Random stuff, reduction, servo motors, ideas and thoughts

i seen something said about that when i first was looking into tings. but when you are grinding something that is round it hard not to have radial grind marks. so having said that i think it's more important to keep the tip centered on the tungsten and use a wheel that is fine enough in grit to not really get deep grind marks.

i honestly did not notice the arc doing anything unusual from the tips i ground? maybe it's something you can notice if your seasoned but myself i did not see anything weird.

machinedude wrote: i seen something said about that when i first was looking into tings. but when you are grinding something that is round it hard not to have radial grind marks. so having said that i think it's more important to keep the tip centered on the tungsten and use a wheel that is fine enough in grit to not really get deep grind marks.

i honestly did not notice the arc doing anything unusual from the tips i ground? maybe it's something you can notice if your seasoned but myself i did not see anything weird.

Looks like you are doing good. Its easy to know when you do it wrong, the arc become unstable, sonetime hard to start too because that. I think the same, more important to have the tip centered. If you use walking the cup technique you really need it centered but if you have arm and do freehand and depend what field you work you can do it at cost to get tired because position. Weld you need to be relaxed, watch the puddle. At begin do what fabricator told, don’t need filler rod, relax. Next thursday i need weld platinum tube for glass feeder using gas at field and take 3D scanner 10 meters. Ii just weld at field or customer place but last few years i dont do it too much but i like tig.

the biggest learning curve for myself that i noticed was heat control with the pedal. that part i was having a hard time with since i never had to use my foot in the welding process before this with steel it not so tricky but with aluminum it gets to be pretty important. i tried to make a decent temporary practice fab table and make it as comfortable as i could. for a make shift set up i was able to do good in that respect.

sometimes i had a hard time getting the arc started but it was not because of the tip and was more about the earth ground being to far away from the part. i tossed my temporary table together from some saw horses and some used 15 series aluminum extrusion i had already. work ok for now but is particular with the earth ground for some reason? might be the anodizing on the extrusion? but i had enough to give me almost a 2 foot by 4 foot work bench.

i think once i get my machine finished making a fixture table and investing in some work holding will fit my needs best for welding. i need a lot of practice before i tear into anything serious. i was actually surprised i still had argon in my bottle they put a date on the filled bottles and mine was from 02/2011 not sure how well if keeps over a decade ?

learned something new today when you start blowing the ends of your tungsten and your welds start turning out like sh!t check the gas cylinder you might be empty

i will have to see if fresh gas and a cylinder with good pressure helps cosmetics any? maybe when the gas cylinder is almost empty that it causes weld problems even if the ball gauge is still reading enough gas flow out?

What kind of job you pretend to do?
You live in USA?
I brought one working table for US$200 but i will use to assembly not weld, in the future ill buy stone working table and use what i have for weld. here in Japan you can find a lot used thing for nice price.
page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/r428750751
Where i work we dont have fixture, we make it using scrap iron, we draw at working plate at floor using chalk and tap the scrap to make fixture.
I dont have experience with aluminum, usually here we just weld aluminum diamond sheet for cover.
I dont know if old gas make difference, rotation here is pretty high, too much pressure you waste your money...id you show your weld its easy i think to say wheres the problem. The machine here is Panasonic and Daihen.Here in japan we dont use foot pedal but fir what i saw its nice, aluminum have film, right!
Have you tried weld for example 2 plates SUS 3.2mm with 1.6mm space between the 2? At begin isnt better focus in proper fuse instead cosmetic?

yeah i'm in the United State. I'm not a welder by trade it's just something i like to do and is useful around the home. i'm actually a Machinist by trade so sometimes being able to add material to rework something is handy in a pinch

Aluminum is a little different than steel and can be tricky. it does have an oxidation layer that needs removed before welding can actually happen. the melting point of the oxidation layer is much higher than the base metal so getting it cleaned off is the first step. so a stainless steel brush works for that then a wipe down with acetone to make it really clean. welding aluminum is really sensitive to contamination so lots of prep work is needed. the AC does the cleaning to help get under the oxidation layer too but to much cleaning is no good either then it harder to actually weld from what i understand about it.

i was trying a lap joint after i got some rhythm down and was getting more consistent but i think my gas was about out on this piece. not very sexy as far as welds go but it would probably not break that easy. i definitely need more practice it was cold in the first 1/3 and hot on the last 1/3 of the bead but looked ok in the center section this was the last piece i got before the welds got nasty looking from not enough gas so that could have been part of my problem but i am sure just lack of experience is in the mix as well.

