First aluminum welds

[BB69]

Matt,
I will ask tomorrow. We run off a header system, so there wasn't a bottle to read. I thought we were using pure argon, but I will find out. The instructor sure didn't have any problems laying down a good bead, so I think it might have something to do with me. What were you thinking though?

Ken

[Matt@RFR]

My thinking was that with 3/32 filler, you shouldn't be having any problems getting the puddle to fill up, especially with how close together you're adding filler. And your max amperage (140) is alittle hot, but not too bad.

Helium mixes burn hotter at the same amperage as pure argon.

I'm willing to bet, assuming pure argon, that the main thing you need to work on is arc length. You should be able to see the reflection of the tungsten in the puddle when your arc length is short enough.

[myclone]

My thinking was that with 3/32 filler, you shouldn't be having any problems getting the puddle to fill up, especially with how close together you're adding filler. And your max amperage (140) is alittle hot, but not too bad.

Helium mixes burn hotter at the same amperage as pure argon.

I'm willing to bet, assuming pure argon, that the main thing you need to work on is arc length. You should be able to see the reflection of the tungsten in the puddle when your arc length is short enough.

Good info Matt. As always I learned something from your posts and if no one has said it already "thanks" for chiming in with excellent help for us noobs at welding.

[Matt@RFR]

.

[BB69]

Thanks again Matt. I am eating breakfast now, getting ready to head to class. I will take your advice and see what I can do. What number shield do you use in your helmet when working with AL? Do you change it depending on TIG or MIG, or even material?

Ken

[Matt@RFR]

This is one area that I can't help in. There's too many options (blue, green, gold, black, plastic, glass, and shades from 8-14), and your eyes are garunteed to be different than mine.

Most guys can't use the shades I use. I use a black 9 for everything from .083" tube to 3/8" plate. I switch to a black 8 for anything thinner, and go to a black 10 for anything thicker. The most I've ever used was a black 12 when welding 1" plate at something like 375 amps with 1/32" dual shield.

If you want to try the black filters, I think I still have the part numbers for each shade in glass....it took me like 3 months to find them, but they're the only thing that really works for me. And I tried literally every other style.

Basically, keep trying different colors until you can see clearly, and the colors you see make the most sense to your eye, and then use the lightest shade you can without any after affects (blue dots). Then go one shade darker.

[BB69]

Matt, thanks for the advice. I feel like I can see the puddle pretty well with no affects on my eyes afterwards. I may see what they have at class to experiment with.

Here are the welds from today. I passed my lap weld and tee joint. I felt much more comfortable today. I realized that last week I had the torch too vertical. Today I angled it slightly so that is was pointed in the direction of travel, and that helped. I also stepped up to a larger filler rod on the instructor's advice. It requires more care to keep the tungsten out of the puddle with the larger rod, but I like it. For the tee joint, I extended the tungsten out of the cup more. That also worked well. By the way, we are using pure argon.

The pics are of one of my lap welds, and a couple of the good tees.

Thanks again for all the advice.

Ken