/ 1/16" and 3/32" on AC around 80A for the 1/16" and 125A for the 3/32" with 2 different manufacturers of tungsten. the thoriated ones are VERY mildly radioactive, significantly less so than a radium-green watch dial, but there is that consideration. they're being phased out by osha health nuts. if you've ever lit up on anything galvanized w/o a fresh respirator, you probably increased your chance of getting lung cancer more than breathing a lifetimes worth of 2% lanth tungsten dust.

good thing, though, that the 'safer' option doesn't suck in this instance, unlike lead-free electronic solder...