Thanks for the suggestions, all. No, it's not my first time doing stainless, but I am new to using a gas lens, which is why I sat down to practice. So I grabbed a pack of coupons to try out all of your suggestions. I figured I'd try them one at a time and see the results. Science! I used a fresh cou...

I noticed my stainless welds have not been looking great--gray and wandering. Found some good info ( like this ) and got to practicing. I started in the top right, just making a puddle like Jody suggested. start.jpg Looked good, so I went on to run a bead with no filler, which also looked fine. Then...

That “inside corner weld” shows a significant exposure to heat meaning you are running too low of amperage. The internal material is melting before the oxide layer. I’d love to see the front side of that weld. But I think you need to crank up the amps. It's two pictures above in the same post. This...

Thank you so much for the advice. I cranked the amps to 200, concentrated on a tight arc, and the results were absolutely night-and-day. These are without filler: 20210328_160510.jpg At 140A, I was able to run a pretty nice bead. Still have to work on my lead in/out, but this is huge progress. image...

FWIW, I avoid fusion tacks on AL at all costs. I'm learning this. But I was having the same problem even adding filler--both sides of the joint would build up and I'd end up with the same disaster I started with...just much bigger. :D So I figure if I learn the right way to do it first, I'll be bet...

Thanks for all the great replies! I had been having a lot of trouble with blowing through the parts at higher amps when trying to tack, so I assumed I was applying too much heat, which is how I ended up back at 125. I'm guessing that I'm just not experienced enough to keep up with how fast things ar...

Hobbyist welder here. Been doing stainless/carbon steel for a while, moving into aluminum. Having some trouble on outside and inside corner welds, getting the puddles from the two parts to come together as one. Especially when trying to do an autogenous tack, but also when using filler. Like this me...