Tig welding alu

[Ami]

I work with a Lorch V30 Mobile, I have no idea what it costs but it's very user friendly. Like setting your amp via a button on the torch. Square and soft waves, balance, pulse, frequencies, yada yada yada. Does everything but weld on it's own and make me coffee. If you don't have a peddle I advise you to get one. Pulse is good, but with a peddle you have much more control on your heat input and on long welds you need as much control as you can get.

 

[Gavin Melville]

Sorry Richard,

I was being, or so I thought, funny. Every now and again I screw up, and blaming everything else seems the thing to do.



G.

 

[Richard.]

Don't apologise,my tools spend there lives treading on eggshells as they literally get blamed for everything.
Poor things must be lacking some confidence by now.
I hope the advice I gave helps reduce the sooty welds.

 

[langy]

Black soot and dulling of the tungsten is down to oxides been transferred across the arc.
Insufficient gas coverage is the reason but it's rarely because of flow rates. Usually arc length is the cause. If you know your arc is consistently short then look for things like a gas leak. Quite often I hear of the first bead been awful and sooty then the next ones clean up. This is usually a gas leak on the torch itself and as the torch gets hot, expansion of the fitting can seal the leak. Try these things first as I doubt very much it's a fault with the machine.

Had this very problem the other day, welding nicely put torch down and then not so good, the gas lens had worked loose, only a tiny bit but enough, quick tighten and back to normal

 

[Appyasme]

We have had problems with copy gas lenses.The gauze is no where as good as genuine products

 

[Ami]

Do gas lenses realy make that much of a difference? I just use ordinary open ceramic cups.

 

[Richard.]

Do gas lenses realy make that much of a difference? I just use ordinary open ceramic cups.

Gas coverage is better and more efficient as a lens offers the gas straight down through a fine mesh and it covers the pool in a blanket type way. They also save you money as you need less flow for the same results. Results on SS are much better with a gas lens.

 

[eSCHEn]

I am by no means a weldor but I could drop to 7 lpm flow on normal before getting porosity problems. Since using gas lenses I can get that down to 4 lpm before I get issues. A 40% gas saving is good for me

 

[Ami]

Ok, any sugestions on wich lense? Dose one fit all cup sizes? Me need info

 

[Tinbasherdan]

Ok, any sugestions on wich lense? Dose one fit all cup sizes? Me need info

Without reading back thru the thread, what size torch is it?

 

[Ami]

Ummm I don't know, what would I measure to tell you?

 

[Richard.]

Ummm I don't know, what would I measure to tell you?

Put up a pic.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

Ummm I don't know, what would I measure to tell you?

It'll have something like wp9 or 26 etc written on the handle

 

[Appyasme]

Ok,as Richard said before we help we need some indication of what torch you have

 

[Ami]

I can post a photo, but just for an idea, I work mostly with 4-6 cups. I'll post a photo tomorow.

 

[hotrodder]

As said the size is usually written on the neck of the torch... WP9, SR17, LTW20 etc. Ignore any letters before the number, they're manufacturer IDs. The number denotes the size of the torch. Cup size is meaningless, can fit a #4 to a huge torch just as easily as you can fit a huge cup to a small torch

For the common torch sizes there are two sizes of consumables, easily identifiable from a standard collet body. 9/20 (small air and water cooled respectively) share collets etc along with a 5/16" 24tpi (UNF) thread size. http://www.weldingtorchparts.co.uk/wp20-collet-body.html

17/18/26 sized torches use a 3/8" 32tpi (UNEF) thread, share the same consumables and a standard collet body looks very different/is much longer http://www.weldingtorchparts.co.uk/wp17-collet-body.html