First Time to TIG Aluminum Problems

I have finally found some time to try out my PowerPro 164 on aluminum.

I first tried to practice on a couple of aluminum cans and it was blowing through the cans even at lowest amps. I used up to 20lpm argon thinking I wasn't doing something right.

I then got out some 1/8" aluminum and sanded it off and tried to create a pool of metal. All I could accomplish was to melt the 2% Thoriated tungsten up inside the cup and the arc would just barely create a pool of metal. I turned the machine up as well as the gas and as you can see (be kind), I just burned through the piece.

Can anyone look at the photos and see if there is a setting I have wrong. I watched the "Mr. Tig" video and I thought I copied his setting on the PP164 video.

Note: I pulled the tungsten out of the torch so you could see what happened to the end. It took almost no time for this to burn off up into the torch. All the toggle switches are in the upward position.

Thanks for the help.

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Originally Posted by gtty

I have finally found some time to try out my PowerPro 164 on aluminum.

I first tried to practice on a couple of aluminum cans and it was blowing through the cans even at lowest amps. I used up to 20lpm argon thinking I wasn't doing something right.

I then got out some 1/8" aluminum and sanded it off and tried to create a pool of metal. All I could accomplish was to melt the 2% Thoriated tungsten up inside the cup and the arc would just barely create a pool of metal. I turned the machine up as well as the gas and as you can see (be kind), I just burned through the piece.

Can anyone look at the photos and see if there is a setting I have wrong. I watched the "Mr. Tig" video and I thought I copied his setting on the PP164 video.

Note: I pulled the tungsten out of the torch so you could see what happened to the end. It took almost no time for this to burn off up into the torch. All the toggle switches are in the upward position.

Thanks for the help.

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Way too much argon. Try five to ten lpm. Balance should be the other end of the scale, like 30% max. There was a glaring error in that video. He said 65% negative, but the Everlast control is calibrated in positive, so 65% negative = 35 % positive. If you look at the machine when he is actually welding, you can see the control has been changed to about 30%, but they didn't re-shoot the portion where they set the controls. Different brands use different control schemes, so you just have to check each machine.
Welding cans is not the way to start. That takes a lot of experience and skill. Also start with very clean material. 1/8" is good, but wire brush it with a dedicated stainless wire brush and clean with acetone. Are you using a foot pedal?

I range the range with the argon and tried it out on a much thicker piece. Could it be a bad ground connection?

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Originally Posted by gtty

I range the range with the argon and tried it out on a much thicker piece. Could it be a bad ground connection?

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Not likely if you are getting an arc. More likely, wrong settings and dirty material. Also if you don't know what your material is, there is a chance that you have one of the unweldable alloys of aluminum or something with a lot of impurities in it.

Start with steel first, too. Get proficient at that before trying aluminum.

65% is probably the most WRONG thing and will single handedly cause the issue you described. Check to make sure your regulator IS in LPM or CFH. 20 CFH is not too high, maybe a little waste but not something that will usually cause issues. But 20 LPM is more than twice what you need and can cause turbulence and hard arc starts if not a unstable arc. You're not going to get more than 3/16 of an inch with this unit though....so be careful about jumping on too thick of stuff, especially aluminum. Make sure you are NOT using green tungsten. And also make sure you don't grind the tungsten radially.

But Rambozo is 100% right. Get steel down first. I have a lot of people who like to jump on the hardest thing first. This is the same as a guy fresh out of medical school trying to perform brain surgery.

Thanks for the input guys. I'll move the balance setting to 30% and see what happens.

I've been practicing on steel, just wanted to get a taste of aluminum. I tried a range of argon from 5-20 lpm just to see if that was the issue.

Well I turn the balance down to 30% and the Argon CFM to five and the welder works great now. That was the major issue.

Sounds like you have a LPM meter.

Oops. 5lpm, correct