Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi everyone,

It's been a while since I've posted and since then I've had lots of humbling experiences with the torch. I've blown so many holes in Aluminum piping I can't even count!!! EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING!!!!

I decided to take a step back and work with some 1/8" FLAT stock, and it's going MUCH better. After doing lots of practice on the flat, I then went back to the tubing and it's going much better. Still not perfect, but at least I'm not vaporizing it anymore! haha

Can anyone recommend a good place to buy "scrap" Aluminum? Is there such a place?

I also have a question regarding Tungsten. Mine is getting black after about 7 or 8 short beads and I have to re-grind it. I'm not sure what I have set wrong, but I don't believe this is normal. I'm using 8 L/min of Argon and these are the rest of my settings.



Anyway, here are my latest and best beads. I didn't want to stop when I was practicing because it was REALLY enjoyable to be able to somewhat consistently put down some half way decent beads. I was afraid I'd forget how I did it - which I probably have! haha This is 1/8" Aluminum.

I am not getting as much penetration as I had hoped, but if I go much slower, or apply more heat, I'm afraid I'm going to go through the material. Any advice?

Sorry for all the questions!



Thanks for any advice or feedback.

Do you have a foot pedal or some other amp control? You are cutting the heat off too quick at the end and leaving a crater. You need to taper off the heat slow so you don't leave a hole in the end.

Use the rest of that aluminum to run bead after bead. Cover all of it and then cover it again. You don't need to buy more, just keep welding over what you have.

Are you holding the torch still when the weld is finished until the tungsten is cool? If you wave the torch around while the tungsten is hot then it will contaminate it. You might try turning the post flow up a little more.

One very important question often over-looked in aluminum TIG welding: How long does it take for you to establish a puddle?

mlevinson wrote:Hi everyone,

Can anyone recommend a good place to buy "scrap" Aluminum? Is there such a place?

Thanks for any advice or feedback.

Call around to local fabrication shops (or stop by) and ask if they have any scraps available, also try sheet metal shops

big gear head wrote:Do you have a foot pedal or some other amp control? You are cutting the heat off too quick at the end and leaving a crater. You need to taper off the heat slow so you don't leave a hole in the end.

Use the rest of that aluminum to run bead after bead. Cover all of it and then cover it again. You don't need to buy more, just keep welding over what you have.

Are you holding the torch still when the weld is finished until the tungsten is cool? If you wave the torch around while the tungsten is hot then it will contaminate it. You might try turning the post flow up a little more.

Yes, I use a foot pedal. I try to taper off at the end, but usually it sneaks up on me.

I usually do practice on the stuff I have, but I find that doing butt-welds is way more challenging, than just a flat piece of stock. My goal is to get better at making thin walled custom tubing so butt splices are very important. I certainly will continue to practice on the flat stock, but the joints are much less forgiving in my experience!

I hold the tungsten over the weld until I hear the shielding gas stop. Should I hold it longer??

Thanks for all the advice. I'll work on cooling things down as I reach the end of the bead.

Are you pushing the pedal all the way down while welding? If you are only using about half of the pedal travel then turn your amps down so that you are using most of the pedal travel. That will allow you to taper the heat off better at the end.

Try turning the post flow up a little and see if that helps with the contaminated tungsten problem. I noticed that you have it turned down almost all the way.

big gear head wrote:Are you pushing the pedal all the way down while welding? If you are only using about half of the pedal travel then turn your amps down so that you are using most of the pedal travel. That will allow you to taper the heat off better at the end.

Try turning the post flow up a little and see if that helps with the contaminated tungsten problem. I noticed that you have it turned down almost all the way.

I have my current set at around 110 amps, and I probably am about 50% pedal travel once the puddle forms. I'll try turning it down some more so I have better control. I will also turn up the post flow. Makes perfect sense... Thanks!

Oscar wrote:One very important question often over-looked in aluminum TIG welding: How long does it take for you to establish a puddle?

Oscar - I'd love to know the answer to this.

I have found that I usually start out with pretty high heat to establish a puddle and get some filler material in as quickly as I can. Doing this helps me control the heat so I don't destroy the material at the edges of the butt. I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not, but I haven't found any other way that works consistently.

Any tips or advice would be great!

Thanks to all the advice so far. It's very much appreciated!

mlevinson wrote:

Oscar wrote:One very important question often over-looked in aluminum TIG welding: How long does it take for you to establish a puddle?

Oscar - I'd love to know the answer to this.

Well only you can answer this! you're the one doing the welding. If it takes you longer than 3s to get an appropriately sized puddle going, then you're not using enough initial amperage.

Oscar wrote:

mlevinson wrote:

Oscar wrote:One very important question often over-looked in aluminum TIG welding: How long does it take for you to establish a puddle?

Oscar - I'd love to know the answer to this.

Well only you can answer this! you're the one doing the welding. If it takes you longer than 3s to get an appropriately sized puddle going, then you're not using enough initial amperage.

Unless the (aluminum) material is too thick in which pre heating is required

Oscar wrote:

mlevinson wrote:

Oscar wrote:One very important question often over-looked in aluminum TIG welding: How long does it take for you to establish a puddle?

Oscar - I'd love to know the answer to this.

Well only you can answer this! you're the one doing the welding. If it takes you longer than 3s to get an appropriately sized puddle going, then you're not using enough initial amperage.

Gotcha! I'd say it's pretty close to 3 seconds. I'll try to give it more throttle.

