1mm v 1.2mm Alu wire on EWM Phoenix 330 Pulse

[Hood]

Thanks Henry, bit hard to tell from the video due to no filter being used , I just used an old auto dark helmet and made a bracket to hold my camera, not perfect but does help a bit.
The sound in the video however tells me more, and it does sound to be crackling in a similar way to my 1.2mm wire tests, maybe not as bad though, so maybe it is just the way things are.
One thing though, your pulse setup sounds uneven in duration compared to mine, do you know which part of the pulse is the longer one? I am guessing it is the low pulse that is longer but.....

Quite a bit of porosity in the welds but likely that is because of the antifouling and other contaminants of the old Alu.

Getting a roll of EWM wire sent to me so I will see how it performs although unlikely to get a chance before next weekend as I have a stainless roller system, amongst other things, to put on a boat next week. Might make it down to the workshop this afternoon or tomorrow so if I get a chance I will load some of the old 1.2mm wire and give it another go.

 

[henry Kadzielski]

Good afternoon Hood.
Yes the pulse setup is uneven and yes the low has the higher time duration. I cannot remember the % settings but there is well less than 50% in the high setting. This has been done for the cooling of the weld to stop blowing through. I tweeked this over time particurally for alli and for vertical up and overhead. Normally in the down hand position and this thickness would not use double pulse. However since you were using double pulse, I would do the same for comparison reasons. Yes the material was just belt linished so the contamination level is still quite high no acetone wipe just a quick light wire brush, and you can see the porosity in the surface of the second weld due to the heat input.
This is my first video of welding so very little preparation, I have several helmets so in the future may rig up something to help the phone take better pics. however the sound is more telling as you mentioned, there is a difference but it is not massive, is there a difference in the finish of the weld, again yes but not massive. The welds in the photos look very much worse than in reality and i think it is in the lighting position which is highlighting the toes as hard and not fused in which is not the case. The surface finish is also poor. When I welded the tank repair (photos sent previously on another post) the weld was smoother and shinier almost with tig like finish so am putting that down to contamination. Anyway will leave it at that and see how you go with the EWM wire.

 

[Hood]

Thanks again Henry,
I did find single pulse better on the heavier stuff, that is for sure but on the thinner stuff with the 1.2mm wire I was still having crackling/sputtering issues with double pulse that I didn't really get with the 1mm and as I had a few chunks of 8mm lying about I decided to use it for the tests.

I know what you mean about the pics, often I see a nice looking weld, take a pic of it and suddenly it doesn't look so nice. They say the camera never lies, that may be so but it can certainly distort the truth quite a bit

I might try messing with the pulse lengths to see what effect they have on the look of the weld, I suspect they will start looking a bit more tig like if I extend the low pulse. It is not really something I am overly concerned about but it would give me a better understanding of what the settings are doing.

 

[Jim Davey]

If there isn't enough voltage in the arc to maintain spray, then its going to dip and crackle, it's as simple as that. This is why you're finding it easier to avoid spatter with the 1.0mm, if you do drop the background current to 60, 50, 40% you will have to add a higher and higher voltage correction to avoid the spatter condition. Hope this makes some sense.

 

[Hood]

Perfect sense Jim, I suppose it is all going to be trial and error to see what works best for me but with a bit of understanding what each bit does should make things quicker.
The different settings are taking a while to sink in as to what they do, for example there seems to be two different wire feed options for each part but I think now that they are dependant on which mode the welder is set to, abs or incremental, so only one of them will actually affect things and I think previously I was adjusting the wrong one and not seeing a difference

Edit
Should be Abs or Relative, just so used to Abs and Inc from my CNC stuff that I typed that instead Suppose it amounts to the same thing anyway.

 

[Hood]

Ok got a bit of time for some tests and things went better
First though (whilst waiting for vid to upload to youtube) a pic of my camera setup for Henry. I really need to move it closer instead of sitting 1.5m away on a bottle

Ok vid here

 

[henry Kadzielski]

Good morning Hood.
That does sound very different from before and the double pulse is now noticeably asymmetric, whether that make any difference to the weld, don't know. Mine is still more pronounced than what you have, but I have fiddled this for a reason and that reason works for me. All you need to do and it has been talked about on this forum many times is 'WHAT WORKS FOR YOU'. Once you are happy you stop fiddling, wright it down and keep it for future reference. Hopefully next video I make foe welding I will do something with a mask, makes for better viewing.

 

[Hood]

Hi Henry,
yes , what works best for one will likely be different for another.
Regarding the camera, I tried to get a closer view today but it wasn't really any better as the arc is just too bright. It may be my camera auto adjusting or something, might have to try some manual stting as I am sure the phone was actually better at seeing the arc. Another option may be to try the old fashioned style fixed lens.

Ok today I messed a bit more and got to where I am happy.
I tried reducing the gas to about 12 or 13LPM and there was a noticeable amount of soot although nothing serious, put it back up to 15LPM and it was fine again.
This was with the lower flow and on 8mm 5083 as previous tests.

