Aluminium welding - variations on the theme please

[supermotobloke]

Background:
No welding experience to speak of but making a little progress through trial & mainly error with mild/stainless.

After some basic information, and some base settings for a variety of aluminium (and s/steel if you feel inclined) welding please. Looking for what has worked in real situations. So tungsten type, amps, gas flow, metal prep etc

Equipment:
New Jasic JT-200D - PureShield Argon - Torches for 1.6 & 2.4mm - Foot pedal
First - has anyone any experience of this welder? Have read the manual, and it may as well be in Latin. Tells how to change settings but not how it effects welding.
Totally digital this setup. For steel torch is in negative socket, earth clamp in positive socket. Tell me this is correct!

Control panel allows stepping between DC and AC/DC modes. Is this all i have to do, or must i switch the leads around for AC/DC use?

Have been degreasing and then aqua blasting parts to prep ready. Do i need to still clean with a stainless brush & acetone? Could the aqua blasting cause contamination? Thinking of silicon debris impregnating the surface perhaps?

Situation 1.
Engine cases, rocker box covers, broken cylinder head fins etc and the like. All will have been exposed to oil at some point and showing pitting and signs of corrosion. Put a torch to these type parts and oil erupts - any suggestions?


Situation 2.
Clean or new aluminium of varying thickness up to perhaps 5/6mm

 

[justin]

You have asked for a hell of a lot of information there. You would be better off searching the tig section for answers for your questions one at a time, And reading the tutorials.

 

[supermotobloke]

Justin. Don't wan't to appear rude but do you have any answers to the few questions i have asked?
Are you familiar with the set i have, or have experience of welding different types of aluminium?
I am on this Forum to make contact with experienced welders as they have the answers, but
thanks for your response.

 

[norlander]

this from my book might help with AC features- just be aware, different manufactures might have things Rs about face, but think this might give you a steer-sorry about orientation
Torch neg, earth pos all the way.
On the engine parts, I'd get em ultra sonically cleaned and clean up again with acetone and brush before welding, whatever method, aim 1 is to get rid of grease n hydrocarbon smeg, aim 2 is to reduce the oxide layer, for fresh ali, wire brushing is not always needed, the AC will bust up the oxide layer. If its not clean enough, you will quickly find out.
When you switch to AC, it will sound like Frankensteins den, thats normal.Get some practice in with your machine on basic stuff, you need to research different filler rod flavours for the engine cases and castings I would think.
But get a sound skills and knowledge base before tackling that stuff.

 

[Freddy0309]

For the first few question yes torch is negative and no you don't have to switch it round for acdc.

Try preheating the parts to bake some of the oil out and set the balance to maximum cleaning and I would still wipe with acetone after blasting but before trying to tackle that I would be running beads on some new/clean Ali

 

[Richard.]

Alu

• Set machine to ac
• Set balance to 70% dc negative
• Current work around 40amps per 1 Mm of material thickness
• Frequency 80hz for butts, 120hz fillets and outside corners
• Gas argon 100% @ 6-8lpm
• Pre flow 1sec
• Post flow 6 seconds for 1mm and add 1 second for every mm after
• Arc length 1-2mm
• Torch angle 10 degrees from vertical lean away from your direction of travel.
• Tungsten white, blue, gold, grey, don't worry about which people prefer at this time.

These are very rough settings that I know work they don't cover all case scenarios but they will get you results and you can fine tune as your experience grows.

 

[Chris Stevens]

I repair a fair few bike casings, and never had any major problems with oil, finding that de-greasing before prep work, then playing the torch over the weld area with machine set to full positive balance (most cleaning action), then wire brushing anything in the way of oil which comes to the surface, continuing with this until the surface stays clean when heated. Never needed to mess around with acetone, as I find positive balance and wire brush is more effective and faster.

Next step is to set machine frequency to something like 120hz (tends to concentrate heat more, which is good on thinnish castings), AC, and weld using lanthanated tungsten (which you can also use for ferrous), and 5456 1.6mm rod (thinner filler means less heat). Sorry not familiar with setting your machine, but the above has worked very well for me in terms of repairing bike parts. But a good general pointer is to set machine to full power on the pedal, and control heat to exactly what you need by more or less pedal.

If you are into racing supermoto, I would guess you will get plenty of practice welding. Last SM related job I did was modifying swinging arm on CRF450.

 

[norlander]

Alu

• Set machine to ac
• Set balance to 70% dc negative
• Current work around 40amps per 1 Mm of material thickness
• Frequency 80hz for butts, 120hz fillets and outside corners
• Gas argon 100% @ 6-8lpm
• Pre flow 1sec
• Post flow 6 seconds for 1mm and add 1 second for every mm after
• Arc length 1-2mm
• Torch angle 10 degrees from vertical lean away from your direction of travel.
• Tungsten white, blue, gold, grey, don't worry about which people prefer at this time.

These are very rough settings that I know work they don't cover all case scenarios but they will get you results and you can fine tune as your experience grows.

