Welding Tips and Tricks

Hello all, I have an AHP Alpha TIG200X that i just recently purchased and have been experiencing issues with porosity ever since I got the machine, have tried different filler rods, tungsten, base metals. I am getting the porosity on starts & stops & some arc wander on low amperage, prepped by tungsten pencil sharp (2% lanthanated) & after only one bead I get a weird formation on the tip of the tungsten, best way to describe it is like a witch hat, I did find 2 leaks in my torch (#17 torch) which I was able to repair one but the other leak is in the top of the torch body, I think this may be part of the problem but not the entire problem. Anyone else experience issues like this?

Hey Dave, sounds pretty straight forward, you have a leak and porosity is the result. You said the unit was recently purchased, if the torch came with, then I'd say have it replaced.

Yeah AHP is supposed to be sending me a new torch, the other thing I noticed that seems weird is when I step on the petal to purge gas/adjust flow rate away from the work piece it makes a buzzing sound, like its trying to establish an arc and grab onto something within the torch, I have never seen that before on other lincoln or miller machines I have used in the past but then again they were transformer machines not inverters but they did have HF, strange huh?

The buzzing sound is the high frequency start, normal.

If it's low pitch with a hint of bass, or sometimes a hiss, but fast to get an Arc, then all is well. If you got this far and Arc is erratic, check tungsten/gas.
If it's high pitch, sounds like a wicked wet fart, takes several seconds for an arc, or doesn't initiate arc at all with all those sounds, and just in general sounds like a horror movie then you've got issues.
Common causes:
Bad gas (flow ) This includes broken torches or any where along the path from the gas bottle to the weather around your torch.
Bad tungsten grind. Pencil tip isn't as important as perfectly symmetrical grind all the way around with ZERO flat spots, chips, pits.
Bad grounding. The closer you can get the ground to your weld, the better you are. If it has to pass thru paint, mill scale, etc, HF is VERY loud and kinda scary and you're lucky if you got an arc but you probably had to hit heavy on the Amps. Got a "3rd hand"?
Not giving enough pedal. A light tap will initiate HF but not always initiate arc especially if the low range of your pedal is below the range of your machines min. Amps.
Some other shit is broken.

Yeah well the noise I was talking about was holding the torch far away from the work piece when purging & adjusting the flow rate, I don't remember any other machines I have used in the past doing that I remember just hearing the gas flow, the new torch from AHP should be here soon & if that doesn't fix the issue I'm starting to lean towards contaminated or wrong gas type, I should try welding with my 75/25 argon Co2 mix and see if it resembles the same issues.

Dont bother with 75/25, it will be a mess.

You said porosity at start and stop. Is it ok between? That would rule out gas problem or a leaking torch.

Three simple test you can do
Put a balloon over the cup and inflate. When argon stops flowingit should sty inflated, else there is a leak.

Shut off tank gas valve,high pressure gauge should stay high, else you have a leakage somewhere between tank and soleenoid
valve.

Set post flow above 6 s.Heat up tungsten until glowing and release trigger. Keep still while post gas flows. Tungsten should still be shiny. If you have ruled out leakage before a discolored tungsten indicate bad gas.