need help with dynasty...

[garyput]

I'm welding some aluminum with my 300dx and at the beginning of the arc it seems fine but as you step on the pedal more to get to the heat you need the tungsten starts to ball up and gets really bright and the torch cup gets glowing red. It just started doing this the other day. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong maybe I have a setting on the machine not set right. I am using 2% thoriated like the manual says. I am welding 1/8" aluminum anybody have some suggestions to try for the settings, I am pretty new with this machine and just trying to learn it.

Thanks for the help.

[Blown S-10]

make sure its on ac. the balance is around 60-80. gas flow around 20-25. amps around 125-150.

[ASKANDY]

sounds like the balance is way too low. Try most stuff around 72-78.

A-

[garyput]

I tried the balance at 70 and seemed to work fine. I must have messed with it and got it way out of wack. Works good now!!! When should the balance need adjusted and what hz should I be running.

Thanks for the help guys.

[ASKANDY]

Garyput,

The balance can be adjusted by the oxidation level or material quality you are welding. The better quality aluminum can run at a higher balance. the lower the balance you run, the heavier tungsten you will need to absorb the reverse polarity current that puts a lot of heat on the tungsten and balls them up. Most stuff can be welded at 100-150hz. Lower freq for wider beads and higher for tighter narrow beads or tight areas.

good luck

a-

[garyput]

Thanks for the info Andy!!!!

[grocery_getter]

I need to ask more question on aluminum welding with the dynasty.

I have just upgraded from a synchrowave 180SD to a brand new 200DX in the past 2 weeks. Syncrowave for sale BTW. I have no problem welding MS or SS with it. My main problem comes with welding Al.

I weld 2 different type of aluminum. Clean aluminum (like the ones that comes in pipe or square stock or sheets (1/8" max) and dirty aluminum (cast aluminum flanges, intake manifold, tranny case, etc.)

With the syncrowave 180SD I always have problem with welding the dirty type. I would not have enough power to boil the contaminants out of the pool and always ends up with weld that looks "cold". With clean aluminum I dont have these problem and can produces shiny Aluminum beads that looks great.

With the dynasty I was expecting that the ability to jack up the freq will make it easier to handle the dirty aluminum. Did my first couple aluminum weld last weekend with the dynasty and wasnt too happy with the result.

The first weld was welding a cast aluminum flange to a nice 6061 pipe. Put in about 150A, 70% balance, and jack up the freq to 250hz. The puddle melt kind of slow and it has the consistency of a puddle of wet dissolved cereals, not shiny puddle. I weld like this for a couple inch and play with the machine setting, raising the amp but only get more heat out of it but no shiny puddle. Got a lot of pepper dirt on top of the weld bead but didnt think of it much because I was expecting it with the "dirty" cast aluminum.

The second weld was welding a piece of 6061 pipe to another piece of 6061 pipe. I lowered the amp to 140 because of the much thiner gauge on the weld joint (approximately 16 gauge pipes). To my surprised I still couldnt get a clean shiny bead. Why? Also the weld bead still have a lot of dirty peper look to it. All aluminum weldment piece was cleaned with acetone prior to welding (good habit) so I know that it is clean and have no oil. With the syncrowave I am usually able to get the shiny bead on 6061 pipe but I just dont get it with this machine. IS this caused by too high of a freq setting? Maybe the high freq setting is causing the puddle to get muck up so much and so it brings the dirt to the top just that much more? The puddle also not a clean puddle, have the appearance of a wet cereal look to it, like a bowl of porridge, not the smooth "liquid" glossy look of a puddle that I am used to seeing with the synchrowave.

Help. The dynasty must be a very different welder compared to the syncrowave, it actually made me a very sad welder to not know how to handle/set this machine correctly to use it on aluminum.

[ASKANDY]

Yes,
your freq is way too high for that joint. You are trying to put a wider bead down and the machine is trying to give you a narrow bead. You have to then use more heat to get the normal looking bead width you are used to. You basically are working against the machine. Try welding most of your stuff from 100-150 hz and turn the freq up when in tight or narrow areas. You also might want to use the 5356 filler on the 6061. It will color better.

Andy