Terrible porosity issues

[Tiktok]

Hello,
New to this forum and TIG welding. Got myself set up practicing putting down some beads (just fusion for now), but getting terrible porosity!

Material: 10mm hot-rolled steel (ground down to nice shiny surface)
Machine: R-tech AC/DC 160
Electrode: 1.6mm 2% red electrode
Cup: No. 7
Gas: pure argon with flow around 10 litres/minute
Amps: around 100

Tried more gas/less gas, more/less amperage, but whatever I do I get beads full of pores. Does anybody have any suggestions to what I do wrong?

 

[eSCHEn]

Check your arc length isn't too long, about the size of the tungsten.

What filler are you using?

For my money it's a gas issue all day. Have you got a pea shooter to check flow at the tip?

Edit: and welcome

 

[daleyd]

Are you adding filler? Generally mild steel tends to benefit from some filler being added. When I first tried tig I had done some runs that tended to look a bit porous but things seemed to improve when I got to adding filler.

Richard or some other members who know more about tig than me might be able to elaborate.

 

[Paul.]

10mm plate at 100 amps and a 1.6 electrode, I'm surprised that porosity is your only problem, I suspect that you are not properly melting the parent material, filler may be an issue you need proper deoxidised tig rods not rods for gas welding , gas flow is a little high, and you should be using a 2.4 or 3.2 electrode, rough guide for current is 30 amps per mm thickness of material, but that does depend on the joint type and preparation
All this assumes that you dont have a torch fault or gas leak somewhere, some pictures of what you are doing will help.

 

[backpurge]

As had been said you would be better off with a bigger tungsten, 2.4mm should be OK, up the power a bit and turn the gas flow down but your main issue is you need to add filler wire when you are TIG welding carbon steel, make sure it is proper TIG welding filler and not gas welding rods or bits of MIG wire.

 

[Tiktok]

Thanks for the replies,

I think too its a gas issues. Been trying with less gas, but this leaves a brown residue of soot, whereas more gas just seems to 'blow' the weld pool. Got the feeling that the 1.6mm electrode might be too small and will try with a 2.4mm to see if that improves the situation.

 

[Gavin Melville]

Could this be in a draft, looks like air got in. I'd check breeze or draft, torch angle, leaks around the torch. Is this outdoors?

Perhaps try a gas lens, the gas flow is less turbulent.

When I started aluminium my welds looked like this, but I never figured out which problem caused it as I had so many to choose from. Torch angle could be an issue, as your porosity looks different depending on direction.

 

[Richard.]

There is a coverage problem going on there. It's not the sort of looking porosity Id expect to see from not using or using the wrong rods.
The strange thing about that is its very elaborate on 1 run inparticular, was this by any chance the first run down and they got cleaner as you did more of them? Gas leaks not only waste gas but they also draw in unwanted air and can cause contamination. A leak on the torch is common for this. What you often see with gas cooled torches is as they get hot they seal the leak and things clean up until next time. Worth looking into if that's the case.

 

[BrokenBiker]

am i the only person that thinks they look very wide for 100A with a 1.6?

 

[Tiktok]

Many thanks again for the replies!

I've tried out some of your suggestions:

Torch angle: think I got this right so the issues is not here.
Draft: I do all my welding indoors, so can rule out draft.
Gas lens: could be an idea. Did notice that going from a No.6 to No.7 cup improved matters, but only a little bit
Leaks in the torch: My torch is gas-cooled WP26 torch and brand new. Struggle to see where the problem could be here.

My instinct tells me I got a gas problem, either incorrect gas flow or an in-take of air somewhere.

I got a regulator with two gauges fitted in my argon bottle. On for the pressure inside, the other measuring liters/min. and cubit feet/hour. This I have set to approx. 10 liters/hour or 20 cuft/hour. On the outlet of the regulator I have fitted a flow meter, which I have set also at 10 liters/min.

Have tried different flow settings; low flow leaves soot and brownish residues, higher flow just 'blows' the weld pool all over the place.

Still struggling to understand this?

 

[TechnicAl]

I think the most likely cause is air ingress either through a bad coonection or damage to the torch or the gas pipe.

 

[Jim Davey]

Are you using CCMS instead of TIG filler rod?

 

[Tiktok]

TecnicAl, I think you are right about the problem being air ingress of some sort. I have however checked all with soapy water and found no bubbles!

Jim Davey: I am not using any filler rod, just trying to run some beads using only fusion.

 

[Jim Davey]

Try 6-8 lpm, 10 is too much.

 

[Jim Davey]

Also, make sure your collet isn't in the torch backwards. The chamfer ant the split go towards the ceramic, not the back cap.

 

[Richard.]

I think the most likely cause is air ingress either through a bad coonection or damage to the torch or the gas pipe.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[Tiktok]

Thanks to everyone who replied to my post, I have now resolved the problem. Not sure exactly what changed, but I re-checked everything and adjusted the flow a bit down to approx. 6-8 l/min. and am now producing some ok beads (not so straight, but that will come with practice).

The new beads are the ones in the center of the plate.

Many thanks forum

 

[Brad93]

Your gas waswas too high, it was probably causing eddy currents aka massive turbulent flow through a small size 6 ceramic. 6lpm is more than enough with a #7.

Are you using filler? If so you need to move faster far too much heat and too wide a bead there.

 

[Liquid Metal]

Trying to weld mild steel without a filler will usually give porosity anyway. Its the silicon and other deoxidisers in the filler rods that prevent this aswell as adequate argon coverage.

 

[Spuddevans]

One thing that caught me out was welding with my TIG welder sitting next to me on the workbench, I forgot that those little vents in the side of the welder was blasting air out of them( the fan only ran when welding ), perfectly angled down to wash away my shielding argon! A piece of 1mm plate held with an angle magnet as a shield cured that until I found a better place for the welder.

Tim