New Syncrowave 200, Need help with settings

[Chaz-O]

Greetings all:

I have been reading this form for several months now. I just purchased my
1st. tig welder. I have been welding for a few years as a hobbiest using my mig & arc welder.


Attached below are three beads/welds I did on 1/8" aluminum. I added the pulse & balanace setting to the picture. I should also add the rest of my setting: I used 3/32" pure tungsten, 3/32" filler rod (4043), welder set on 135 amps (AC), gas len, cup size #6 or 3/8".

My question is the amount of etching/cleaning I'm getting. My welding book says I should only have about .10 or 2mm. Mine are about 1/4 wide.

Thanks in advance.

Chaz-O

[paulrbrown]

Chaz, I am not familiar with the 200, I have a 250, but if you can put the AC balance on more penetration or more Negative, it will make the 'cleaned area ' smaller, the bead looks good, you said you were pulsing, at what setting???? Hope this helps, Paul

[paulrbrown]

Chaz, I now see the pulse settings, are they percent or times per second? the balance is 1 to 10 I assume? I find that 2 pulses or 1.5 per second work pretty well with a 50% background amperage is pretty good. The balance can be about 70 to 80 percent negative. Maybe even more negative, depends on the alloy and how dirty your plate. Let me know, hope this helps, Paul

[Chaz-O]

Paul:

The pulse controls on my syncrowave 200 are in pulse per second (PPS) range of setting is 1-15 PPS.

The balance range is 1-10 with seven being about 43% positive & 57% negative. 10 is 40/60. These are the only examples my book has.

One would think Miller could have made that eaiser to follow/understand.

I will try some other setting on Monday.

Thanks for the advise.

Chaz-O

[paulrbrown]

Chaz, I will keep an eye out for ya.., do a shot of the front of the 200 will ya, Paul

[Chaz-O]

Paul:

I tried some other setting last night. I turned the balance up to 8.5 & turned the pulse down to 1.5 I also used a smaller cup. All is well now with the etching/cleaning. My beads now show about 1/8" of etching.
I don't know which one of the changes made the big different I think the balance did (i.e. more penetration)
I will post some pictures of the front of the welder as requested as well as my new welds/beads.

Thanks for the help.

Chaz-O

[JonnyTIG]

Generally speaking, the higher the balance setting / negitive portion is, the less cleaning action. The white on the sides of your weld is left over by the cleaning action of the DCRP portion of the arc. This action occurs when the phase of the AC cycle is DCEP, and the electrons are jumping from the work to the electrode. It is thought that as the electrons break throught the oxide scale on the surface of the material, they crack the oxide, and remove chips of it as they flow up to the tugnsten, therefore 'cleaning' the work surface.

[paulrbrown]

Jonny, good explanation on the electron stuff, Chaz-O, the pulsing will only change the way your 'dimes' look, the balance will effect the etched area, and the porosity. with the newer inverter machines, pulsing at 200 per second or more stirs up the puddle and helps the junk float out, unfortunately, your machine probably can't pulse more than 20 times per second. hope this helps, Paul

[Chaz-O]

Paul & John:

Thanks for all the advise & tips. I did pick up a several boxes of scrap aluminum yesterday to practise on. I will take what I have learned & practise, practise & practise some more. It really helps to have good advise when starting out.
The only advise I get from my local welding store is: "the book says"
I don't think that guy even know how to tig weld. Afterall it took three trips back just to get my water cooler hookup with the correct fittings/connection & he sold me both the cooler & welder.

Thanks again

Chaz-O

P.S the 85 lbs. of scrap aluminum was free with the understanding that I return it after I'm done welding on it. i.e. to be placed back in there recycling bin.

[handirod]

I feel you'r pain Chaz!

Hey Chaz,

I have Sync 350 LX & it was about to eat my lunch trying to dial that machine in to make a respectable weld, especially with all the different settings we have! (it still eats my lunch... ha) Heck, I was useing up all my soap stone & places on my fab table to write on! So at work I made a really neat & very useful chart in AutoCad so I could keep track on what was working & what wasn't. I'd be more then happy to fax you a copy of it or anybody else for that matter. Just send me your fax number at [email protected] & I'll get it to you all!

Take care guy's!
Rod

[paulrbrown]

Chaz, go get a can of Toluene, you see everyone say acetone for cleaning, but toluene is recommended by ESAB, the reason is, it is the fastest evaporating solvent , Lacquer thinner has toluene along with xylene in it, but the xylene, or xylol as it is sometimes called is slower evaporating. I have been using toluene for 5 years now, I don't sit there and sniffit , buy any means, so I feel it is pretty safe, I have never had a problem using it, when painting with Alkyd Enamels, that is what you want to use in 40 degree weather. This stuff is available in all paint stores....Hope this helps, Paul

[handirod]

Paul, i need all the help i can get so i took your advise on the toluene, but because i live in the meth making capital of the world, i'm having a terrible time finding anyone that sales it anymore. i know absolutely nothing about making meth, but i guess its a key ingredient...? i'll keep trying. thanks

[paulrbrown]

Handi, try Sherwin Williams, or any other pro type paint supplier, they pretty much deal with pros so there should be no problem, a few years ago, some local news did a story on what it takes to do a lab...so I went out and looked in the garage and I had most of the stuff in my garage. Kinda scarey thinking the locals could come and tear your place up, and all I had were common items.