Peformance- I think I get what you are saying, which means I have always ground my tungsten's wrong....I guess with aluminum the problem is more apparent (I had only done steel before). So to make sure I have this right the grinding should remove material parallel/longitudinally, correct? I will try this and report back.

I though the same thing as you about the speeds, so I tried slow speed low heat, fast speed high heat, medium heat medium speed, and they all produced the same result. by the end of the weld the end of what I am doing is glowing red but I have the post flow on until it stops glowing. I do recall having this same exact problem when I first started TIG'ing, but after a change of the bottle ( a week later) it seemed to go away...not sure if it was due to experience or gas though.

The overheated collet likely happened when I was playing around with the 1.5" solid axle that I showed previously (welding on 200 amps). I will play around with torch angle some more as that could also be an issue. Although I am a little perplexed on how I can overheat the material (relatively speaking) when I am only keeping the hear on long enough to have sufficient penetration and then moving on.........I suppose I could try laying a bead with almost no penetration to find out if this is the issue though, correct?

Thanks for your help