Hey how you guys doing i jsut recently bought a miller Diversion 165, came Via Fedex earlier this week and today ive been messing around with it, i had some 1/8 steel and some 1/8 aluminum liying around. so i decided to weld them together.

i need some advice on what im doing wrong... on the mild steel i welded a nice bead with no filler metal then i used filler and i could not get a bead rolling


as for the aluminum i was able to get a bead rolling better but it would burn through so i went back on the heat and then i would get like a black burning and it would almost be like it was contaminated, i did clean off the welding area and also the filler metal before hand
filler i believe its 1/16 4043 i cant rememeber i can confirm later.

the tungsted that came with the Diversion is 2% ceriated 3/.32 i believe and i have to reg set to 15-20 cfh pure argon..

the filler i have is 4043(AL), 308LSI(SS), 70S2(MILD STEEL)
1/16 ROD AND 3/32 ROD but i havent used the 3/32 yet

 

If you are using 1/8th filler rod then that is a little too big for the material you are using. Practice with 1/16th filler and dab the puddle more quickly because it looks like there was too much filler being added. The bigger the filler the bigger the puddle has to be for it flow into it without globbing. I am no pro welder but I've been welding for 3 months or so and it just takes some practice and experimenting to see what works.

 

i ment to say i was useing 1/16th filler . I was in the garage a little more practicing and im getting better at butt welds but i cant seem to get the corner weld. idk what im doing wrong any tips and suggestions will be appriciated.

also i know theres different types of tungsted, but is there a certain type specific for metals

thanks john.

 

Use a little more heat, dab the filler more quickly and move along faster. I use the 3/32 2% thoriated for everything and it works great. For aluminum, just heat up the metal until you can see it become fluid and then add filler keeping the heat just enough to keep the puddle going.

 

oh wow...

try to stay away from the edge of the metal

practice makes perfect

 

Did you get that aluminum from homedepot? It might be anodized I think thats why you have all those black burn marks

 

no, that would be him touching the metal with the tungsten.. or filler to tungsten.. or both.

 

Yeah looks like it has some tungsten touching the material and or the tungsten is not sharpend for steel and rounded for aluminum.

 

With an inverter machine you can have your tungsten sharpened for both steel and aluminum. Thats what I do with mine and it works great.

 

Pure tungsten works best for aluminum IMO 2% thoriated works great for steel... I'm a noob welder myself, what helped me was using less filler just try and keep a consistant puddle and add filler to keep the puddle just above the surface around it
This seems to help me some, when nearing the end of the material aluminum especially lay off the heat as you get to the end.. You will be surprised at how much pedal you can take away

 

Here are some new weldings i did today much much better I believe not all have great penetration at all but i wasnt going for penetration no im just trying to get the hang of puddle dab move lol.. For these welds i used red tip 1/16th tung with 1/16 filler








here are some aluminum welds i was playing around with