This was with the flow back up and on 5mm plate this time.

This was on the opposite side after cooling it, a vertical up in super pulse, I need to practice this as I find single pulse neater for vertical welds although as usual the actual weld does look better than in the pic.

Lastly a couple of Etches
First is the 8mm plate, the left hand side was when I was trying weird settings so should be ignored, it is the right hand side that is the weld pictured above.

Next up is the 5mm plate, standard fillet on left and vertical on the right. Looks like I aimed the arc a bit too much onto the base plate for the vertical.

 

[henry Kadzielski]

Good afternoon Hood.
The top fillet at 15l/m gas looks very good, nice shiny surface, also helps that the material is clean. I am using 18l/m on my gauge, haven't tested it so cannot confirm, but it is obvious to those that weld what the setting should be just by playing around. At some stage will get a flow tester, but not important at this stage. In vertical up I find that there is a slight difference in the settings for outside corners, inside corners and butt joints. I just start with the base setting for vertical and just slightly modify to the conditions at the time.

 

[Jim Davey]

I can vouch for the fact that the material needs to be clean. In my experience, unless the metal to be welded is spotless, the older Phoenix machines have a tendency to have a bit of a stutter in the arc when they encounter surface oxides or if you jerk the wire out of the weld pool if your hand slips for instance. It manifests itself by an instantaneous extinguishing of the arc, which then resumes a fraction of a second later.
Of course the metal should be clean before welding but it's easy to rush the prep when you're up against a deadline.

 

[Hood]

I can vouch for the fact that the material needs to be clean. In my experience, unless the metal to be welded is spotless, the older Phoenix machines have a tendency to have a bit of a stutter in the arc when they encounter surface oxides or if you jerk the wire out of the weld pool if your hand slips for instance. It manifests itself by an instantaneous extinguishing of the arc, which then resumes a fraction of a second later.
Of course the metal should be clean before welding but it's easy to rush the prep when you're up against a deadline.

That must have been what was happening with the bad work clamp connection. The Alu was clean but I suppose it would have had the same effect if the clamp connection was bad. When I sorted it the difference in the whole weld, not just the non arcing bounce bits, was amazing.

 

[Jim Davey]

Yes, they rely on consistent feedback from the arc and the circuit to maintain a smooth output. If you introduce a variable it can throw them of kilter.

 

[Brad93]

Really enjoying this thread nice work guys

 

[lincoln17]

Yes, brilliant stuff, and very enjoyable reading, well done to all who contributed, I have just read it and am now going to read it again. I have a Fronius TPS270 alloy edition mig, but have always just used the automatic settings, It welds well but Im sure some of you guys could make it sing. I have never tried adjusting the settings, other than materials, thickness volts and amps.This thread could make me be a bit daring and see if I can improve my welds!

 

[Brad93]

Yes, brilliant stuff, and very enjoyable reading, well done to all who contributed, I have just read it and am now going to read it again. I have a Fronius TPS270 alloy edition mig, but have always just used the automatic settings, It welds well but Im sure some of you guys could make it sing. I have never tried adjusting the settings, other than materials, thickness volts and amps.This thread could make me be a bit daring and see if I can improve my welds!

Well worth having a play the TPS is a good machine.

 

[Hood]

I got some 1.2mm EWM 5183 wire today but too busy at the moment to try it out, hopefully I will get a chance at the weekend though, will see if there is a difference in the better quality wire and also using 5183 instead of 5356.

 

[Brad93]

I got some 1.2mm EWM 5183 wire today but too busy at the moment to try it out, hopefully I will get a chance at the weekend though, will see if there is a difference in the better quality wire and also using 5183 instead of 5356.

Are you using 5083 base metal? If so 5183 will give you the highest strength possible from the deposited weld but I doubt appearance would be any better than a good quality 5356 wire.

Edit: just read back through and see you are using 5083

 

[Hood]

Brad, yes 5083 and 6082 when extrusions.
I was really just wanting to see if there was a noticeable difference between decent quality wire and the Super 6 I have been using. I suppose really I should have got 5356 so that the comparison was identical but .....

 

[Brad93]

Brad, yes 5083 and 6082 when extrusions.
I was really just wanting to see if there was a noticeable difference between decent quality wire and the Super 6 I have been using. I suppose really I should have got 5356 so that the comparison was identical but .....

You'll definitely find a difference in the quality I would say.
I've used a lot of aluminium filler wires and usually come back to Esab (alcotec) so went straight for that when I got the mig.
I've recently tried some Bohler 4043 Tig rods but I'm really not that impressed with them. The silicon seems very sensitive to heat input/frequency with it.
I know a guy who uses Westbrook Welding alloys aluminium filler, he has good results. Not sure where they source from.

 

[Hood]

Have used lots of different makes over the years (Esab, Sif, Super6, Arcos Lincoln (I think) and a few others) for the Mig and to be honest not noticed a huge difference.
Have used Westbrook stainless electrodes and they were fine but the Geka ones I have now are superb.