What a difference a day makes

[Crusty]

I spent the day yesterday mostly trying to teach myself how to TIG weld aluminum with less than stellar results. Rather than a row of stacked dimes my welds looked more like a pile of shredded dollar bills. All I had to show for the day was a mostly emptied bottle of Argon and some TIG burn on my arms when I took my welding jacket off because I was hot and sweaty. Then as I was putting things up for the evening I got bit while handling a 240V extension cord. What a great day.

Today I got up and looked at the extension cord first thing and discovered that a sliver of metal had fallen into one of the sockets and I happened to touch it while putting it away. I took the box apart and tidied all the connections up anyway since it's been needing doing. Next I jumped on to my bench grinder tool platen project and finished it up in not that long. It'll be a boon to my tool grinding efforts because my hands aren't that steady and my eyes aren't that good these days.



Then I started again making a new Y axis DRO reader mount that allows access to the Y axis lock down bolt so I can make better cuts. To my surprise and pleasure my welding clicked today and I was able to finish a new mount that will fill the bill. This project was notable to me because
1. I made it for free using bona fide scrap from my bin
2. I can now lock down the Y axis when making long cuts and I'm sure that better milling will result
3. I made my first successful TIG welds in aluminum and they looked acceptable after grinding off the globs. Nowhere to go from here but up and though it's still not anything to write home about I can make more things out of aluminum now.



It's been a good day today and the first cool front of the fall is supposed to be coming in tonight - we're not even supposed to make it to the 90's tomorrow. WOOHOO!

[Frank S]

It was 93 here today and only going to be 75 tomorrow.
ha,ha shredded dollar bills I can relate to that. How many times did you utter some very colorful expletives when you stuck your tungsten or the glob on the end of it looked like a kidney stone growing?
It's been so long since I've done and aluminum with a tig that I can't offer any cool tips or advice other than this whe3n you get ready to weld aluminum brush it with a stainless steel brush where you want to weld. Even if the metal looks like it is bright shinny and new hit it with the brush I like using a 4 1/2" angle grinder and a 4" brush, and don't be afraid to really lay into it. I find when welding aluminum with an oxy act torch or more recently when I used them spool gun the results were dramatically different.

[Crusty]

I've already worn out one Lincoln SST brush and need to go buy a couple more. I degrease with acetone too and it helps. For tips, I bought a bag of 30 preground Lanth tips on Ebay (ground at each end) and I've used and reground all of them at this point and now many are getting too short to use. Guess a good handle for me is The Big Dipper, though I don't do the walk of shame to the grinder any more (because I moved my grinder next to my welding table ☺). My biggest problem right now seems to be getting a good starting puddle that bridges both surfaces - when I do get one I can run the weld more or less normally but most times I find that my puddle has only fused properly onto one of the two surfaces and often I'll overheat the material trying to form a good puddle. If I can get my start sorted out I should be able to improve my welds considerably. I did figure out that since I'm welding outdoors I have to really crank my Argon flow up and keep the torch almost square so that I get enough shielding and no bug holes. I've noticed that the recommended current setting of 1 Amp per thousandth of material thickness is too much heat and will bloop the joint quickly so my best guess is that my current markings aren't accurate.

[Frank S]

Do you have a foot control peddle or just a button on the torch?
If just a button then try a little preheat to the parts if you can.
I don't know how thin or thick of material you are welding but I would think if it is say 1/8" then 125 amps would be just a tad warm. I seem to recall that 1 amp per thousandth of an inch thickness had another statement along with it meaning weld depth of penetration was 1 amp per thousandth of an inch thickness
are you noticing your puddle elongating like a dew drop trailing behind your arc? If so then you need to try if possible to aim your heat more in front of you.
I know you said welding outdoors is 1 of your factors, If possible set some wind deflectors up to help

[Crusty]

I've been thinking about a windscreen because I definitely saw the bad effects of my shielding gas getting blown aside. For now, using a high gas flow rate, a gas lens and a smallish cup (5) seems to be keeping that problem gone despite the breezes.

The bracket that I made was from .190" thick stock and I finally settled on 140 amps being a good setting for it. I do have a foot pedal and I'm starting to think that I need to develop better skill at using it in response to the appearance of the puddle, but learning to simultaneously maintain a constant tip distance and travel rate, feed in filler rod at the right spot and times, and dynamically control the heat is a considerable trick for this old dog to learn.

My torch came with a Euro handle with integrated manual switch but since my foot pedal also has a switch built into it I removed the handle and switch because it made the torch about the size of a shovel handle and hard to manipulate. I replaced it with a length of 5/8" garden hose and it's nice and slim now and I use the pedal's switch exclusively.

I just made up a collet chuck drawbar for my lathe from stainless all thread, nut and washer and it was considerably easier to weld than anything I made yesterday out of aluminum, so I'm thinking that I'm on a productive track and mostly just need to improve my skills.

[Frank S]

You'll get there

[Toolmaker51]

Crusty, you may know this but a trait of many aluminum alloys; the oxidize immediately. Our weld instructor said 'no one has ever seen clean aluminum'. Are you working 6061?
Even though brush is stainless it can have contaminants picked up in the surroundings like a drawer, wrapped up in gloves. . . The grinding wheel can dirty up an electrode too.
Deflectors for wind and laying the nozzle angle lower may help, letting heat and gas do their work before the arc gets there.

[Frank S]

Just a thought does your machine have a preflow setting? Some foot pedals have 2 switches in them or the rheostat thst controls the amps does not start to allow current until the pedal is depressed a little further. You can cheat this by holding the tungsten far enough away that an arc can not be established until the gas has a chance to bathe the weld area then move in close enough to start your arc.
Like you said yesterday some of your issues may be in your pedal coordination to arc control.

[Crusty]

I've previously addressed each of the fundamentals so that's why it's puzzling me. I know I must be close because sometimes I get formation of a shiny starting puddle that bridges both surfaces and I start dabbing with the filler and produce a sort of normal bead if I don't let the heat build up too much. I do know that most of my beads were too hot because I can see the pooch out on the underside of the material and I maybe should be traveling faster with my torch.