New issue. When striking an arc sometimes the arc is coming from up inside the nozzle of the torch before it stabilizes at the tip. Is this at all normal???

I also sometimes an extremely weak arc between the tip and the material even when I am "wide open" on the pedal. I checked my ground and it's secure to the machine, clamp, etc. I reground my Tungsten... same thing. Any ideas?

Thanks.

Sometimes this is caused by a linear crack in the tungsten, but more often than not it's related to your second issue. If the amps are on the very low side for the size of tungsten you're using it takes awhile for the arc to be focused at the tip. This can be caused by a bad potentiometer in your pedal, they get a dead spot at the low end and your machine probably reverts to the 2t mode and ramps up slowly. Most inverters seem to be set in the 2t mode to use the foot pedal. Try set the upslope as fast as you can set it and see if this goes away.

There is also the issue that we were just discussing with the Dynasty that the HF coil has a weak output and can have more wraps added to it to increase it's output. I'm not sure if your machine has points that can be adjusted, but if it does they might need adjusted too.

And believe it or not sometimes it can even be bad gas and it will effect the arc, though this is rare and I would only be suspect of it if I had just changed cylinders.

There may even be a few things that I haven't heard of or dealt with personally.

Len

Thank you for the tips Len. I'll try a new Tungsten first. I never had this issue with the last Tungsten so hopefully it's something related to this one. I did crack this one when I was grinding it, however I cut it off and re-ground it. I can't remember if it started then or not.

For .125 aluminum you want amps at about 150. 1 amp per .001 thickness +25. Also post flow at 5 sec will help, 1 second Will definitely cause multiple issues. Also what bevel are you putting on the tungsten and are you grinding it on dedicated wheel/belt only for tungsten. Grind inline with the tungsten too. AHP is recommending .021-.023 arc gap if starting issues. Also found some units the tungsten points were not perfectly squared up facing each other from factory.

soutthpaw wrote:For .125 aluminum you want amps at about 150. 1 amp per .001 thickness +25. Also post flow at 5 sec will help, 1 second Will definitely cause multiple issues. Also what bevel are you putting on the tungsten and are you grinding it on dedicated wheel/belt only for tungsten. Grind inline with the tungsten too. AHP is recommending .021-.023 arc gap if starting issues. Also found some units the tungsten points were not perfectly squared up facing each other from factory.

Didn't know that... thanks for the info regrading Amperage!

I am using a bench grinder, but I only grind Tungsten with it, nothing else. I should probably invest in a better grinder but getting up and running has depleted my funds and I can't afford it right now.

What do you mean by Tungsten points?

mlevinson wrote:
What do you mean by Tungsten points?

The high-frequency is generated by a Tesla coil (at least in transformer welders), and they have a set of points spaced for an arc-gap. These should be clean, square to each other, and set to the recommended gap. I assume this is what the post referred to.

Steve S

easy way to clean and square the points is in a drill press
and crocus cloth...touch very lightly
craig

motox wrote:crocus cloth
craig

What is that?

It's like Emory cloth, it comes in a roll but looks like a mesh. They sell it already cut for sanding drywall too. That's a term that most of the older members here would recognize but I must say even I haven't heard it called that for years.

Len

Otto Nobedder wrote:

mlevinson wrote:
What do you mean by Tungsten points?

The high-frequency is generated by a Tesla coil (at least in transformer welders), and they have a set of points spaced for an arc-gap. These should be clean, square to each other, and set to the recommended gap. I assume this is what the post referred to.

Steve S

I've got a pic of the points on the AHP somewhere. They are tungsten embedded in copper holders. They are also very small (1/8 diameter) roughly. Because inverters only use mechanical points to start the arc, then the IBGT electronics take over to maintain the arc. I posted a detailed review of that machine here a few months ago.
Set at .022 arc starting was very consistent. If you do adjust them, a 5.5mm socket done finger tight is all the torque you need to tighten them. Do not overtighten them. Think of mechanical points like a spark plug in a car. Works basically the same way.
As for grinding your tungsten, does it look like a very sharp pencil point (preferred by me) or a much wider and shorter point?

soutthpaw wrote:

Otto Nobedder wrote:

mlevinson wrote:
What do you mean by Tungsten points?

The high-frequency is generated by a Tesla coil (at least in transformer welders), and they have a set of points spaced for an arc-gap. These should be clean, square to each other, and set to the recommended gap. I assume this is what the post referred to.

Steve S

I've got a pic of the points on the AHP somewhere. They are tungsten embedded in copper holders. They are also very small (1/8 diameter) roughly. Because inverters only use mechanical points to start the arc, then the IBGT electronics take over to maintain the arc. I posted a detailed review of that machine here a few months ago.
Set at .022 arc starting was very consistent. If you do adjust them, a 5.5mm socket done finger tight is all the torque you need to tighten them. Do not overtighten them. Think of mechanical points like a spark plug in a car. Works basically the same way.
As for grinding your tungsten, does it look like a very sharp pencil point (preferred by me) or a much wider and shorter point?

I'll check out your post regarding the copper holders.

When I grind my Tungsten, it's very sharp like a pencil. I've seen some recommend creating a "ball" at the tip - by setting the machine to DC and striking an arc. I haven't tried this, but might depending on the feedback of you guys.

Ball is only for transformer machines

Braehill wrote:It's like Emory cloth, it comes in a roll but looks like a mesh. They sell it already cut for sanding drywall too. That's a term that most of the older members here would recognize but I must say even I haven't heard it called that for years.

Len

this stuff:

crocus cloth