Roll the die

This is a 1.5"x1.5"x1.5" die/cube I made out of .065" thick aluminum sheet for fun and practice. I needed some practice at precision fitting small parts, and performing open outside corner welds.

Am I adding enough filler or using too much heat? I don't really want the corner beads sticking out more convex than the surfaces. Seemed I was running too hot at some times, which made the bead wider and had to also move really fast.

I used an everlast Super200P and pure argon. 3/32" 1.5% lanthanated electrode ground on a diamond disc (1/16" might have worked better.) #6 gas lens @ 12 cfh argon. I really liked using some 3/64" (.047") 5356 MIG wire I had. Preferred over my 1/16" 4043. Don't really need to feed a whole lot of filler for these corner welds.

I started out at ~33% cleaning (electrode positive), but dropped it down to 20% EP (the minimum) in the middle. I think I would have even liked dropping the EP down further if the machine allowed it. I used the footpedal with average 75 amps at full down (and I didn't really use that much when actually welding.) I did need to trail off the pedal to almost nothing at the ends of the welds, near the edges. And sometimes I wanted to start at a very light current, my 3/32" tungsten wouldn't light a stable arc. So I think 1/16" tungsten might have worked better.

I did experiment with some 300Hz pulsing too (used 50% pulse duty, 50% pulse low current, and bumped peak current up to 100 amps to compensate to keep average current the same), but I am undecided if it was helpful for this weld or not. It might have been a small benefit to avoid melt-through at the ending edge.

Some of my attempted fusion (no filler) tack welds went bad and melted holes (from not using enough heat and taking too long, and also not having the pieces close enough), but I had little problem (save for an uneven bead appearance) patching the holes.

This is my first TIG weld project (...albeit not a really serious one ;) ) on aluminum sheet metal. I did practice welding some scrap pieces together before. I have gotten the hang of welding some 1/4" aluminum castings with my unit (much more problems with inclusions and general nastiness than with this virgin sheet metal...) and previous to owning my TIG, I have done some oxy acetylene welding on steel and aluminum.

And here are some of my test welds. The section seems to show adequate penetration, and subjectively (just flexing the welded joint a good bit), it seems to have plenty of strength. I do need to practice some more a more uniform bead appearance. And my tack welding techniques.

Jake,

Thanks for the excellent demonstration. I think what you have done is a perfect way to familiarize yourself with the welding ability of the unit.

If you were to do this all in one position, you could adequately train and teach aluminum tig welding to a student, or at least let this be a "capstone" project, since it requires basically all positions of welding and you could acutually require it to be welded on a pipe supported pedastal to cover the tubing aspect. Also you do demonstrate the cleaning ability of the AC balance control.

Excellent idea!!! I will have to pass this on to a couple of welding instructors I know.

You're welcome, Mark! I'm glad you liked it. :)