Hello all,
Well I've done a few small welds with my new machine (R-Tech 160amp AC/DC) - quite enjoying the best welds I've ever done, although there's plenty to do to get them to any standard!
Anyway, some pics of the frame I've been welding up, that will eventually become the table for a small lathe I've acquired. It's 30X30X3 mild steel box, and the same in angle for the lower cross struts, all mild steel.
I've mostly used the 1.6 tungsten, but part way through switched to the 3.2 (it may be a 2.4...) as I was burning the tip a bit at around 90-95 amps. Penetration looks half way through on the angle bits, square edge (i.e. no preparation). I'm using around 5lpm gas flow and sharp tungsten. clean the pieses with white spirit, then dry rag, and sometimes a bit of wire brushing too.
Main issue I've had is the apearance of voids in some of the welds, particularly the butt joints as a fillet weld (inside corner) and the top weld where a horizontal tube butts up to the top open section of a vertical tube. Sides came out excellent, but it forms a 'vee' channel where the horizontal tube meets the curved sides of the vertical.
These voids seem to occur when I get a 'fizzy' weld pool, although they sometimes appear as a crescent shaped hole, like a missing 'scale' if you pretended the weld was a load of scales stacked up against one another.
Feedback massively appreciated!
Well I've done a few small welds with my new machine (R-Tech 160amp AC/DC) - quite enjoying the best welds I've ever done, although there's plenty to do to get them to any standard!
Anyway, some pics of the frame I've been welding up, that will eventually become the table for a small lathe I've acquired. It's 30X30X3 mild steel box, and the same in angle for the lower cross struts, all mild steel.
I've mostly used the 1.6 tungsten, but part way through switched to the 3.2 (it may be a 2.4...) as I was burning the tip a bit at around 90-95 amps. Penetration looks half way through on the angle bits, square edge (i.e. no preparation). I'm using around 5lpm gas flow and sharp tungsten. clean the pieses with white spirit, then dry rag, and sometimes a bit of wire brushing too.
Main issue I've had is the apearance of voids in some of the welds, particularly the butt joints as a fillet weld (inside corner) and the top weld where a horizontal tube butts up to the top open section of a vertical tube. Sides came out excellent, but it forms a 'vee' channel where the horizontal tube meets the curved sides of the vertical.
These voids seem to occur when I get a 'fizzy' weld pool, although they sometimes appear as a crescent shaped hole, like a missing 'scale' if you pretended the weld was a load of scales stacked up against one another.
Feedback massively appreciated!