Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi everybody. i am having tons of problems tig welding aluminum. im in high school and very active in our shop. the problem i have is that i want to tig weld aluminum but my teacher has no clue how to so i have no guidence. i can tig mild steel pretty good but cant get a bead trying to weld aluminum. my welds turn into big globs or the metal sags underneath. i have tried everything from cleaning the metal with acetone to swithing electrodes. and every thing inbetween. what am i doing wrong?

What machine are you using? Are you switching to AC?

What gas are you using? should be argon

A/C D/C? should be a/c

High Freq setting? off

need info, material amps tungsten type argon flow filler machine.

im using a lincoln presision tig with pure argon 2%thoriated on ac with the balence set to auto welding 1/4 inch with the current anywhere between 80 and 150 amps

i'm not much of a tig welder but i did use the machine at my highschool about once a week to fix something for a teacher or student.
i remember having the same problem you're talking about, a large area of the aluminum seems to get a layer of cracked dark film on it and the whole thing will just sort of turn to jello. If this was happening i would usually just let it cool then stick my electrode back into the spot i was trying to weld and stomp the petal pushing a rediculous amount of heat in with a very short arc.
only do it for a moment and you'll see the liquid aluminum start appearing. Then just let off the heat a little making sure not to let the puddle solidify and start working a bead feeding rod as you go.
like i said im not pro at tig, this was just how i did it and it seemed to help prevent the problem your speaking of from happening.

cconnor, what you are experiencing is good. It's the same thing I did the first time I tried it. I looked at it and said "Cool" I actually welded with this three handed managery of hocus pocus vodo process they call TIG. I was amazed that I made it more than a inch before I stuck the rod to the tungsten and then welded them both soundly to the metal. LOL... I spent a lot more time grinding tungstens than I did welding in that first week of evening practice sessions. And, there are still days' when that's the case.

Don't worry. Watch Jody's vid's, read his articles and pretty soon you'll start understanding the machine and the process. Once you get there, you'll really start to enjoy it.

Look around, not too many welders brag about how good they are at TIG. Watch Jody and count how many times he says, I should have or I could have or maybe if... He's about as good at this as they come and he's learning more everyday. That's what inspired me to keep at it. I still TIG like fido's butt but I'm still practicing in between welding the real deal. Actually, I'm kind of hopeing that the Fido's Butt look catches on like the "Stack of Dimes" look. Now wouldn't that be something!! ROFLOL....

Keep at it, you got some good advice already and a ton of info on this website.

P.S. I'd advise you on technique and machine settings but I might jepordize my future patent rights to the "Fido's Butt" weld.

thanks. ill get some pics up so i can get better focus on what im doing wrong instead of broad generalizations.

i dont have any idea how i did it but i finally welded. still too uncordnated to use filler rod but have been able to lap aand butt weld with slight ripples

Keep at it, dude. Practice, practice, and come back and watch Jody's videos and read the stuff he's written on TIG. I'm only a little ways ahead of you on the curve so I know what you are going through. Have patience and keep plenty of sharpened electrodes handy.
Joe