TIG welding

[lil beast]

Had a little fun with my new toy today. Its was nice being able to weld and not add any metal. Dont know what the trick is to aluminum but what a bitch it is to weld. :'(

 

[rockcitycafe]

aluminum can be tricky, what kind of tig is it? does it have pulse mode? if so, for aluminum I usually go with 100Amps per 1/8" for the material, make sure your tungsten is the right kind (green), balled end, not pointed, ac (obviously), gas at about 15cfh, if you have pulse mode, I usually go about 1pps, and as for welding, I like to start the arc and just bring the power up until it stabilizes, then keep going until I have a weld puddle (it will be a really shiny dot, if not, something is wrong, you shouldn't have any floating crap on the puddle), then move along your joint, keep the filler almost parallel to the work, you should almost be feeding it sideways into the puddle, and just get your rhythm down, make sure you've got enough heat for good penetration (it's easier to make a pretty weld with 0 penetration than it is to make a pretty weld with full penetration) and just practice!!! and yeah, when you dip the tungsten (you will), regrind... or you'll end up a very frustrated camper...

oh yeah, and HAVE FUN!

 

[lil beast]

I was using 5356 filler rod and after some research I think 4043 is an easier rod to work with. Ill have to do a bit more research.

Thanks Sean

 

[gahi]

when welding aluminum sheet metal, what works best is to floor it to get the puddle started, if you try and gradually work up the heat it will blow through.

 

[Druro]

ok... now i'm jealous

 

[Simpler is Better]

Prep! Prep! Prep!

You will be amazed at how much easier it is to weld aluminum that has been scrubbed with clean stainless steel wool, and then wiped down with acetone immediately prior to welding.

Looking good so far though!

 

[chrisf]

Prep! Prep! Prep!

You will be amazed at how much easier it is to weld aluminum that has been scrubbed with clean stainless steel wool, and then wiped down with acetone immediately prior to welding.

Looking good so far though!

Agreed. I also use gold tungstens for everything. They work great on aluminum and maintain their shape well. I hate pure-tung, but that may just be me.

--Chris

 

[rockcitycafe]

believe it or not, you can weld on uncleaned aluminum with the correct balance, assuming you've got a tig that does square wave (looks like you've got a dynasty, so you're set), that also helps with burn through, it'll keep a really good stable arc, especially when butt welding sheet, which tends to burn back from the seam if you hit it too fast with too much heat... helps to get a tiny little puddle going there, then jump it across the seam and then start adding the filler... oh the fun of tig!!!