tig welding help

[blighty]

We have success!

Right then., new tips turned up the other day. fitted one and started again. no change, still the same.
me mate said maybe there's something wrong with the gas supply. try your old little bottle of gas. so i did. It worked. so it looked like there is something wrong with the gauges i have on the big bottle. Ordered some new gauges, fitted them to the big bottle and all is fine. Might of been a case of not enough gas coming through, blocked filter or something (that's if they have filters in them)

pic..... 1.6mm ali, 1.6mm blue tip, 45amp 120Hz 30% balance. will have a proper go at the weekend.

till then thanks for all you help and advice.

 

[canadianhorsepower]

thanks for the post guys, all good stuff:thumbup:

still waiting for the new Tungsten to turn up. cant try anything till it gets here.

use the same tungsten
use a smaller cup {more shield gas concentration}

ground the tip of the tungsten flat
then bring it close to your peace and press the pedal
your tip will turn into a round end {ball} you need this for alu.

do not touch the material with your tungsten
you will contaminate it and will be useless after
good luck

 

[blighty]

finally got round to having a go with Ali.

changed the cup to a smaller one, did the ball thing with the tip. got some Ali and gave it a go.

the part i was welding on was 6mm think. started of with with 1.6mm tip 125amp and some other settings...... didn't touch it. changed to 2.4mm 150 amp got a weld that you get when you don't know what your doing. sort of looked ok. then did another bead next to it melted. weld was twice the width of the first one, used more filler and the weld was flat. turned it down to 130 amps and got the beads back. as i went on the amps got turned down till 100amp and staid there.
stopped for a bit, then started again, had to go back up to 150 amp and repeated all the way down to 100 amp. I guess the hotter the work gets the less amps you need. If that's the case, I best get me self a pedal.

pic bellow, you can see the bits with to high amps and when i touched the tip. i'll get some more Ali cleaned up and do some proper practice beads tomorrow.

 

[nautilus29]

Nice looking welds, I'm glad you got it figured out! It's always frustrating when you get a new machine and start having problems. Always second guessing if you are doing it right or if something is wrong somewhere else.

If you decided to try the coke cans again there is a varnished that is applied over the paint and to the interior of the can. This keeps the paint looking nice, and makes it so you can't taste aluminum in you pop. I don't know anything about welding, but I'm guessing you'll need to clean this off to get a good weld.

 

[joco-nz]

Yes as the Ali heats up you need to dial the amps back OR speed up your travel. I find it easier to dial the amps back (via pedal control). When I'm doing thicker ali (circa 6mm) I've started to hit it with some preheat via a gas torch. Makes it easier to get going and not need to burn such high amps (to sink the heat in) to start with.

Cheers,
J.

 

[canadianhorsepower]

he work gets the less amps you need. If that's the case, I best get me self a pedal.

.

a pedal is a MUST for tig welding, specially non ferrous material.
You can't see the material colour state with aluminium compare to steel.
A good alternative and practice to this is to change your whip angle.
EI: need more heat point directly to your material,less heat incline your whip
pointing away but in straight line with your weld

I just look at the picture of your welder
you have a cadillac and using it like a volks.
That's a digital welder meaning it has a pulse function
You decide how long you want it ON and how long you want it OFF
this will make your welding SOOOOOOOO easy.