TIG Beginner - Equipment setup.

[Gizmo.Y]

Finally got round to getting my new TIG out the box.

Having issues (I think...) Arc seems to be a big Odd, cant seem to generate heat to start welding. Im using Pure Argon and the settings as pictured.

Video and pictures







Help?

 

[Pete.]

What material is it? If it's not aluminium set the switch to DC. Hold your torch close to upright and try again.

 

[Gizmo.Y]

Its Alloy, i bought a ton of scraps today when i picked up the bottle.

 

[wyn]

As pete said the torch needs to be pretty well upright....The angle it's at in the vid won't be any good.

 

[Gizmo.Y]

Ah, thankyou, worked wonders. appear to having some wondering arc issue, but i dont have any didicated grinders as of yet. Seem to be getting on fine with the trigger, but not so much with the Pedal.

 

[Screwdriver]

You need to clean your material more thoroughly with TIG. That can mean taking the skin off alloy first with a quick grind or wire wheel. You'll want to keep a wheel just for that purpose to avoid contamination and you'll want a dedicated electrode grinder too.

Remember the three rules of TIG: clean, clean, clean.

S.

 

[Gizmo.Y]

Indeed - have been watching a few "Tutorials" on the youtube and i have picked up some tops and hints from that - including the clean, clean, clean! Have ordered a Gas Lens aswell.

 

[Richard.]

Sorry screwdriver but an abrasive wheel on Alu is about the worse thing you can do. It will likely impregnate the material with contamination. If it needs a little scrub then it's a wire brush and a wipe only. Tbh the cleaning from the AC positive wave does the job most of the time

 

[Richard.]

The clean thing is more aimed at rust and scale associated with steel. Sure you should clean aluminium if it's contaminated with oil, grease, water etc but otherwise it's not needed. Removing the oxide layer isn't essential either. The process will do that for you and even if you do you won't remove it all. Alu is self regenerating of its own oxide layer so with in an hour or so of scrubbing it off it comes back. If you want to be sure a wipe of your materials and filler with acetone won't harm.

 

[hotrodder]

The whole cleaning thing is waaaaaaaaaaaay overdone on the internet. As is utter nonsense about dedicated electrode grinders being essential

Note the complete absence of scratch marks, with new/clean sheet aluminium 99% of the time all that's needed is to peel the plastic protection off it. If wire wheels/brushes aren't stainless steel they WILL contaminate the ally (as well cosmetically ruin it) and scrubbing like mad won't do much good either i.e. more likely to scrub oxides into the soft surface. As said the arc will clean move oxides when the oxide layer is thin enough for the surface to still be shiny. Older/manky ally that's gotten dull obviously needs more attention but most of the attention is needed in areas the arc can't get at... scrapping cut edges, the backside of the joint in the case of butt welds etc

 

[Brad93]

Don't wire brush your aluminium, makes no difference unless it has a serious oxide layer or is very manky/weathered/dirty cast.

And my personal opinion is everyone believes buying a gas lens is going to make them a better welder, due to all the absolute rubbish posted on instagram and mainly American welding forums, whist a useful thing to have they are not required in most circumstances. I weld 90% of everything with a #5 or #6 standard shroud and Collet body setup. It's all about Torch angle and speed.

If youre getting contamination, over heating/cooking the stainless (something Richard highlighted to me) a gas lens is only going to hide your problems. It is probably down to tungsten contamination, dirty filler wire, poor Torch angle leading to lack of gas coverage, too long an arc length.

With aluminium it takes a lot of heat to get going, whack your machine up to something like 150amps and arc up gently get the cleaning action etching the material then ramp up the amps go build a puddle, from then you can regulate the pool with the pedal.

If you don't think you're getting full Amps from the pedal it might be that the pot inside the pedal has slipped, which happened on my r tech pedal, its simple enough to open up reset and re tighten.

 

[Screwdriver]

I thought I recognised that type of aluminium in the OP which has some sort of coating or hard oxide layer. I have to admit I am a beginner TIG welder but a quick Dremel on that stuff will avoid the contamination you can see above.

S.

 

[Brad93]

There's no oxide on that that is perfectly fine to weld as it is, unless it is some sort of anodised finish which I would remove with a DA with a fresh sanding pad.

OP can you tell us what your flow rate is set to and if you are using a flowmeter or just the regulator flow gauge? For aluminium I usually run 5lpm at the flow gauge after the regulator, I'm.not sure what that equates to at the Torch.

 

[Richard.]

All aluminium has an oxide layer and it's because of that we weld it in ac.
Anodising is a completely different coating and looking at the welding it's not there in this case.

 

[Brad93]

Yes sorry Richard, what I should of said is there is no excessive oxide layer which would need to be mechanically removed prior to welding, the EP portion of the cycle should be more than capable of removing that, that's how all the aluminium at work comes in and I don't touch it with anything.

 

[Richard.]

There is a technique ive seen used for welding directly on to an anodised finish by hitting the current on and off with a pedal. I can't do it successfully and would always suggest it's better to remove it. If a chemical removal isn't feasible then the best approach would be a mechanical one with a clean file on the area where welding is taking place. Power tools such as sanders, grinders tend to smear the coating and impregnate it with the soft Alu underneath it. Welding directly onto this and you will see little speckles floating around in the pool.
All this aside the Alu shown in the op's pics isn't anodised and looks relatively clean in its normal state for welding. Any issues caused to effect the welding here will be easily addressed with set up and technique.

 

[Screwdriver]

It could be clear anodised. All I know is, I have played with that type of aluminium before and grinding off the surface made a huge difference.

 

[Chris Stevens]

It could be clear anodised. All I know is, I have played with that type of aluminium before and grinding off the surface made a huge difference.

Grinding aluminum before welding will invariably make it more difficult to do, as the grinding embeds whatever it is you are trying to remove into the surface of the material.

 

[Screwdriver]

Well you learn something every day. I'm going to test that out later, pretty sure I have that very same piece of alloy kicking about still.

 

[Brad93]

I'm not sure how you tell the grade of aluminium by looking at a photo on the internet, but anyhow, never done any anodised stuff so will file it rather than sand it next time. I've never had many issues with flakyness after sanding down plain aluminium that has been water stained and left outside, but then a DA at a low speed generates virtually no heat. Will have to do some tests