I'm pretty new to welding and having major issues with my tungsten balling up to at least double the electrode diameter and I can watch the molten ball of tungsten jiggle around as I'm welding. Material is 2x2x1/4 6061 aluminum square tubing. I've had a lot of success welding thinner 6061 on my little everlast with a 3/32" 2% lanthanated and I can't seem to get the same results on the bigger machine with thicker material.
A couple of times, I've gotten into a groove and produced ok looking beads and then had horrific results immediately after with no settings changed. I'm pretty sure its because my tungsten degrades and the arc starts wandering wherever it wants to. It's also leading to my filler sometimes curling up and melting before I can dab the puddle.
My settings:
Lincoln square wave T-355
Amps: 190-220 AC
Gas: 100% Argon @20CFH
Cup: #6
Material prep: 1/8" bevel and hit with a sanding disc, stainless brush and then acetone wipe
Tungsten: Either 3/32" 2% thoriated or 1/8" pure. Both behave similarly although the pure seems to last a little longer (I'm guessing just because it's larger)
Tungsten Prep: Normally I taper about 1.5x the diameter of the tungsten to a point and let whatever happens happen. That wasn't going well so I've tried blunting the tip (no different) and switching to DCEP and putting a ball about the diameter of the tungsten on (best results so far but still turns into a gigantic blob far quicker than I would like)
Balance: I've tried all the settings and haven't seen any noticeable difference. Tried 1 (more EP) and 9 (more EN) and tungsten balled just as quickly in each setting but 9 does seem to get a puddle going faster. Even in auto-balance mode, I get an enormous wiggly blob of tungsten after a few seconds of welding. I almost feel like there's a problem with this part of the machine.
High freq: continuous
post flow: 10s
The attached pictures are some of the first beads I ever ran on aluminum with my everlast (not great, but they look like welds, and I don't crater the ends anymore lol), I'll post some of my T-355 welds when I go in tonight and a pic of the machine settings. I have all the bells and whistles turned off.
Any ideas on how I can fix this?
-I have some 3/32 2% lanthanated that I want to try but I'm not super hopeful about it.
-Noticed in the manual theres a knob to control Hz. If this is too low could that be screwing me? I'm not an expert but the buzz sounds similar to what I'm used to.