I'd like to propose that should be incorporated into the TIG Tutorial, last time I looked it had nothing on Ali, but more DIY users are getting AC sets now, I found playing with Freq and balance made a difference but have not put settings in the memory because I find you still have to tweak settings for each job . Tha above is going next to my bench now.
Good baseline for initial settings, even though it was writ by a big jessie with a w/c torch.

 

[Freddy0309]

I'd like to propose that should be incorporated into the TIG Tutorial, last time I looked it had nothing on Ali, but more DIY users are getting AC sets now, I found playing with Freq and balance made a difference but have not put settings in the memory because I find you still have to tweak settings for each job . Tha above is going next to my bench now.
Good baseline for initial settings, even though it was writ by a big jessie with a w/c torch.

I think it would be a brilliant addition to the tutorials

 

[Chris Stevens]

Good idea, as there seems to be nothing of any real help in instruction manuals that come with a new TIG machine, even if its a very expensive one.

 

[Richard.]

I'd like to propose that should be incorporated into the TIG Tutorial, last time I looked it had nothing on Ali, but more DIY users are getting AC sets now, I found playing with Freq and balance made a difference but have not put settings in the memory because I find you still have to tweak settings for each job . Tha above is going next to my bench now.
Good baseline for initial settings, even though it was writ by a big jessie with a w/c torch.

Spell and gramma check it first lol.
Not my strongest suit (ashamed)

 

[Richard.]

I'm sure if asked nicely Paul will do a little tutorial section on ac welding. With pictures and a settings table to use.
If not I don't mind putting something in a new thread if people are going to benefit from it then it's worth my time.
The information is certainly all there in the section. You just have to dig for it.

 

[Richard.]

thinner filler means less heat

I'm not sure what you mean by this Chris.
The thickness of your filler material dosent change the heat your putting into the part infact a thinner fill would have the opposite effect because a thicker filler rod would chill and reinforce the pool more allowing you to control the heat better. A thinner rod would quickly be absorbed into the pool with little or no effect on helping gain control at decent current levels.

 

[norlander]

I'm sure if asked nicely Paul will do a little tutorial section on ac welding. With pictures and a settings table to use.
If not I don't mind putting something in a new thread if people are going to benefit from it then it's worth my time.
The information is certainly all there in the section. You just have to dig for it.

There is a wealth of info in the section, but I lose the plot (yeah I know thats obvious) looking for it, and sometimes the threads develop into a bun fight on different opinions, and youtube is often confusing for me, Jody's one on AC balance left me confused as he explains set up on different machines.

That post is the first time I have seen freq related to type of joint, I was muddling my way towards finding that out, but now I have more understanding and baseline settings. If its in the TIG Tutorial, its easier to direct people to it, rather than pull up older posts (for me that is)

 

[Richard.]

There is a wealth of info in the section, but I lose the plot (yeah I know thats obvious) looking for it, and sometimes the threads develop into a bun fight on different opinions, and youtube is often confusing for me, Jody's one on AC balance left me confused as he explains set up on different machines.

That post is the first time I have seen freq related to type of joint, I was muddling my way towards finding that out, but now I have more understanding and baseline settings. If its in the TIG Tutorial, its easier to direct people to it, rather than pull up older posts (for me that is)

Oh I totally agree.
Siving through posts to find accurate info is like dropping a penny into a fruit machine. Everyone has an opinion and its a case of who do you believe.
The tutorials are very good but they do lack a section on aluminium. Even the settings used in the tutorials On dc are only guides as some of the info is different to how I would proceed so it's also an individual's job to fine tune.
I'm more than happy to put down some info as a beginners guide to Alu in a thread and try illustrate with pics and explainations if people want that. I will however request the thread locked after so that it's not cluttered.
Let me know your thoughts. Obviously the best case scenario is to see what can be added to the tutorials and keep it all together.

 

[norlander]

If the thread can be locked as you say and made one of those "sticky" ones if thats the right term; so it stays on view and can easily be referred to is what I mean.

 

[eSCHEn]

If you want your spilling and grimmer checking then I'm more than happy to Rich

 

[Richard.]

If you want your spilling and grimmer checking then I'm more than happy to Rich

Cheese mite.

 

[eSCHEn]

Nae bother blud innit.

 

[norlander]

Well, just went back to some Ali welding (erm, that should be as in sticking ali together), used the base line settings, balance at 80 was too much on my set but it might be an Rs about face system (well its french innit), so 35% was my setting so thats half of Rich's guide, which makes me think my set works differently to Rich's. I think I get what Jody is on about now.

But once I clocked that, it went ok on the balance. Probably an EP/EN freq difference or sumthin between sets, but you soon find out when you light up anyway.

The suggested freq setting for different joints worked a treat, I was getting there but needed it pointed out to me.

Amps per mm, just about right, puddled up quickly, my travel speed was a gnats todger too slow and I got the angle wrong, but got there in the end, but main thing was I was not fannying around establishing the puddle and was off and running, and once I had got my brain and hands back into sync I was able up my travel speed.

Pre n post flow suggestions again good, made me remember the post flow which I often forget and wonder why I got a nice blue tungsten.

Anyway, pretty much worked for me, I'd like to suggest any other novices who have struggled with consistency give the settings a go and report back,please don't just blag the settings and use them and don't give feedback.