I was welding on this bung and all of a sudden my arc blew and made this mess. It melted the side of the cup too. All the surfaces were clean. I was using a red 3/32 tungsten and 1/16" 5356 filler rods and 85 amps. Everything was clean. Is it possible that a little bug or something might have flown into the weld? I'm puzzled.

It started good:


Then this happend:


This is what happend to the torch. I was pulling the filler out of the puddle when this happend, it was actually out already; so the filler didn't touch the tungsten or anything.


It melted the cup like this. It was glowing red for 2-3 minutes.


Any idea as to what might have happend?

Thanks in advance.

 

At first I just thought you ran out of gas...(not that I've ever done that )


but how the hell does the cup melt? I'm very confused.

 

what the hell?!?!

 

Defenitely some sort of contamination there. However, to me it doesnt look like the cup is melted, but rather broken/chipped off. They are VERY brittle when they are glowing red hot like that...sure you didnt drop or on accident? Or maybe when it was contaminated, it blew something back at the cup and chipped it off...but to me, doesnt look to be melted.
Kyle

 

I bet the cup got too hot and chipped off and fell into the puddle.

 

That edge of it does look like it's chipped, but it's not really chipped. Well, the outside part of it is, because the tungsten was "stuck" and when I tried to take it off it got chipped. The back side of it looks molten. I took these pictures just now to better view this.



The innner part of the cup is totally smooth. It's not chipped; it definately melted.


And this is my tungsten. The whole thing is tungsten, even the crooked part (no filler or anything is stock on it). The tip is just contaminated.

 

What were your settings on the welder? I have a feeling it has something to do with AC balance(you had it set to be on DC negative too long), but thats really a shot in the dark.

 

Balance was at 50%, frequency was 100 Hz.

 

turn up the preflow and hit the pedal to check if you can hear the gas coming out of the torch.

make sure your line isnt kinked or any cloggage in the gas line or hose.

that happend to me when i opend up my TA185 and forgot to connect the gas line.

 

I welded half way around that bung it happend then. I have a 5 second postflow and I could hear the gas after it happend. The tank had ~1500 psi. No gas line was kinked or clogged. I doubt that it's shielding gas related.

 

Get a bigger tungsten or turn up your balance. It looks like the tungsten is melting down. I bet a bit of it either dripped into the puddle or hit the side of the cup and melted it off.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by k24em2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I bet a bit of it either dripped into the puddle or hit the side of the cup and melted it off.</TD></TR></TABLE>



That would be my guess to... The ball on the end will get hot enough sometimes that it'll separate... or it just got hot enough to 'lean' over enough that it was able to lightly touch the cup, and when that happened, it reacted badly i've had that happen before (the ball of tungsten falling into the puddle on accident). Sucks when it does, but it'll teach you real quick to keep an eye on what the tungsten is doing as well as the weld, and vary heat accordingly, or use thicker tungsten when working a lot with aluminum.

 

 

It looks to me like there was a pocket and it blew out. That happens all the time. Also if there is any water in the crack when it gets hot it will steam and totally contaminate the shield. And they both look like your pic.

 

You don't know what you're talkin about kid...

 

Engloid shoudl know

 

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

thats great because he doesnt post on this site.

 

Thanks a lot guys. I'll be more cautious next time!


Modified by Motorhead_AZ at 8:53 PM 5/3/2006

 

sounds right on k24em2

 

I told you what it looked like to me . Alum. is bad for blowing out like that. And it doesn't take a very big pocket to have it blow out either.. KID??? I'm old enough to be your older brother.LOL

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RMF &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I told you what it looked like to me . Alum. is bad for blowing out like that. And it doesn't take a very big pocket to have it blow out either.. KID??? I'm old enough to be your older brother.LOL</TD></TR></TABLE>
lmao, from what you told me your old enouph to be tonys older brothers wifes dad!

anyways, for the posts sake. everyone has already told you what they think and it can be all of the above. first thing i think you should do is to change that lil ventury of a cup to a #7 gas lense.

 

i've done damage that looks like that. but it was because I jumped and diped the cup in the puddle. let's just say don't dip your torch in the molton aluminum.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RMF &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I told you what it looked like to me . Alum. is bad for blowing out like that. And it doesn't take a very big pocket to have it blow out either.. KID??? I'm old enough to be your older brother.LOL</TD></TR></TABLE>

By "pocket", do you mean a pocket of air (or gas) trapped under the puddle? Or like a pocket or air in the filler rod? Thanks for your help.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by L-CON1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
lmao, from what you told me your old enouph to be tonys older brothers wifes dad! </TD></TR></TABLE>

The real question is how do you know Tony's older brother is married??? Aha, you didn't think I'd pull that one. Hahahahahaha, just playing.

Thanks for all the help guys.

 

grandpa RMF past his exp. date

joking, joking.