New to the forum & Tig

[Richard.]

Ideally I would have or had someone that knew what they were doing do it for me. However I don't know anyone that welds aluminium that was close enough. I needed to get this project finished & I'm really limited on play time. Kinda had to do practice & productivity at the same time. I did take 6 passes about 5" long first. I think my tank is getting to low. I had to increase the gas flow to keep the soot out.

More often than not arc length is the usual culprit for causing soot. Obscure torch angles and too long an arc length are newcomers errors. 5lpm on my set up produces very clean welds for most case scenarios.

 

[KingMT]

I don't know how that converts to cfm but I had the flow on 20cfm & it cleaned up when I bumped it up to 25cfm. Everything has been fine on the settings I've been following but my tank is almost empty & I was using a little long stick out. So it could be ethere or both.

 

[Richard.]

I don't know how that converts to cfm but I had the flow on 20cfm & it cleaned up when I bumped it up to 25cfm. Everything has been fine on the settings I've been following but my tank is almost empty & I was using a little long stick out. So it could be ethere or both.

Just re read this.
Are you sure your talking cubic feet per min???
I think you mean CFH. per hour.
It's roughly 2/1 lpm/Cfh.
25 Cfh is around 12lpm
Twice what you need mate. No wonder your bombing through the argon. I'd investigate further to see why you think you need such a rate. Chances are the high flow is causing your issues. Too much can be just as bad as too little as it can suck air into the shield in a form of turbulence.

 

[KingMT]

Your right. I meant cfh. I didn't know to much was bad other then wasting gas. The chart called for 20 cfh for the amps I was using on aluminum. Most of my welding so far has called for 7-15 on the mild steel but I'm not using near as many amps on mild steel ether.

I usually don't know which cup to use ether so I use the biggest one on the chart which is usually a 7.

 

[KingMT]

Richard
Thanks so much for all your help. You have provided me with a wealth of knowledge. Even when it wasn't me you was talking to. I read in another post where you told someone else that they could use a gold tungsten. That wasn't even listed in the chart I've been using as a guide as being good for aluminum. I decide to give it a try on my practice piece & the settings you told me. I tried it with the gray tungsten first then switched to the gold keeping all the same settings. It was a world of difference. I lost the sharp point off my tungsten but it was laying down bead after bead & looked great with excellent penatration.

To everyone else offering information. I'm very thankful to you as well. You guys have taught me much & saved me a great deal of work & guessing. I think I finally have a good enough understanding I can ask questions.

 

[Richard.]

Richard
Thanks so much for all your help. You have provided me with a wealth of knowledge. Even when it wasn't me you was talking to. I read in another post where you told someone else that they could use a gold tungsten. That wasn't even listed in the chart I've been using as a guide as being good for aluminum. I decide to give it a try on my practice piece & the settings you told me. I tried it with the gray tungsten first then switched to the gold keeping all the same settings. It was a world of difference. I lost the sharp point off my tungsten but it was laying down bead after bead & looked great with excellent penatration.

To everyone else offering information. I'm very thankful to you as well. You guys have taught me much & saved me a great deal of work & guessing. I think I finally have a good enough understanding I can ask questions.

Gold is 1.5% lanthanated
Very good tungstens on AC and DC
If you like the lanthanated ones you could step to a blue. This is 2% lanthanated and a little bit better regarding point holding. More noticeable on DC.

Glad it helped out got any pics

 

[Brad93]

Blue lanthanated is an excellent choice, gold is good but the blue edges it a bit. Grey tungsten isn't worth a dime imo.

 

[KingMT]

Blue lanthanated is an excellent choice, gold is good but the blue edges it a bit. Grey tungsten isn't worth a dime imo.

I remember you telling me about blue. I haven't ordered any yet but plan to.

 

[KingMT]

Glad it helped out got any pics

No but I'll take one for you.

 

[KingMT]

Bottom 2/3s is the first welds I was having all the problems with. I moved in to my project before finishing the other third of the plate. The top third is where everything flowed better. I didn't try for the roll of dimes affect. I was just laying wire. There is a pitted spot about half inch/30ish mm in the beginning of the last beads. This is where the argon was set to low.


This is the back of the plate. That gob on the edge is from my first bead where I got it so hot I dropped the whole side out of it then used the tig torch to put it back.

 

[Richard.]

The top half has flowed better for you because your plate has become heat soaked.
The problem with this is it becomes very hard to keep control over the pool.
Allow your plate to cool, spike it with lots of current (40 amps per 1mm) and wait for a shiny pool to develop before adding rod. Then as you start adding things will start to flow. Pick up your travel and fill as you go to maintain control. The key is keeping control over the pool.
Once you've done a run. (Good or bad) allow the plate to cool before starting another.

 

[KingMT]

Those beads were days apart so I don't think heat soaked was the case.

 

[KingMT]

I have a typo in that post with all the beads in the aluminum plate. I meant to say about an inch instead. No idea why I said half.

Anyhow
The first ones were ran at 40Hz. The last were ran with the settings you suggested. If I remember correctly the first were ran with all 1.6mm filler while some of the lower beads were ran with 1.6mm but I needed more rod then just laying would provide & was having to push some in also. The last passes with the 2mm rod was lay in only. I moved through the beads much faster after turning up the Hz.

 

[KingMT]

I went to the LWS yesterday. Not only did they trade me up in tank sizes but he said I have you a good deal in gas. I'd bought some other things so it want till I left I looked at my bill of sale. He'd sold me 300cf for $85 instead of the normal $190. I was very happy. I was so dumbfounded I called to make sure it wasn't a mistake but he said he was happy with it as long as I was.