HAWK need pulse help

[Jitter]

Im going to be building a fuel tank out of 6061 1/8th alu. I will be using a dyn dx300. Should I be pulsing it? what would your settings be?? Most of the welds are going to be open corner filet welds. thanks for the help.

[NorthernLights]

What thickness of material?

[KB Fabrications]

Im going to be building a fuel tank out of 6061 1/8th alu. I will be using a dyn dx300. Should I be pulsing it? what would your settings be?? Most of the welds are going to be open corner filet welds. thanks for the help.

HAWK will certainly give you top notch advice in this area and I will add my 2 cents for good measure. With the joint you describe, and provided it is new and clean material, I'd set that machine at 120 amps, no pulse, 75 balance, and 120 hz with the gas pressure at 15 on the flowmeter and a 10 sec. postflow. After you heat the piece (adding filler as you go) you will find yourself backing up on the pedal and getting some pretty killer beads welding with that 300DX. Let us know how it comes out (pics).

[Paul Seaman]

Kevin good advice, I seem to need a bit more gas than that, maybe my regulator reading are off a bit but I run 20-25.

[HAWK]

Jitter,

That sounds like fun project. I'd go with Kevin's recommendations. I might drop my balance to 70-72 and my arc frequency down to 110HZ. A lot of material I work with really likes the 70-72 EN balance. Kevin may have a bit cleaner base to weld on at the 75 EN balance. I like a little wider arc cone for those open fillets on the corners. It makes them easier to weld. That is a personal preference. That is what you have to find when fine tuning your technique on a particular joint and material thickness.

You should not need to pulse on 1/8", but can. Try .5-1.5 pps, 50% peak amps time, 30% background amps. If you find the filler does not melt well, turn up the main amperage to 130 or 140 to compensate for the pulse action. When the arc goes to high add the filler. This will give you a nice rhythm to add filler and make a really pretty bead. On the other end a high pulse rate of 300-500pps will shake up the puddle and help float up impurities. I use this for anodized and cast Al welding.

PJS has a point on gas flow. If you are not getting adequate coverage, then crank it up a little. Don't go past 20-25 CFH or you can create a turbulence that will suck the atmosphere right into you weld area.

Let us know how it turns out.

[HAWK]

Jitter,

Maybe I missed it, but did not see what filler you are using. I would use 3/32" 4043 and Scotch Brite my filler as well as my base metal and follow up with an acetone wipe.