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Hello,
Have any of you folks ever gotten an argon bottle with a CGA 530 valve on it? I recently changed tanks on my TIG welder, and this is the valve it came with. After the change, the regulator began making squeaking noises and both gauges fluctuated in sync with the squeaking sound. Since getting this bottle, I have had absolutely no luck with welding aluminum, the "welds" end up just being a mess of black oxide, and there is no puddle established to speak of. Steel welds do not seem to be as badly affected. Looking back on my description, it seems like it is a shielding gas issue, and today, I turned the gas up to 25 cfh or so (hard to say for sure with the gauge fluctuation) and I got a somewhat ok aluminum bead, but with a lot of black oxide mixed in. I generally ran between 12 and 15 cfh with the old bottle, and had none of these issues. I am a beginning TIG welder, with the previous and only bottle being a 125 cu ft, so that is the extent of my TIG welding experience. I was chalking these problems up to inexperience, but I am now thinking that there is an issue. I have never had a regulator do that to me before (I've welded MIG for years), and I just can't think that I'd all of a sudden forget how to weld aluminum at the same time that I changed bottles, since I was able to do that before. All of the previous argon bottles I've gotten have had the CGA 580 valves on them, and just out of curiosity, I hooked the 95/5 bottle from my MIG machine up to the TIG today and tried it to see if it had the same issues. It did not. The CGA 530 valve has what looks to me like a spring loaded poppet valve or something as part of it, I can't tell you exactly what is in it, since it's part of the valve. I would be willing to bet that that is what is causing my issue. Anyways, after all of that, my question is basically has anyone ever gotten a tank like this, and if so, did it cause you similar issues, or am I blaming my troubles improperly? Thanks in advance for any help.
Dan
Have any of you folks ever gotten an argon bottle with a CGA 530 valve on it? I recently changed tanks on my TIG welder, and this is the valve it came with. After the change, the regulator began making squeaking noises and both gauges fluctuated in sync with the squeaking sound. Since getting this bottle, I have had absolutely no luck with welding aluminum, the "welds" end up just being a mess of black oxide, and there is no puddle established to speak of. Steel welds do not seem to be as badly affected. Looking back on my description, it seems like it is a shielding gas issue, and today, I turned the gas up to 25 cfh or so (hard to say for sure with the gauge fluctuation) and I got a somewhat ok aluminum bead, but with a lot of black oxide mixed in. I generally ran between 12 and 15 cfh with the old bottle, and had none of these issues. I am a beginning TIG welder, with the previous and only bottle being a 125 cu ft, so that is the extent of my TIG welding experience. I was chalking these problems up to inexperience, but I am now thinking that there is an issue. I have never had a regulator do that to me before (I've welded MIG for years), and I just can't think that I'd all of a sudden forget how to weld aluminum at the same time that I changed bottles, since I was able to do that before. All of the previous argon bottles I've gotten have had the CGA 580 valves on them, and just out of curiosity, I hooked the 95/5 bottle from my MIG machine up to the TIG today and tried it to see if it had the same issues. It did not. The CGA 530 valve has what looks to me like a spring loaded poppet valve or something as part of it, I can't tell you exactly what is in it, since it's part of the valve. I would be willing to bet that that is what is causing my issue. Anyways, after all of that, my question is basically has anyone ever gotten a tank like this, and if so, did it cause you similar issues, or am I blaming my troubles improperly? Thanks in advance for any help.
Dan
feel free to shoot me an e-mail direct i have time to chat.
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