165 Diversion issue welding thin wall aluminum tube

[markadams]

First post here guys! I am welding some aluminum tubing (20ga.) with my Diversion 165 tig. I have the green tungston 3/32" (recommended at the local welding store) Its really welding fine, just very, very short duty cycle. Can't weld more than about 1" and the machine shuts down until it cools. Rarely had this problem with mild steel even when pushing the machine limits. 20 second weld, followed by 5 minutes of waiting. Using straight argon. Anyone have suggestions? This is my first aluminum job and really just want to get through it. Thank you!

[Drf255]

Tungsten is wrong first off. You can use green, but it balls up fast.

Buy some 2% Lanthanated and grind to a sharp point. Will give you much better directional arc control.

What are your machine settings?

My guess is that the tungsten is balled up and you're arcing all over the place. 1" of weld in 20 seconds sounds wrong too.

What are you're settings? Are you using a foot pedal?

[H80N]

Tungsten is wrong first off. You can use green, but it balls up fast.

Buy some 2% Lanthanated and grind to a sharp point. Will give you much better directional arc control.

What are your machine settings?

My guess is that the tungsten is balled up and you're arcing all over the place. 1" of weld in 20 seconds sounds wrong too.

What are you're settings? Are you using a foot pedal?

I agree... go to page 23 of the owners manual and follow the directions on tung selection and prep... the Diversion is an inverter machine... my guess is that the guy at the LWS assumed you had a transformer machine when he suggested green.....

http://www.millerwelds.com/om/o232895g_mil.pdf

Fig 9-1 on tung selection.... Fig 9-2 on prep

you should not be balling your tung on that machine....

try that........

[markadams]

Thanks guys. I was playing around today and noticed there may be something wrong with the switch. Sometimes it doesn't shut off and when I set it on the bench it arcs. I noticed the switch is real loose, it doesn't seem to plug in to the connector solidly. I did try some red tungston that I have for steel, but it didn't like that at all. No foot pedal. (next purchase I think). I also think I had the tungston out too far. (Sorry for all the rookie mistakes). Thank you for the advice!

[markadams]

Sorry guys, not balling up. Machine in A/C mode at 60 amps. Hand controll almost all the way up. Not a lot of settings on this machine.

[Broccoli1]

From the manual:

A 2% ceriated tungsten is recommended


At least start with the correct Tungsten suggested in the manual.