1st Aluminum Try

[kejohnson]

I finally decided to break down and try to stick some aluminum together. I went out and bought a piece of 1/8" x 1 1/2" and cut it to play with. Here are some pics of my first try, I put together and inside corner and then also tried the outside corner. I would appreciate any comments. All I had was a 3/32 Tungsten and 3/32 filler rod, which I know is a little too healthy for this. Either way at least it stuck, I did sandblast the piece before taking the pictures.

Amperage - 111 Max
Gas - 100% Argon

Thanks in advance.

[tigman250]

hard to tell because of the sand blasting, the inside looks like you went over it the second time with just heat? it appears to be undercut and overheated, try moving a little faster. the outside is real hard to tell it dosen't look overheated but i think you were moving too slowly. going too slow is common with begining tig welders (especially if you have done alot of steel) keep trying pactice makes perfect!! try again a little faster and show us again. oh and DON'T sandblast

[MACH4]

Hard to really tell you wether its a good weld or not, the sandblasting took away all the details needed to critique your work. My only impression,from your second photo, is you are using too much heat OR moving your torch too slowly. Sorry I couldn't be more help,try more photos.
Mike
MACH4

[MACH4]

hard to tell because of the sand blasting, the inside looks like you went over it the second time with just heat? it appears to be undercut and overheated, try moving a little faster. the outside is real hard to tell it dosen't look overheated but i think you were moving too slowly. going too slow is common with begining tig welders (especially if you have done alot of steel) keep trying pactice makes perfect!! try again a little faster and show us again. oh and DON'T sandblast

tigman,
We must have hit the reply at about the same time.But, sounds like we both thought the same thing.
Mike
MACH4

[kejohnson]

I apologize for the sandblasting, it really did make it hard to see any detail. I worked on another piece for a disk array tonight and I did speed up, first weld looked great, next one went to pieces. Obviously a LOT of practice is needed here.

tigman - You are right I did go over the inside weld a second time with just heat to try and smooth out how bad it looked after the first pass. That one I didn't use enough heat and it looked really bad.

Thanks for the comments.

[tigman250]

practice,practice,practice,practice, aluminum is one of the tougher things to weld but once you get it down it is one of the most satisfying welds to make, only because not alot of people can do it!! check out the pics i attached i taught myself to tig weld, these were welded a few days ago. i started tig welding at 18 i am now 29 it takes a while but each day you get a little better or find a new trick.

rember the steadier the better your moves almost have to be robotic to get an awesome looking weld. many people try to use their elbow as a pivot point, i don't it isn't steady enough i keep an assortment of blocks under my bench so i can block my hand up so it's in the perfect spot. this isn't always possible because of position or time issues but whenever possible i do it. this will really help someone getting started, it will help you to get a better looking weld. tig welding is 20% welder setup and 80% tequnice <---(spelling). good luck and have fun!

[kejohnson]

tigman

Those look really good. After getting back from the horses last night I just had to out and try it again (Midnight). I had made 1 bracket to hold a drive array earlier, so I needed to make the other. When I made the first one I wasn't bracing myself at all, so this time I took all the time to do it right, brace my arm, check settings, clean the filler metal, clean up the tungsten, etc. These turned out better and the job actually took less time. Think I was just in a hurry before.

I do think another one of my problems was I was afraid to pour more heat to it, so I figured I would give it more heat and be ready to move. That made a world of differance. Looks like it does take more heat, but you better be ready to move when it does puddle.

It sure is nice to have a board like this to post my "dumb" questions. Maybe someday when I have practiced enough my welds will start to look like something.