tig steel vs tig aluminum

[bcjm]

I am using Symcrowave 180SD. Is that a sine wave or square wave?

[WillieB]

You haven't said what your machine is. I went from a sine wave Dialarc to a square wave inverter Dynasty. In every other measureable sense the Dynasty blows the Dialarc out of the water. Noise is another matter. On higher frequencies I use ear plugs to tolerate the buzz. DC is classical music. AC with inverter technology is head banger, smash the guitar industrial noise.

Willie

[Olivero]

I listen to music, got the Beats wireless, Bluetooth head phones a few weeks ago, been using them ever since, every day, every time I weld. Sound cancelling the outside and some seriously nice sound. That does it for me, can barely hear the buzz on AC.

[ryanjones2150]

Ear plugs

[Olivero]

AC IS louder no matter what you do. I have done lots of both and I don't change mine, I set mine at 15-20, mainly 15 unless I am in a windy room or something with air turbulence.

DC Is much quiter and you can't even hear the arc but you can hear the gas if its quiet. AC You can dream about hearing the gas and it's allways loud, the higher the frequency the louder it is.

[piniongear]

I leave my gas flow rate at 15 to 18 cfh with either aluminum or steel. And I always use a #8 gas lens.

Most likely the reason you notice the aluminum welding being louder is because you are welding with AC settings, which is correct with aluminum.
The DCEN is much quieter, not having the 'buzzing' sound when welding steel..

[bcjm]

I practice my tig welding in the morning for an hour before I go to work. I notice that the arc is so much quieter and more stable when I switch from aluminum to steel (switch from AC to DCEN of course). All other settings are the same ( I do use gas lens). I did some research and I found this comments from weldingtipsandtricks.com.

"when you tig weld aluminum, too little flow or too much flow of shielding gas makes a big difference. and just a little too much flow, can make the arc really loud and make the arc erratic."

I set the flowmeter between 15-20 cfh. Do you change the flow rate between the steel and aluminum? Do you increase the flow rate for thicker metal?