Welding quality

[Rogthebandit]

Hi everyone

I am new to the site, some interesting discussions and tig tutorials. I bought my arcmaster 200 about 6 months ago. Been doing a bit of ally welding which is going ok, getting pretty good quality and even runs. I cant say the same for mild or stainless though. For some reason both the mild and the stainless oxidise. I have tried alsorts of settings and also different gas suppliers but with the same results. Tried just about everything but just cant seem to get the quality any better. Has anyone gone through this? Have i got something totally wrong with the tig settings? Be grateful if someone could tell me where i am going wrong
Cheers
Rog

 

[Andrew55]

This may sound daft, but have you reset the machine from ac on Ali welding to dc for the steels ?. Believe me, fail to do that and things just do not work. Stainless is apt to "fir tree" on the back if too hot, and can need a gas shield behind the weld.

 

[Spark plug]

Some pictures of the welds would help to identify the probloem.

 

[hotrodder]

^^ this. Lots of causes and without pics all we can do is guess. A problem with the gas will show itself up on ally so it's most likely something to do with heat input- arc length too long, too hot/slow etc etc. Pics will tell us which/which combination

 

[Rogthebandit]

Cheers for the feedback. I will try upload some pics. I have defo changed from ac to dc when welding steel. I did forget the other month but soon realised what i had done.

On a seperate note, the trigger went on the torch the other night, it stayed on when i released it. I was on ac at the time and when i pulled back from the work piece a spark jumped from the torch to the work, must have cleared 5 or 6 inches, made me jump. I then noticed the gas still flowing and knew what it was. Just wondering if this can cause damage to the tig set? If you press the trigger away from the work you get a pulsing noise from the set. I have fixed the torch and it was welding ally ok tonite.

 

[backpurge]

No damage done, you don't have a "latching " facility on your set that you may have accidentaly turned on do you?

This is for when you are doing long runs, instead of pressing the trigger to weld and releasing it to stop, you press and let go to weld then press and let go again to finish, it saves you having to keep your finger on the trigger all the time

 

[Drains]

No damage done, you don't have a "latching " facility on your set that you may have accidentaly turned on do you?

This is for when you are doing long runs, instead of pressing the trigger to weld and releasing it to stop, you press and let go to weld then press and let go again to finish, it saves you having to keep your finger on the trigger all the time

The machine may show this as a 2T/4T option. 2T - hold it down to weld; 4T, trigger to start, trigger to stop, as BP says. (it may also include a ramp up, ramp down facility with that, which operates as you hold the trigger in)

 

[Will_Davis]

Hi everyone

For some reason both the mild and the stainless oxidise. I have tried alsorts of settings and also different gas suppliers but with the same results.

Rog

By oxidise do you mean change colour? ( yellows/blues/violets )If so then this is perfectly normal and is a result of the heat.

Aluminium doesn't discolour.

As others have said pictures are worth 1k words

Will

 

[Rogthebandit]

Hi
Soz for not getting back till now, been working late past few nights. Not managed to get a pic uploaded.

My machine is defo on 2t. Has the 4t option but i dont use it.

When i refer to oxidising, its a grey finish to the weld surface. I have seen clean tig welds where its just the heat transfer colours. I wish mine looked liked that.

I did some more ally welding the other night. The tip profile wasnt lasting that long, so i increased the post gas duratiom up to 8 secs and it made a massive difference. The tip looked good after 30mins welding at 100 amp. Just wondering if this is half the battle with the teel welding? I need to do some more test bits. Anyway cheers for the feedback and i will try to get a pic on tomoz nite.
Cheers
rog

 

[Rogthebandit]

Is it possible to up load pics from an ipad? I cant seem to get it to work

 

[Bobbyspit]

Load your pics to photobucket or the like and then link the thread to page, easier to do.

 

[Country Joe]

Load your pics to photobucket or the like and then link the thread to page, easier to do.

No! Don't do that!
When they get moved, as they invariably do, the links will die, and the thread becomes useless.
Much easier to upload to the Forum server.
All the Best,
CJ

 

[Country Joe]

This link explains how it's done:-

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=5016

All the Best,
CJ

 

[Drains]

Is it possible to up load pics from an ipad? I cant seem to get it to work

This link explains how it's done:-

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=5016

All the Best,
CJ

CJ, I think you missed the point of the question, which was about loading pics from an iPad.

Rog I can suggest trying the iCab app to do it, as it's talked about on the net. No idea if it works though. Apparently Safari on ios6 can upload pics too, but I've not tried.

The only other option that I know of is Photobucket, which isn't popular because of the reasons Joe said.

 

[inchpincher]

No! Don't do that!
When they get moved, as they invariably do, the links will die, and the thread becomes useless.
Much easier to upload to the Forum server.
All the Best,
CJ

You can upload pictures from photobucket to the forum server, that's how I do it.