Welding Tips and Tricks

any tips for an amateur to do aluminum fillet welds? i'm good with laps and butts, ok with corners, but truly suck with fillets... I can do steel fillets fine, but when it comes to aluminum i end up with a giant horror show weld... can't seem to get both sides melted at the same time, and then i end up hanging out too long putting too much heat into it and then it just gets ugly and end up with a weld 3 times as big as I was aiming for... and much cursing to follow...

current setup attempting to fillet a .120 thick 6061 to .080 6061...

Miller Diversion 180 with foot pedal (experimenting with 85 then 125 amps)
#5 cup with gas lens, #17 torch
3/32" with 2% lanthanated
1/16" Er4043 filler
100% argon at around 12cfm

What works for me is to get in real close and move my heat side to side until I have melt on each leg to form the puddle. Then, I have to pull the torch back as I feed, so the swell of the puddle does not hit the tungsten.

When I advance, I pause until the puddle follows me (watching the corner close up) before I add more rod, pulling back again. Lather, rinse, repeat. It takes practice, to keep the arc that tight and back off enough to keep the tungsten clean with each dip.

When I'm doing it regularly, I can keep a tight little bead with this method. When I don't do it often, I brush a lot of soot and prep the tungsten frequently.

Steve S

Raticus-

Okay, one newbie to another. I've been using TIG for just over a month and sucked at this to start with.

What worked for me was to use plenty of stick out and get in really close. Do all you can to aim that arc right at the joint. If one side is close to puddling but the other a bit cold, wash around for a moment o share the heat. And have that filler nearby (I lay mine down almost flat) ready to get in there the second you have a shiny puddle.

There is so little time before melt through to get that filler in, but I find that the moment you are feeding rod into the puddle, everything just starts to work.

Hope this helps. There are far wiser souls on here than me to help you. All the best!

Kym

One of my biggest problems is leaning the torch so I can see. You have to keep the torch pointed as straight into the weld as possible. When you start to lean it things get hard to control.

Another thing that I learned from Jody is to use 2% lanthanated tungsten and put a blunt point on it to help concentrate the arc where you want it. This has helped me some with aluminum fillet welds.

More power faster.

Don't be timid, grab some scrap and see just how fast you can make a puddle.
More power will puddle quick and you can stick in some filler and back off the pedal a little.

Use enough amps to puddle in 3 seconds or less. If it takes longer you run the risk of saturating the area with heat.

In my experience, fillet welds will generally take more amps to start, and to weld, than other joints.

Keep in mind that I'm kind of impatient though - you may not want to weld as fast, but you should start a puddle fast.

Good luck

yup, blast it with 180A and learn to back off. AMPERAGE helps straighten out the arc. Unless you have freq control, it's about all you have along with learning to hold a tight arc length without dipping the tungsten.

3/32 filler, get the puddle fast, and haul the mail. Try one size up in filler and see what happens.

Kent

thanks for the tips... like said, I guess I get a bit too timid and don't want to crank it up out of fear of blowing through and ruining my piece. I guess when it comes to just practicing welding on scrap, I'll do ok, but when I'm trying to actually fabricate something I'll get too nervous worrying about messing it up and get a little too soft with the amps, and too slow as well... The project I was working on is almost done (a 5-gauge pod for my race car that mounts on my dash bar of my roll cage), but I still have a little bit more to do which includes some more of my dreaded fillets... Gonna try to crank it up and be a bit braver this time (and I do have some 3/32 filler and 1/8th too, but it seems to make too big of a bead for my liking, I've gravitated to the 1/16" stuff for just about everything lately)

The 3/32 will only make your weld fat if you put too much in. You need only brush the front edge of the puddle with it. It will chill the puddle a bit, and some will melt in.

How long you keep the rod in the puddle is how much metal you put down, NOT how fat the rod is. This is why 1/8 was suggested, as it will bring your puddle temperature down fast.

You can lay thin beads with 1/8 and fat beads with 1/16, and vice-versa... It's all in the contact time.

Steve S

I had exactly the same problem, this video from Jody helped. http://youtu.be/LuRCoEshNto

I was getting the horseshoe shaped puddle, now I get a oval one, and that has made a big difference.

I'm actually using DC now, Mixed with AC half the time. The DC gets me a very narrow focused arc, and a short point on a E3 tungsten stays pointed. Not sure if your machine has a mixed mode.

That video is full of useful information. It's one of my favorites and should be very helpful for someone who is just getting started.