Spitting TIG weld makes me spittin' mad

[parsonsj]

An update:

I took a couple of hours tonight and cut apart all the funky spittin' welds. I cleaned everything up and welded similar materials together. Oddly enough both materials spit up. Both the mild steel threaded inserts, and the 4130 tube. It wasn't the material I was welding.

So then I switched my torch back to regular, rather than the gas lens.

Whammo! Perfect welds again. I even fixed the spitting welds by just running the torch over it. I must have gotten a couple of clogged up gas lens collet holders, because they both worked about the same ... poorly.



I do remember using them successfully when I did some aluminum welding about 3 months ago.

When I back purged, I must have been getting just enough extra shielding to get by.

I'll be making a trip to my welding supplier tomorrow.

jp