What happened here?

[2JZfan]

So this is pretty typical for me and aluminum... I was seeing this before with the 180SD, and now with the Dynasty 200DX...

None of my welds are going to have people thinking "Did HAWK do that?" but 2 of the 4 are at least "ok" in my beginner book... The big thing that I can't explain is what causes the "explosion" of black crap all over the place found on the weld that is 2nd from the left... I ran all 4 beads with the same tungsten, same settings, same technique, etc. and 3 of the 4 went smoothly, the other was a complete disaster.

balance = 75%
freq = 140Hz
3/32" 1.5% lanthanated, sharpened tip
pure argon at 20 scfh
5356 filler
6061 base metal (which didn't get much cleaning/prep honestly)

any ideas? feel free to rip me a new one, I'm not on here for pats on the back, I'm here to learn!!

Thanks,
Jeff

[Orion]

Possibly dirty base metal,dirty filler, cup angle or breeze blowing shielding gas?

I'm sure the experts will have more/better information and suggestions.

[dandimand]

not clean enough simple as that make sure your not dipping the tung either all welds look like there is dirt . black is dirt brown is shielding gas or tung.

[T_Bone]

Hi Jeff,

Get a 4" SS wire wheel and mount it on a 1/4" end arbor then chuck that up in a 1/4" drill motor. Use this to clean your base metal joint to "white" metal arleast .75" on either side of the joint. How you can tell when you hit "white" metal, is the wire wheel will grab and the base metal turns a white color.

Do not use the SS wire wheel on any other metal than AL, SS, Cu or C as you will cross contaminate the base metals making it difficult to weld. I mark each wheel with the type of base matal that it's used on with a permenate marker.

When you see the black oxides show up, stop and clean the weld bead and base metal to "white" metal.

Make sure your welding gloves have no oil on them.

If the base metal had any type of oil on it, clean it off with alcohol before using the wire brush.

T_Bone

[2JZfan]

Thanks for the responses guys!

Question: in this particular case it doesn't matter since it was just for testing, but there are certainly times where I would prefer not to have all the surface scratches from the wire wheel (for example, if it's going to get polished after the welding). Is there any kind of chemical cleaner that will do as good of a job as the abrasive?

Thanks,
Jeff

[dandimand]

if your going to polish just use scoth brite to clean in fact unless aluminum is very dirty scothbrite is the ticket but make sure you preclean with I prefer laquer thinner as brake clean is not strong enough i find plus dries to quickly .plus brakleen is to expensive .

[2JZfan]

Are those "aluminum cleaners" that the welding store sells just hype? They claim to not only clean the surface but also eliminate the oxide layer...

scotchbrite + acetone sounds good (and nice and simple) to me, just wanting to make sure I don't miss something here.

Thanks again!
Jeff

[wb5jhy]

Jeff

Looks like dirty filler....maybe from dirty gloves. New filler rods right out the box sure look clean. One may be tempted to use them as is but don't. Take a clean paper towel and wipe down a new rod and you'll see why. Dull looking rods are worse. You need to take some scotch brite to them and then degrease with acetone. I keep a spare new set of gloves just for aluminum. When they get a little grimy I use them for regular shop gloves.
It's not a lot of trouble once you get into the routine. Takes the aggravation out of working with aluminum.

[HAWK]

2JZfan,

I'd try a few things: Scoth-Brite cleaning and acetone wipe of base metal and filler rods as already discussed ; 15-17CFH on the argon. Sometimes 20CFH can start to suck in the surrounding atmosphere ; 4043 filler until things are going better ; work with the EN balance between 70 and 75 to see what yields the best results ; see attached PDF. This is what I use for chemical etching. There's nothing better.

[pgk]

Thanks Hawk, I'm going to give this product a try. I'm using a mag cleaner that GTA/SPec recommended, it also works very good.

Pete

[RadMan]

Hi Jeff, it looks to me like you touched the weld pool with your electrode on the second bead. Don't ask why I would know what that looks like .



Peter

[2JZfan]

I can't get that .pdf to open, is this a product that you would buy in a welding store or is it more of an all purpose industrial cleaner? Any online places to order it? I did a quick net search and didn't really see much...

[HAWK]

I can't get that .pdf to open, is this a product that you would buy in a welding store or is it more of an all purpose industrial cleaner? Any online places to order it? I did a quick net search and didn't really see much...

Airgas and other welding supplier typically stock it. Check out this online link to ENCO: http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?P...&PARTPG=INLMK3

[HAWK]

Can anyone view the attached PDF?

[pgk]

I can..

Pete