Tungsten type

[racerx]

You no i thought about that and for that reason i decided not to use the compressor ,i getting ready to go and have my tanks filled and ill ask about the acid wash.......Thanks for the response.

[ryanjones2150]

Is the pan cast aluminum?

[racerx]

Is the pan cast aluminum?

No......it one of the fabricated custom pans.

[racerx]

One thing i did notice while wiping it down with acetone the rag had a lot of black residue.

[ryanjones2150]

I’ve had some pretty good results by using the chemical aluminum cleaner as has already been stated. You could also give it some preheat and maybe burn more of the nasties out.

[Aeroweld]

I don’t really notice much difference between any of them on DC. I ran the purple for a good while today welding up an aluminum fuel cell for drag car. I really like that purple on AC.

What machine were you using? Transformer or Inverter?

I've always used 2% Thoriated for everything on my Dialarc HF and with customers Syncrowaves. DC or AC. I prefer 2% for aluminum as the ball will stay smaller and it is easier to control the arc. I also have a Maxstar 150STL. That one came with a stick of 2% Ceriated (Orange) Once that was gone I went back to 2% Thoriated and never noticed a difference with the inverter. But then again it is a DC only machine. I recently ran a customer's Syncrowave on Aluminum with the purple tungsten and noticed a little better starting characteristics and maybe a little better low amperage control, other than that I didn't notice much difference in that or 2%..

[WillieB]

I don't care. I won't use green (pure). Pure is intender for sine wave welders that send a great deal more heat back to the tungsten. Alloyed tungsten tends to split, fragment, and deform with sine wave machines. Pure will form a stable mushy ball & maintain its shape.

Square wave welders want pointed, albeit blunt tungsten. I believe all alloyed tungsten works, but the difference lies in how soon they deform.

A beginner will dip tungsten often. You grind because the tungsten is contaminated, not because it gets deformed.

Lots of people prefer Lanthanated, some like T3, everybody has their favorite. I found mountains of thoriated NOS cheap.

As for your welder, I had one, a disappointment. I upgraded very soon.

[ryanjones2150]

I don’t recall which machine I used at the time on that job. It’s very likely it was the inverter machine because I was trying different types of tungsten on that welder at the time. It very well may have been one of the old transformers too.

[Miajade]

Thank you so much for sharing. I'm so much glad to know more about it.