Aluminum Tig welding - 1st attempt w/ PowerPro 205

[DaveO]

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.

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?

[inthefrey]

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!


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!