Then I tried to fix the other side. It looks to me like bad argon flow, but what I'm curious about is where did the blue come from?

Since I was playing I decided to try some lap joints and eventually ended up getting to joints similar to the ladder I want to build. Here is the good one.

If you can't start a puddle the troubleshooting tree can go two directions. Equipment or operator. On the equipment side Is your welder operating on 110V or 220V. 110V may not have enough power. I am not familiar with your machine but believe it operates on either.

Today was more about playing than serious practice but I did learn how much power it takes to weld the middle bead in this pattern.

Can we assume that you used this system to weld the butt and corner joints in the photo?

It's 1/8 inch thick.
Just like Jodi says to start with.

Still making headways.

I managed to get some more practice. Here is this morning's work.

Thank you,
I'll give that a try.

I am a hobby welder and want learn to weld aluminum. I would like to post pictures of my welding progress to see if it helps motivate me to improve.
Here is yesterday's effort.

I put a lot of effort into today's welding.

My hat is off to you Chips for posting your work.
I hope to get that good some day.
Mine still look like this.

Poland308 wrote:Is there any chance the atmosphere in you shop is tainted with chemicals? Paint booth? Salts of some kind. Or sulphur ?

None that I know of.

Gene...just a thought I have...what exactly is your base metal? Is it galvanized and you ground off the galvanizing? The reason I ask is that I recently did a project that was ferritic stainless with a galvanized coating. Even though I ground off the galvanizing to shiny bright metal, the coating h...

That's with a #8 cup so 1/2 inch.

Todays welds look like.

I did about a foot of welding this morning and this is my new electrode compared to yesterdays.
Still welding mild steel 125 amps DCEN 3/32 #8 gas lens.

If you have a mic or a calipers check the actual diameter of the tungsten. I recently threw out a whole package of 1/8 in tungsten because they were under sized and when I tried to tighten them in my gun it would do the very same thing to my collets as what you have pictured. They are all 0.03 to 0...

MosquitoMoto wrote:Gene -


Is electrode now staying sharp and shiny?


Kym

I'll put some amps through it tomorrow.
Looks new after the spot test.

Went with a new lens and collet. The new spot is on the left.

Here is a look at the screen of my lens and an unused one. edit the cups are backward just to hold the lenses.

Looks twisted to me.

My #2 son said I may have bad gas. I don't have enough experience to say that. More likely something is plugged. Should I change one thing at a time or replace gas lens, collet and tungsten as a set.

Here's the tip.
Sorry about the focus I think the color shows.

Here is the spot.