Tig Aluminum Hamma I Doon???

[Twister T]

Originally posted by Wheels
Twister

Thanks for the compiment. I have been mig welding for years, but have only been tigging 3 months and only a few hours per week.
If you do a search on this board of Andy and Hawks work you will see where I have been steered in the right direction. These guys, along with others can answer your questions, but the search feature is always at hand as tig is a popular topic here.
Thanks

Mike

Mike,

Yep, I see that Hawk and Andy know their stuff real well, Hawk has already helped me see the light about cleaning.

I can run a fair bead without burning through but when it comes to welding to pieces together, this is where I'm having problems now. There is something I don't understand about the process of joining two identical pieces of .050 in an overlaping joint, the top piece wants to melt back away from the puddle. I'm working on it but can't seem to find any answers yet.

T

[Wheels]

Twister

Thanks for the compiment. I have been mig welding for years, but have only been tigging 3 months and only a few hours per week.
If you do a search on this board of Andy and Hawks work you will see where I have been steered in the right direction. These guys, along with others can answer your questions, but the search feature is always at hand as tig is a popular topic here.
Thanks

Mike

[Twister T]

Wheels,

How long have you been welding aluminum? I hope to be as good as you someday, I'm working on it but my welds look like crap compared to yours.

T

[arcdawg]

when you are at the end what i do is i go back like a half a in* towards the begining of the weld. its a lot better then leaving it at the end of the weld (cracking ) then do what hawk was saying about backing off........

but try going back !

thats how i was taught and i have never have had a crack....

they look good too !

dawg

[Wheels]

I feel I owe everyone on this board a big thank you! Without the advice I received here I know I would not have gotten along as well as I have. You fellows are the best, everyone of has a schedule to attend to , but I feel you all go the extra mile to help beginners like me.

This Dynasty ROCKS and I think it might make even me a tig weldor??

Thanks again Mike

[ASKANDY]

Wheels,
Looks great for just starting out!!! I have seen guys go through school that can't get that even of bead placement.
Keep it up.

A-

[HAWK]

Wheels,

Your settings sound right. I can see about .093" white line around the weld bead perimeter. The bead has a nice shine to it as well. These two factors indicate your balance is correctly set.

A 5554 filler would be my choice for joining 5454 alloy. There are a number of different fillers used with 5454 and all can be substituted with 5356 except when welding to the 300 series alloys. That typically requires 4043.

The little 200 is a power house. There are some jobs it does not have the power to do, but the mobility and current draw factors outweigh those few jobs for me.

[Wheels]

Hawk

I`m sure some fine tuning is in order here, but here are the settings which seemed to give me the best results on the 1/4 inch 5454 al I had stacked up ready to trip over. Supplies are running low!!

180a
75%ballance
150 frequency
3/32 lanthenated (seemed to take the heat better)
3/32 4043 or 5356 (no preference)

I can`t believe the power this Dynasty has, but I have never run or seen anyone run any tig machine so I really have nothing to compare it to.

[HAWK]

Wheels,

Looking much better. The crater thing will take some practice. One day it wiil just come to you and you'll wonder why you could not do it before. Keep practicing. See how far you have come in such a short time!

[Wheels]

Trying to eliminate the crater at the end of my weld. Seems to be one of my biggest problems. I dab at the end and ramp down slowly. There is a spot at the end of this one , but the pic seems to exagerate the size and depth. Don`t know about my welding ,but my pictures look better to me.
We won`t go into my skill for typos!!DDA&Hawk

[Wheels]

Tig reminds me of trying to pat your head with your left hand while rubbing your stomache with your right

[HAWK]

The far right bead looks pretty good! Take GTA/SPEC's advice and slow down when you ramp down. I sometimes add a dab of filler as I ramp down. This will avoid the craters. The crater is a great place for a crack to start and possibly run the entire weld length.

[GTA/SPEC]

looks good, just slow down when you come off the pedal. you dont want a crater.

[Wheels]

Rainy day = practice.