Thanks to both of you for that. It hadn't occurred to me that cutting/drilling oils/fluids could even vary with the metal being used. There you go. Learn something new every day. I'll go with acetone. It probably doesn't dissolve beeswax-based cutting oil but I'll just change to something that acet...

i highly doubt it.
that sort of function would need to be built into the welder.

hollow tube will bead away when hit with to much heat. especially at the start. once its joined a bit then heat is draw away by the thick part to a degree. adding filler also adds mass which helps it handle the heat. thin to thick can be tricky as the thick part sucks away so much heat that you can'...

pre heat it with whatever you have. unless its a huge thing the actual flame temp doesn't mean to much, your heating the whole thing not just one spot. if you wan to heat just one spot the hotter the flame you need. trouble with aluminum is if you heat one spot that heat spreads pretty fast and it c...

i'm sure others will give better advice than me. but first thing is it pays to put something in the pic to give scale, like a tig torch, glove, fingers etc. otherwise what looks really bad in the pic is actually nothing in real life. you can get to fussy on it. hard part is working out what is good ...

my current go to is the furick jazzy10. that gives me a good long stick out for getting into tight spaces. i like it as it uses about the same gas flow as a #8 cup gas lens (gas is expensive here) however with smaller pieces you can get away with a smaller cup. stainless loves gas, but keep in mind ...

My question for aluminum welding is, how much heat do you need if you just want to close up a hole in a machined aluminum part? for me its about getting enough to keep a good fluid puddle that wets out. your not trying to go for max penetration like with a joint, but you also don't want to have voi...

welcome

And some of the ENDS of my final welds are cracking. check how your terminating the welds. ie crater fill. ends of welds will crack if you don't get it right. the other is mechanical, distortion as the welds cool and that can certainly break tacks and put enough stress on beads to crack them, espec...

odds are far more likely that its a bad connection, either collet, or torch/earth wiring, or even foot pedal wiring. which was bumped when you put the torch down to turn off the hearing aids. lots of people have phones with wifi and Bluetooth next to welders without issues, and they have far higher ...

highly unlikely that wifi signals are interfering with the welder.

https://weldmongerstore.com/collections/primeweld

from what i've heard from quite a few sources they are reasonable machines.

https://content.instructables.com/FAV/74M9/I6YXTT0Z/FAV74M9I6YXTT0Z.jpg?auto=webp&frame=1&width=823&height=1024&fit=bounds&md=8c68b5b596595f81dc7fecb149fd2adc good pic of it done badly. you can see that really thin bit. looks good when its not welded, but it makes it hard to wel...

When you say that the notches need their ends ground to ensure a fillet weld all the way around, can you clarify? I assume you're talking about the long ends and ground down so that they're flat? https://youtu.be/8IyHbwPDbyA?t=328 i think justin explains it well enough. especially the end pic. i'll...

but i also use high pulse rates at times as it helps keep the weld small, more focused, less penetration (less blow through). it also requires more amps which is really handy on machines that do not do low amps well, especially with foot pedal. The pulse rate being faster or slower really isn’t the...

Jody sells Furick clear cups (#12 would be my choice for stainless) and the extra light might really help you get when using a clear cup. CFH up to 30 with a #12. Be sure to clean inside the tubing before welding it. And if the tube will be “closed” from the weld, you want a vent hole somewhere whi...

remember that the notch needs its ends ground so the weld joint is a fillet joint all the way around. pulse, use it if you have it. highest pulse rate you have. i would mount the solid rod vertical, let gravity help. weld more on the solid side. turn the frame around so solid is always on the high s...

i would also make some cheaters up. ie bend up some corners and have all the locations marked on them for where it fits in the bending tools, so you know how much length to leave on the pipe, starting position etc.
it also helps as a sanity checker when bending, something to compare to.

no problem with posting details of brand/model and details on the problem. its only when people slag off brands for no reason they might get removed. i suggest posting some pics of the how the machine is set up and what settings you have, just to make sure its not a user issue before chasing the com...

try the gas cylinder on another machine. could simply be bad cyl of gas.

i'm not up on those machines but it looks like its transformer machine. probably no freq adjustment, no balance adjustment. if you want to try it, i would pre heat, low balance (if you have it), a 5 or 6 cup, 1/8" pure tungsten. helium maybe as its $$$$. it also depends on if you just want a pu...

just looking at the miller chart, it says you need around 300 amps for 1/4". just a tad short i think.

its not my field, but i suspect that if the welding procedure calls for 308l then both of you need to use 308l for all types of welding. if its a non-critical repair then 308l o 316l is acceptable (and often 309 or 312 as well) not sure how much of a difference 308 or 316 will make, but it also depe...

Tweake - see if you can watch this: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1091139382314841 Don’t know if you have access to Facebook videos, but Chris has some absolutely novel insights on aluminum welding. He does often revert to Helium mixtures, but his evidence for higher frequency has some legit de...

also crank up the Freq to as high as your machine will go. as low as you can go. higher the freq the less heat (due to more off time). i've just come in from welding some stainless and i use high freq pulse to increase my amp settings as my cheap machine doesn't do low amps very well. also on clean...