aluminum problems

[Jayare123]

I picked up a part time gig welding frames of square aluminum tubing for a guy. Using an older syncrowave 250. Idk how old but has needle gauges for the output and no screen and a little light by the power switch to indicate on/off. I'm having a lot of issues with not being able to get a puddle. It just goes straight to black trash and will start like jumping out at the torch. I've tried easing into a puddle with the thumb control and smashing it straight to high amp. Neither way seems to do any better. Some welds it's fine and some it's not. First day I figured I just needed to get back in the aluminum groove. But it's been a week and still problems. I've welded a ton of aluminum tubing at a previous job but that was with a dynasty and I fine tuned it to look perfect. I don't know if maybe bad gas? Is that a thing? It's argon. Maybe the machine is broken? Post flow doesn't work and it makes clunking noise while welding. But seems to have a proper arc. Metal is cleaned in joint area and filler scotch brited. And cut on cold saw so no saw coolant present. I've never had problems with aluminum like this. So I'm considering either something is wrong with his machine or I'm so used to the dynasty that I'm having issues with this machine. I've taken my dynasty to a customers business and laid in a crawl space and welded broken aluminum tubing back together that still had a little duct tape residue on it and had better results than I'm getting now. Y'all have any ideas?

[H80N]

first guess would be bad gas or air entrainment from a leaky gas connection... cracked back cap etc

[Jayare123]

The back cap does look exceptionally old. Didn't consider that. All my caps like to jump off the table and break in half long time before a o ring would go bad. Guess I'll check all the gas connections monday

[H80N]

The back cap does look exceptionally old. Didn't consider that. All my caps like to jump off the table and break in half long time before a o ring would go bad. Guess I'll check all the gas connections monday

ALSO......

"Bargain" chinese collets & collet holders..... have been known to restrict or cause uneven Argon flow due to sloppy machining tolerances....

And............ drive you crazy

[Jayare123]

Collets and bodies are stamped ck. So probably not that.

[OscarJr]

Why doesn't the postflow work? Something wrong with the gas solenoid? *cough*hint*cough*

[Jayare123]

Idk why it doesn't work. There's a knob for it but it doesn't work, as soon as you kill the arc the gas stops. Told the guy his machine was messed up. He's like oh last month before the welder quit it was welding fine. Post flow isn't too bad I guess. Just burns tungsten quicker. What about clunking from the machine while welding. 90% of my aluminum experience is on a dynasty. But this machine clunks while welding. Is that normal?

[Jayare123]

I was also considering that if postflow was malfunctioning that I may have no preflow. Idk if that exists as a changeable parameter on this machine or if it's even that important. But no preflow would probably give me black trash immediately instead of a puddle

[Portable Welder]

Sounds like gas issues, I stopped by a junior competitor of mine and he thought his spool gun was bad, the problem was a bad regulator, there was gas in the beginning but it would not maintain pressure.

[FusionKing]

A week??!!
That would have to be frustrating to say the least.
You are simply going to have to troubleshoot this one step at a time..
Flick on the switch and put it up close enuff to tell if you have flow. Change to new consumables.
Switch bottles. Check hoses or obstructions or maybe crushed.
A Synchrowave doesn't have to bow it's head in shame to any machine. It should be able to make show quality welds at any given moment. Something is crap and you need to figure it out before you trash any more work.
Ideas......I have one. Bring in your Dynasty and show them they need to get their machine up to snuff.
Just a few suggestions, and my thoughts offhand. Not meaning to offend, but rather to motivate

[FusionKing]

Sounds like gas issues, I stopped by a junior competitor of mine and he thought his spool gun was bad, the problem was a bad regulator, there was gas in the beginning but it would not maintain pressure.

Yea I've had this happen. I always use high flow regulators on mig aluminum. Otherwise it'll blow hard and then run out of steam after you get going.

[H80N]

Yea I've had this happen. I always use high flow regulators on mig aluminum. Otherwise it'll blow hard and then run out of steam after you get going.

A nozzle flowmeter would be handy here

https://www.arc-zone.com/shield-gas-flow-tester-50020

[Jayare123]

Ya. Gas issue makes sense. tell ya what a week worth of it has definately been frustrating. Some minutes it welds fine tho. That's what confused me the most... there is definately gas coming out of the torch. Postflow has a knob but doesn't work. Is there preflow on that machine? No adjustment I could see, probably wouldn't work if there was. Like the postflow. I guess I'll take in one of my torches and my reg and try it out. I keep telling boss man that something is messed up and he says that it was working for the last welder he had about a month ago and he said to just keep going and either the problem will get worse or I'll get better. Tried to tell him this definately isn't my first aluminum gig and I don't think it's my skills/technique. Really kinda looking forward to getting in there tomorrow and messing with it

[H80N]

A week??!!
That would have to be frustrating to say the least.
You are simply going to have to troubleshoot this one step at a time..
Flick on the switch and put it up close enuff to tell if you have flow. Change to new consumables.
Switch bottles. Check hoses or obstructions or maybe crushed.
A Synchrowave doesn't have to bow it's head in shame to any machine. It should be able to make show quality welds at any given moment. Something is crap and you need to figure it out before you trash any more work.
Ideas......I have one. Bring in your Dynasty and show them they need to get their machine up to snuff.
Just a few suggestions, and my thoughts offhand. Not meaning to offend, but rather to motivate

I like FusionKing's idea of bringing in your Dynasty ....

[FusionKing]

Get better......sheesh, what a dreamer.
I never use pre flow. I hold the torch away from the work, flick it on and off, then position and weld. If you don't have post flow then you are screwed IMO.
That needs to be fixed. You can bet the "last guy" was having trouble as well.
The boss/owner (or whatever) needs to quit penny pinching and fix his equipment before someone else with better equipment and an ok operator steals his work. Sooner or later you have to fix your stuff. Running it broke is harder on everything IMO.
I'm assuming the boss doesn't weld aluminum.... or he would have tried it himself. So thinking he can decide what is "good enough" in this case, means he needs to realize that qualifies his customer to decide "what isn't".
It's always about the money