Aluminum Tig welding - 1st attempt w/ PowerPro 205

Hi Folks! Been a while since I logged in here but, since I have no pride anymore, here the question:

I have now done dozens of steel projects with my 205. I has paid for itself at least twice. Well I tried to do a little Aluminum Tig and It has been an abysmal failure.

SO! Here the joint. (freshly ground off) How would you setup your PowerPro 205 to make this weld? SO far, I can't seem to get the spindle hot enough before the tubing melts. The filler rod almost vaporizes. I'm sure this is giving all the pro's a chuckle but, we all have to learn.

The square tubing is 1/8" wall the spindle is 5/16.Attachment 10576

Many Thanks in advance!

(John)
inthefrey

With non uniform thickness, it's more about technique than settings, but here are a few things to point you in the right direction. AC balance 20-30% since everything is nice and clean. AC freq 100 to 120, this will help you pinpoint the arc which is where technique comes in. You will have to direct the arc to the spindle as it will take a lot more heat than your tubing. Let the cleaning action work on it and get some heat into the part even before you try to form a puddle. You can even preheat the part beforehand if you want. Once the thick piece starts to wet, then move the arc to the tubing and put a little heat there until it starts to wet out, only then add filler and work more heat on the thicker material. If the filler balls up you don't have the piece quite hot enough. One trick is that if you do get a little ball of filler in the joint but not fused to either side, you can direct your heat to that ball as you don't have to worry about blowing a hole in the ball. Once it's hot enough it will flow into one or hopefully both parts. Getting them joined will allow the heat to even out between them. At that point you will need to back off on the amps to keep the puddle under control. You might start off with 150-200 amps and be down to 100 or less by the time you complete the weld. That is the nature of aluminum. However, you will still want to work your torch angle to direct more heat into the thicker part. It just takes practice. The foot pedal is your friend for things like this.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by inthefrey

Hi Folks! Been a while since I logged in (snip) ... dozens of steel projects with my 205. I has paid for itself at least twice. (snip)... The filler rod almost vaporizes.

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Welcome back, John- machine paying for itself twice over is excellent, you must be doing some good work!

Filler rod vaporizing sure sounds odd. Do you get a weld puddle going?

Okay well, 1/2 a tank later, I figured most of it out.

Gas flow too low - Was 7-8Lp boosted it to 12
Freq was low - went from 100 to about 140
Pulled the AC balance up a little - Was at 90% now about 78 %
Amps were low - was 110 - went to 137
Needed to pre-heat the spindle a whole bunch ! - like too hot to handle longer than 10 seconds with a good welding glove hot! :O


Now, I get a puddle within 2 seconds. Focusing heat on Spindle, waiting till puddle forms there, then, adding filler and pulling it into the square tubing while following it with the heat. Bang! I've got a weld!!

Now, since I've seen how badly I need to practice this, I'll be spending a few dollars on gas and rods...

Thanks for the pointers men. I'm out!