Your bead crater at the end you need to regulate your machine crater option (current, post flow).
If all are regulated you are taking off the torch too fast, you need sincronize your hand touch off with postflow.
Usually my preflow is fast and postflow i dont touch just when i work with something thin and this is rare, here in japan thin job dont pay well.
I touch a lot the start, when work and finish arc.
In japanese we call クレーター　(crater?)i search for translation and get it.

yes i agree with the end crater. i seen its common for weld in Aluminum to fail over time because of this and crack the length of the weld as a result. the welder i have only has post flow control the foot pedal controls the amps so that's more me not reducing the amps as the heat builds up in the part.

the welder i got is not a top level machine but not bad for under $700 for an AC/DC unit. it did come with finger control as a hand trigger to not use the foot pedal and that part has control for the starting amps and ending amps but i did not mess around with that part yet so i don't know how well it works?

as for the post flow i had it set around 7 seconds and try to keep the shield gas on the weld while it is on. the the tapering off on the amps i am getting use to still. i never used a TIG welder before this weekend

the material i was practicing on was 1/8 thick material or close to 3 mm thick. not very thick but about the middle of what the machine is rated at. the tungsen i am using is 3/32 but maybe a 1/16 would be better suited? seems like the weld is bigger than what i would expect?

i think the black color in spots could be the signs of my argon fading in and out since this was the end of my cylinder? like i said before everything after this piece was just not working at all until i seen the ball below were i had it set when i started. i ran quite a few flat beads that were a lot better. at first i just thought it was me not getting the arc cone in the right spot to fuse the two pieces but ran out of gas before i could do another one.

Looking at your weld picture, it looks like you could speed up a bit and narrow the puddle a bit. For 3mm plate I think the weld bead is a bit wide. If you can get the hang of TIG welding aluminum you will be able to weld anything!

From your posts you seem to have a good handle on critiquing your welds. Thats what you need if your going to improve, posting pics on sites like this helps but even us pro welders have to do that to ourselves to keep our welds looking good.

But basically it comes down to practice, study the weld, correct any defects and more practice! Hang in there and your welds like look like a row of dimes neatly stacked.

i like the challenge on aluminum welding. when it's ready you just have to run with it. when welding steel it's like everything is in slow motion i think if i had some 1/16 filler that would keep the welds tighter. i was thinking about twisting up some mig wire i have into something smaller and giving that a try once i manage to get a new bottle of argon. if it help then pick up some 1/16 tig filler and probably tungsten too so i have some choices. right now i can only get about 150 amps on 120 V so maybe on 220 V it will do better? seems fine on 120 for what i am doing now though.

at first i thought a 5lbs box of filler rod for aluminum would last forever boy was i off on that notion they melt up pretty quick

i don't expect to be a master after about 10 rods used messing around maybe after ten boxes i might get somewhere flat beads are easy nothing in the way to obstruct the arc cone so you can see everything pretty clear. but joints would be easier too i think. once you get something vertical next to the joint getting the arc cone focus in the right place get harder. and once you get some height to that edge getting the shield gas to the weld surface gets harder yet

i'm sure with some preheat you could get into some thicker material that's an art form in it's self which i had to do quite a bit with the small mig i have if the wire would keep feeding that is

stick welding i can do with this machine too i just have not done that type of welding since i was about 10 years old so i would not even know where to start with rods on that aspect yet but will dig into it at some point