scottguehne
Member
- Messages
- 2
Hey all, I just got into this forum, seemed like the best place to be, lotta good welders and a lot of good advice floating around on here. Anyway, I recently tried welding some aluminum at work, and I ran into an issue. I can run a great bead on the sheet of aluminum, but when I try to join to pieces, at any type of joint, I just can't. Cleanliness is not the problem, just shooting that suggestion down immediately. The first joint I attempted was an overlap. As I waited for the base metal to puddle, the arc would erratically jump to the small piece I had laid on top of the base, for my overlap joint. The arc actually spent more time on the piece I had on top, instead of the base metal. Frequency was set to the max, at 200 HZ. Arc was steady on the flat sheet, when I wasn't trying to join anything. Tungsten is a 2% ceriated, all they give me at work. Tungsten was sharpened to a point, inverter machine. I also found through trial and error that my machine at work likes the point better than the ball. The machine at work is an HTP Invertig 201. Anyway, as I tried to join the overlapped piece with the base, the arc would seem to wander to the overlapped piece, causing it to melt away, before I could form a puddle on base. With steel, a dab of filler would join the two puddles no problem, but with the aluminum, I was wary of trying to join the pieces with a dip of filler because I know if there would be any oxide under that dab of filler, it would create a very ugly, porous weld. But, like I said, the metal was clean. So, is the answer to my question simply dab the filler in the joint to begin with, and then just melt it into the overlapped piece and the base? It was my first time with aluminum, so my experience is limited. Any help or thoughts or comments are greatly appreciated.
-Scott
-Scott