I think it looks great. Repetition will get you far!

For me, it can be a confidence issue. I just did a job for a friend welding some small aluminum tubes together. Thankfully, he machined some extras to give me a chance to get my settings dialed in and my confidence up. I always run a little cold and the beads look ropey until I get a handle on thing...

What diameter wire are you using? 0.9mm would be the max size I would want to use.

I think my CK wedge collets are 3 or 4 years old. I do change out my gas lens if there is gunk on the screens. I first try to pull off the first screen. If that doesnt work, I pitch it.

You need the vent holes.

Are you venting the tubes? If not, that is likely the cause of the puddle exploding out. Drill a small 3 mm hole into the tube where it gets covered up by the coped tube. It will give the hot expanding gasses a place to go.

When I'm trying for a nice flat bead that also blends in nicely on the toes, I work the pedal a little more aggressively. I'll start my puddle and feed enough rod to get the puddle width I want, then I back off a little on the pedal as I move forward. I make sure I can see the leading edge of the pu...

Chicago 2017! Let's do it!

Here is a good video from CK going through the different sizes and numbers. https://youtu.be/ZNjhCZRfLio The most common ones you will run into are the following. 9 (gas cooled) and 20 (water cooled) use 2-series hardware. 17 (gas cooled), 26 (gas cooled), and 18 use 3-series hardware. The Flex Lok ...

But that's not because of the gas....

My pleasure! It was a lot of fun. Hopefully it was entertaining for audience.

Pretty common for me to see that. As long as it's on the border of the cleaning zone and not in the puddle and/or bead, you are ok.

Some stuff from the past couple of weeks. https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8018/29326496392_da1ebdcceb_c.jpg dip dip dip by Mike Zanconato , on Flickr https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8310/29054089460_8b72dcd622_c.jpg Jared B by Mike Zanconato , on Flickr https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8668/28630558304_5c0...

Airgas charged me a hazmat fee on a cylinder lease and wouldn't relent. Needless to say the cylinders all went back and I haven't bought anything from them since or ever will again.

One from yesterday.


0811161644_HDR by Mike Zanconato, on Flickr

Same here. I think my 3/32" wedge collet is over two years old. The 1/16" might be even older.

My machine does that too.

I should add though that there is no fusion near the root and the joint is just bridged. Is that ok for the application?

I'm going to be the dissenting voice here and say there is nothing wrong. I get black soot like that outside of the etching zones on a lot of my tacks and that is with a new clean tungsten, before I introduce filler, and I know the gas coverage is good. It seems to depend on what grade I am welding....

Run for the hills!

Beautiful!

Road frames can be as thin as 0.036" wall on some Scandium top tubes. Most down tubes vary from 0.044" wall on road to 0.078" wall on mountain. Head tubes and BBs are 0.140"-0.155". Rear stays are 0.036"-0.055".

That's a bike frame in the first photo.

I believe (and somebody please correct me if I'm wrong) that the synchrowaves topped out at 68% EN with the balance all the way up. That's pretty low compared to what the inverters do. Could be why the etching bands are so wide.

Great advice Zank - more knowledge from the masters. Until today I didn't know how to read the cathodic etching for signs of pulsing, either. Cheers! Kym Happy to help, Kym. Always. There are lots of signs that identify pulsing in both AC and DC. Helps give a little insight into how the maker laid ...