Evening, so I've been tigging steel for a while and am happily making progress, just acquired a welder of my own and want to start getting some aluminium miles on the clock . . . starting an arc seems to be the main problem, lots of noise but no reliable way of starting, I seem to be getting a lot of 'cleaning' but no weld pool and a frosty circle where I'm trying to start . . . when things work, the same technique works of course, although keeping the tungsten out of the pool is less easy . . . only just started tho'
This is 2mm sheet, I'm guessing the frosty look is the cleaning cycle, and was wondering if the difficulty in starting is due to the oxide layer (I haven't cleaned the sheet at all). Using a 2.4mm thorated tungsten with a ground tip (just like I use for steel) which seems to stay sharp so long as I'm not contaminating it, 100Hz AC Freq . . . I forget the current, probably around 60-80 amps but the weld and penetration seems fine . . . if I can get the damn thing started . . .
Hints/Tips/Thoughts ? . . .
Gracias
Fd
This is 2mm sheet, I'm guessing the frosty look is the cleaning cycle, and was wondering if the difficulty in starting is due to the oxide layer (I haven't cleaned the sheet at all). Using a 2.4mm thorated tungsten with a ground tip (just like I use for steel) which seems to stay sharp so long as I'm not contaminating it, 100Hz AC Freq . . . I forget the current, probably around 60-80 amps but the weld and penetration seems fine . . . if I can get the damn thing started . . .
Hints/Tips/Thoughts ? . . .
Gracias
Fd