I'm taking TIG classes @ Griffin Tech College and have progressed all the way up to Aluminum.

The 3/32" lap joint has been kicking my ***. I'm using a 1/8" filler rod and 3/32" pure tungsten balled on a piece of Cu. My beads have been inconsistent in width and penetration, and I've been getting spatter, and I find the pool is hard to control.

For *****, I stepped over to the inverter yesterday running a 1/16" ceriated tunsten and used the same filler rod, base metal, and joint. On 120 Hz with the tungsten pointed but with a small flat end, I was able to easily produce repeatable beads of uniform width, depth, and penetration.

In short, I'm buying an inverter machine for myself next year!

 

The adjustable frequency that an inverter offers for aluminum is an awesome feature! I wish my machine had it! lol

 

I love my Dynasty 200DX

 

I don't know what half of the stuff you just said is, but (DaX) I sent you a pm about the hasport kit.

 

I'm gonna be selling my 180SD for a Dynasty 300DX here soon. I do much more aluminum than steel and its only practical.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by k24em2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'm gonna be selling my 180SD for a Dynasty 300DX here soon. I do much more aluminum than steel and its only practical. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Any reason you're going for the 300 instead of the 200?

 

My Thermal Arc TA185 should be here today. The Dynasty 200DX has more features, and a bit more output. However, the Dynasty is also over $1000 more!!

 

what do you mean you balled it on copper? Why would you do that?

One of the biggest misconceptions with Al is that you even have to ball the tungsten - you don't, the EP ends up balling it for you. I just put a light chamfer on it and go to town. Second, try using a smaller filler rod. The bigger it is, the more heat it draws from the puddle - I bet the puddle froze whenever you dipped, then you floored the pedal, then **** yourself when you realized it was going to burn through. Use 1/16" filler next time.

the only difficulty in welding Al is dealing with the balling. HF inverters fix that as do doped tungstens - might as well fix the $5 part first before the $2-3K part

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Bjorn &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">what do you mean you balled it on copper? Why would you do that?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Striking an arc on copper with DC+ will ball the tungsten without contaminating it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Bjorn &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">what do you mean you balled it on copper? Why would you do that?

One of the biggest misconceptions with Al is that you even have to ball the tungsten - you don't, the EP ends up balling it for you. I just put a light chamfer on it and go to town. Second, try using a smaller filler rod. The bigger it is, the more heat it draws from the puddle - I bet the puddle froze whenever you dipped, then you floored the pedal, then **** yourself when you realized it was going to burn through. Use 1/16" filler next time.

the only difficulty in welding Al is dealing with the balling. HF inverters fix that as do doped tungstens - might as well fix the $5 part first before the $2-3K part</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'll ask my teacher about not balling the tungsten [he's certified]. I didn't let the puddle freeze then floor the pedal - it's much more difficult running stringer beads w/o filler on a typical machine than it is on an inverter. I've tried using ceriated and pure tungsten with AC on the oldschool syncrowave, but it's still WAY easier and produces much nicer welds on an inverter.

 

don't even bother asking the teacher, just try and see (green ***** up quicker than red, even more so with the balance biased towards EP). If you're just starting out, I'd practice just making and moving the puddle w/o filler, and only being concerned w/ getting full penetration w/o the ugly gray scabs. If you hate transformer tigs now, just wait til you start on T joints - the balling makes the arc ride high away from the joint, making excessively wide beads - I can imagine the HF would kick *** in that case

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Bjorn &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">don't even bother asking the teacher, just try and see (green ***** up quicker than red, even more so with the balance biased towards EP). If you're just starting out, I'd practice just making and moving the puddle w/o filler, and only being concerned w/ getting full penetration w/o the ugly gray scabs. If you hate transformer tigs now, just wait til you start on T joints - the balling makes the arc ride high away from the joint, making excessively wide beads - I can imagine the HF would kick *** in that case</TD></TR></TABLE>

Oh yeah, man the T-joint on a transformer machine is SO hard to control the puddle on! Haha, I tried it on the transformer machine and got it finally, but it was much wider than when I used the inverter. I'll try using a chamfered tungsten on aluminum with the transfromer machine next tuesday.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 117 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">My Thermal Arc TA185 should be here today. The Dynasty 200DX has more features, and a bit more output. However, the Dynasty is also over $1000 more!!</TD></TR></TABLE>

I got one. I use 1/16's tungsten. Also pure tungsten does ball up faster than the thoriated. I was told that a transformer machine was actually better. I'm still learning myself. I want to know what settings you guys use for the wave balance and all that. I know it's the balance between cleaning and penetration but I'm unsure what kind of setting would be ideal. Any ideas guys?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Pikachu &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I got one. I use 1/16's tungsten. Also pure tungsten does ball up faster than the thoriated. I was told that a transformer machine was actually better. I'm still learning myself. I want to know what settings you guys use for the wave balance and all that. I know it's the balance between cleaning and penetration but I'm unsure what kind of setting would be ideal. Any ideas guys?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I found good results on Al with 75% wave balance and a high frequency. They don't have thoriated tungsten at school due to health risks, but we use Ceriated tungsten - I think they act nearly the same.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DaX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Any reason you're going for the 300 instead of the 200?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Bit more capacity for doing cylinder head repairs.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Pikachu &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I got one. I use 1/16's tungsten. Also pure tungsten does ball up faster than the thoriated. I was told that a transformer machine was actually better. I'm still learning myself. I want to know what settings you guys use for the wave balance and all that. I know it's the balance between cleaning and penetration but I'm unsure what kind of setting would be ideal. Any ideas guys?</TD></TR></TABLE>

for T's I do just about equal EP to EN, for everything else use 2-3x as EP as EN