Hi everyone, I've been welding for a while and had a few jobs come in for aluminium which I'm not too familiar with but done ok with it. In the past I've used the same set up as I always do but this last job had been inconsistent with the welds. This is the last job I welded:
Then this is today:
In the above pic the top weld was done first, didn't start great but then wasn't too bad. Second one just wasn't happening.
Cleaning of the weld was done with acetone first on a clean rag then I specially bought a new stainless steel wire brush to use afterwards. Cleaning in one direction to remove any contamination. Even after this it would not weld.
The machine I use is a tig 200 AC welder from China. I've gotten through a few aluminium jobs with no issue so far but starting to think the cleaning action or something else might not be up to the task with this machine? One thing I noticed is the pulse freq. Goes to 5Hz - would this have any effect on cleaning?
Here are machine settings:
I've tried the ac balance up further to help with cleaning but trying not to go too far with it as the tungsten becomes unstable.
Has anybody any thoughts on what this could be? Think it's the machine limitations or just settings not dialed in? I've read the guides on here and have tried tweaking as I go but not getting it right. If it's the machine limitation at least I can rule that out.
Then this is today:
In the above pic the top weld was done first, didn't start great but then wasn't too bad. Second one just wasn't happening.
Cleaning of the weld was done with acetone first on a clean rag then I specially bought a new stainless steel wire brush to use afterwards. Cleaning in one direction to remove any contamination. Even after this it would not weld.
The machine I use is a tig 200 AC welder from China. I've gotten through a few aluminium jobs with no issue so far but starting to think the cleaning action or something else might not be up to the task with this machine? One thing I noticed is the pulse freq. Goes to 5Hz - would this have any effect on cleaning?
Here are machine settings:
I've tried the ac balance up further to help with cleaning but trying not to go too far with it as the tungsten becomes unstable.
Has anybody any thoughts on what this could be? Think it's the machine limitations or just settings not dialed in? I've read the guides on here and have tried tweaking as I go but not getting it right. If it's the machine limitation at least I can rule that out.