Welding Tips and Tricks

Here is a post for introducing myself and why i am here.

From the land that yields endless fields of corn and cattle, good ol Nebraska... I learned a lot of different welding processes back a while ago and was welding often up til about 10 (give or take) years ago. Since then ive found myself always interested in it and wondering why I ever stopped.

I recently bought a small MIG welder to kinda get back into to it and start building cool chit. WELL, i like COOL chit that goes FAST. SO, my goal here is to learn how to or how to better where i am at with my skills now. A lot of you may know, a small MIG welder can only do so much when it comes to vehicles that fall into the category that requires NHRA certification. SO about a week ago i bought a inverter AC-DC TIG welder. I immediately jumped on some aluminum to see where i was sitting with my ability and quickly learned that the settings and adjustments on the machine itself is going to take some time.

Instead of learning every different scenario, my focus for now will be TIG welding aluminum pipe. In particular, 3" thin walled (1/16th im guessing) standard cheap china chit, intercooler piping. Anyone who has the same welder with some torch time under their gloves, id love any input on how its burnin for ya. Also anyone who can give me some good direction for machine setup on the 3" Aluminum IC piping would be appreciated. I am not expecting to be spoonfed answers for every question i have. I always take the time to try to find my answers by reading, but i have a hard time absorbing things i read that are spread out all through out what i just read. So bare with me please.

After reading the manual that came with the TIG and not getting results i would like to see, i came to the internet which ultimately landed me here. Looks to be a solid place to get some bookoo info. Looking forward to the progression and better understanding.

THANKS

pics of machines and cool fast chit OZRNDrPZd08

Welcome to the forum...

JeffDarby wrote:Welcome to the forum...

Thanks! After surfin around the board, i feel i may have found the right place

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Welcome aboard mate, great group of weirdos here!!!! Post some pics o your welds, no matter how bad, most of the guns on here can tell from the pics what settings need adjustment and so on. My welds look like sh@t on ally at the moment..... haven’t touched it in 15 years, who’d of thought you’d lose skill in that time......again, welcome.

Darrin wrote:Welcome aboard mate, great group of weirdos here!!!! Post some pics o your welds, no matter how bad, most of the guns on here can tell from the pics what settings need adjustment and so on. My welds look like sh@t on ally at the moment..... haven’t touched it in 15 years, who’d of thought you’d lose skill in that time......again, welcome.

Thanks Darrin, ill fire up the ol driftwood tigital200 and bust a bead or 2 here n a few. Appreciate it! Id like to get familiar with the pulse as well, i have a hard time being steady/smooth on the pedal. I guess in my OP, the video clearly shows that tho lol

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#7 nozzle...1/16 red chode... .4 preflo... 30a. Start... 125a.... 3sec post flow. On some chit 1/16 alum.... 4043 filler

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Should be plenty of amps,each machines different, on that thickness for me I’d be at 70-80 amps. I’d wind the balance back so you get more penetration, i run mine about 3 (1-10 on my machine) what have you got your frequency at? Others with more experience will chime in i hope, just going off my experience!!!! Cheers.

Shorten your arc, you have globs of aluminum that feel off your filler rod, due to ,too long of an arc.