maddog7
Member
- Messages
- 32
Hi everyone,
New to the forum (sort of, returning after a very long absence) and would like to ask some questions if I may (Don't all noobs!)
I bought an R-Tech TIG 260 last November and have attempted to teach myself to TIG weld. I've mainly experimented with aluminium but would like, in time to do mild and stainless too. I've now managed to get stuff stuck together (with some help from weldingtipsandtricks, 6061.com and a few others on the tube) but have a weird issue that I just can't seem to resolve and wondered if any of you could offer any advice?
Initially I really struggled to get anything sensible to happen at all (black soot in the weld, overheating the base metal and unable to get the arc where I wanted it until about a month ago I bought a CK TL26 torch and have had reasonable (to me good, but you may know otherwise!) success with it until one evening I asked my friend to turn off the Argon and instead of closing the valve on the bottle he closed the one on the reg. Since that time I appear to have suffered a small but noticeable change in the welds I can produce. There appears to be more black soot and some occasional peppering in the bead and when I ball the tips of my tungstens I get a ring of black soot around the area where the torch has lit. I use a piece of scrap 6mm alu plate for this procedure and set the machine to about 80% cleaning. I usually sharpen and ball about 8-10 tungstens at a time and so have lots of historical circles on the scrap where this has been done. It was here that I noticed the sooting on the most recent rings and the fact that it was absent on the older ones.
I suspected that shielding gas was the issue and checked the reg and flowmeter for leaks with soapy water, I've also used PTFE tape on all the connectors I can. I've tried more and less flowrate. I use about 6-8 L/M but have tried up to 15 and down to 2-3. I use a gas lens, No 7 ceramic, 2.4mm lanthinated tungstens, pure argon and when welding the 3mm Aluminum in the pics (I hope I've managed to attach) I've used the following settings. Foot pedal, AC advanced square wave, 140a, 110hz, no pulser, 32% cleaning, 10 amps start, 5 amps end, no upslope or downslope, .7s pre and 7s post flow. Tungstens remain bright and shiny with aluminium, unless I dip em
Material is new alu with the peel off sheet and 4043 rod. Cleaned with acetone and dedicated wire brush if material has no plastic cover or is exposed to air for any length of time.
Now here is where it gets a bit weird (at least for my limited understanding!)
I tried to weld some 304L stainless using 316L rod and really struggled, the welds just looked sugared like I'd have expected the unshielded underside to look, using no filler gave the same result. Awful.
I've even tried just lighting up on new material without any intention of welding it and the resulting circle looks grey in the centre. Mild steel seems to have similar results though lack of knowledge means I can't really tell if the results I get are good, bad or indifferent.
When I attempt to weld stainless (sharpened tip, not balled as I do for alu) I end up with the tip of the tungsten sooting back up about 6mm but the tungsten does not ball up or deform. Gas flow would be about 6 L/M though I've again tried more/less with similar results.
The gas is from energas and I uplifted it from one of their local agents who loaded it into my vehicle without me noticing that it had no metal teat thing on the top until I got it back. I dunno if that means anything?
Is it possible to have a contaminant in the gas that would affect stainless severly but alu only marginally?
I'm completely prepared for the fact that it's not the gas and simply bad technique on my part but it just seems odd that everything seemed to change after the reg was altered.
Any thoughts on what might cause this?
Hopefully below should be a few pics and I'll try and add some pics of the stainless in a bit.
Many thanks in advance, I know it's a long post.....
Below is a weld done before the reg change
....and this is afterward.......notice the sooting at the start, not something I was experiencing before...
This is what the tip of the tungsten looks like when attempting to light up on stainless, even for only a second or two......
New to the forum (sort of, returning after a very long absence) and would like to ask some questions if I may (Don't all noobs!)
I bought an R-Tech TIG 260 last November and have attempted to teach myself to TIG weld. I've mainly experimented with aluminium but would like, in time to do mild and stainless too. I've now managed to get stuff stuck together (with some help from weldingtipsandtricks, 6061.com and a few others on the tube) but have a weird issue that I just can't seem to resolve and wondered if any of you could offer any advice?
Initially I really struggled to get anything sensible to happen at all (black soot in the weld, overheating the base metal and unable to get the arc where I wanted it until about a month ago I bought a CK TL26 torch and have had reasonable (to me good, but you may know otherwise!) success with it until one evening I asked my friend to turn off the Argon and instead of closing the valve on the bottle he closed the one on the reg. Since that time I appear to have suffered a small but noticeable change in the welds I can produce. There appears to be more black soot and some occasional peppering in the bead and when I ball the tips of my tungstens I get a ring of black soot around the area where the torch has lit. I use a piece of scrap 6mm alu plate for this procedure and set the machine to about 80% cleaning. I usually sharpen and ball about 8-10 tungstens at a time and so have lots of historical circles on the scrap where this has been done. It was here that I noticed the sooting on the most recent rings and the fact that it was absent on the older ones.
I suspected that shielding gas was the issue and checked the reg and flowmeter for leaks with soapy water, I've also used PTFE tape on all the connectors I can. I've tried more and less flowrate. I use about 6-8 L/M but have tried up to 15 and down to 2-3. I use a gas lens, No 7 ceramic, 2.4mm lanthinated tungstens, pure argon and when welding the 3mm Aluminum in the pics (I hope I've managed to attach) I've used the following settings. Foot pedal, AC advanced square wave, 140a, 110hz, no pulser, 32% cleaning, 10 amps start, 5 amps end, no upslope or downslope, .7s pre and 7s post flow. Tungstens remain bright and shiny with aluminium, unless I dip em
Material is new alu with the peel off sheet and 4043 rod. Cleaned with acetone and dedicated wire brush if material has no plastic cover or is exposed to air for any length of time.
Now here is where it gets a bit weird (at least for my limited understanding!)
I tried to weld some 304L stainless using 316L rod and really struggled, the welds just looked sugared like I'd have expected the unshielded underside to look, using no filler gave the same result. Awful.
I've even tried just lighting up on new material without any intention of welding it and the resulting circle looks grey in the centre. Mild steel seems to have similar results though lack of knowledge means I can't really tell if the results I get are good, bad or indifferent.
When I attempt to weld stainless (sharpened tip, not balled as I do for alu) I end up with the tip of the tungsten sooting back up about 6mm but the tungsten does not ball up or deform. Gas flow would be about 6 L/M though I've again tried more/less with similar results.
The gas is from energas and I uplifted it from one of their local agents who loaded it into my vehicle without me noticing that it had no metal teat thing on the top until I got it back. I dunno if that means anything?
Is it possible to have a contaminant in the gas that would affect stainless severly but alu only marginally?
I'm completely prepared for the fact that it's not the gas and simply bad technique on my part but it just seems odd that everything seemed to change after the reg was altered.
Any thoughts on what might cause this?
Hopefully below should be a few pics and I'll try and add some pics of the stainless in a bit.
Many thanks in advance, I know it's a long post.....
Below is a weld done before the reg change
....and this is afterward.......notice the sooting at the start, not something I was experiencing before...
This is what the tip of the tungsten looks like when attempting to light up on stainless, even for only a second or two......