like the tittle says, yesterday when i got back from getting my tank filled i tried to weld some aluminum and it was a disaster, it was like i was welding with an almost empty tank, the weld puddle progressively got bigger and uglier with black soot. i always clean aluminum parts with a SS brush/acetone and filler rod with a scotch bright pad/acetone so i don't think that an issue.

i switched to a new gas lens checked the regulator pressure and checked my connections for leaks but nothing..... i tried to weld a previously welded aluminum part and the same thing happened then welded a scrap piece of stainless and came out fine

im going to call the welding shop tommarrow.... just wanted to know if this happened to anyone of you guys.

 

Yup, it's happened to me a few times.

 

No but I've had bad trimix and c25 before.

 

hmmm,makes me wonder.since the last time i got my tank filled,i've had a huge problem getting clean welds.i'm a stickler for cleaning everything,but i keep getting contaminents in stainless and mild(haven't done any aluminum with this tank).i've also gone over every other possible thing i can think of(regulator,gas lens,torch,cord,etc.),and found nothing.
what would be the issue?getting other gas(s) in the tank?how would that happen,and how would i pinpoint this to the tank/gas,other than swapping to another tank and testing it?i don't have another tank or access to another tank.
when they delivered to my dad's work(i just buy my gas through his shop).they mistakingly brought me two bottles of tri-mix,and i had to have them come swap out one for argon.i've had problems ever since-it's like my already sub-par TIGing skills have taken several steps backwards.
Chris

 

Yea it's happened to me a couple of times. The place I get gas from just swapped me a new one no questions asked.

 

Oh yeah... It took me 4 days to realize it though. I kept saying to myself "no, that can't happen" until I called them and they said "yeah it happens more often than you think."

 

Don't feel bad dude. I ran a mig robot on a bad tank for like en entire shift.

OOPS

 

i have had this happen also and you cant figure out whats causing unclean welds but when you look over every aspect its left with bad gas.

dont know the cause for this but also had it happen to me.

get the tank swapped out and they shouldnt give you any hassle about it.

good luck with the new tank.

 

thanks guys for replying , since this is the first time i have a problem with a bad fill i didn't know this was a common thing to happened.

i didn't have a chance to take the tank back today.. ill go on monday.


<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ManBearPig4silly &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Don't feel bad dude. I ran a mig robot on a bad tank for like en entire shift.

OOPS </TD></TR></TABLE>

wow... what kind of damage did you do?

 

No real damages. It was just on industrial grade electrical enclosures. Like big breaker boxes in a way.

I had some underlying porisity in the places I had to grind out for appearences(2 out of the 8 welds the robot makes have to be ground out for hte door to close properly)

Not that big of a deal it just made my day kind of shitty since I had to grind and manually reweld **** all day. All the products were accepted by assembly and the customer.

 

and that's what counts

 

when filling/pumping argon its possible to get a bit of water into the fill lines

 

ive had this issue several times aswell...

 

I have them check my tanks first before I leave. I used to get 1/2 filled tanks all the time.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CSaddict &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I have them check my tanks first before I leave. I used to get 1/2 filled tanks all the time.</TD></TR></TABLE>

ive got those too... maybe thats a sign i need to find a new company to get them swapped from

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CSaddict &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I have them check my tanks first before I leave. I used to get 1/2 filled tanks all the time.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Same ******* thing happened to me recently. I need to have them check pressures when I leave. $27 for 1500psi just isn't cutting it.

 

update, i called the place that fills my tank and they told me that they had not gotten any other phone calls with problems with their argon so i ask them if i could take my machine to them so we can swap argon bottles... the guy says sure bring it down... so i get to the shop setup my machine and we test weld with my tank then switch to one of the shops fresh filled tanks and the same s**t happens and now i look like an ***.

Ive had this welder for about a month now (dynasty200dx) and it has a problem with the "fan on demand" not turning on... i noticed that the fan didn't work just last week when the machine overheated and displayed the P-5 on the screen with no fan action i hit the welder casing with my laser thermometer and it read 120 degrees F ,

now the strange part....

the machine overheated on tuesday of last week and i still used it wednesday and thursday with no problems welding aluminum but i ran out of argon that thursday night, friday i get my tank filled and now i cant weld aluminum... today on the drive back home from the welding shop the welder tipped over on its side (was in trunk of car) so i get home and fire the welder on to mess with the settings and like magic the fan works now.

i have been in contact with someone at MILLER since the machine overheated so ill take the welder to get checked out tomorrow.

 

I've had one bad tank in how ever many years of welding. It was kind of confusing why everything was so off kilter. Thanks to Pro-weld for taking it back no questions asked.

Good luck getting your miller fixed, I hear they are great about keeping thier customers happy. I guess I'm lucky that my lincoln has never had an issue.

 

Niles - you heard right

update- cyberweld and miller decided it would be best to replace the machine with a new one.

to Kelly at cyberweld.com and miller for their awesome service!


Modified by ROTARY at 5:01 AM 9/1/2007

 

hopefully this will resolve all ur problems.

Good work

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ROTARY &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Niles - you heard right

update- cyberweld and miller decided it would be best to replace the machine with a new one.

to Kelly at cyberweld.com and miller for their awesome service!


Modified by ROTARY at 5:01 AM 9/1/2007</TD></TR></TABLE>

Nice to see a company stand behind what they sell.

 

I have gotten helium before that was marked argon

 

I've had one bad bottle of argon, on a jobsite where the argon was provided, never on my own tanks because I own my tanks, and they only get filled by the same guy at the same station. Bad fills are usually the results of someone running a tank completely empty, proper procedure for the person filling the tank is to evacuate the tank under vacuum to get rid of all oxygen, bad fills are when someone is lazy and doesn't check to see how empty the tank is from the start or just doesn't evacuate the tank.