Welding Tips and Tricks

What would you guys set your parameters to for welding 1/8 aluminum with 3/32 tungsten? amperage, balance and frequency?

Wildwelder96 wrote:What would you guys set your parameters to for welding 1/8 aluminum with 3/32 tungsten? amperage, balance and frequency?

Flat/horizontal/vertical up/overhead?
Outside corner/inside corner/Butt joint/lap joint/other joint configuration?

Flat fillet weld

140 amps minimum. 65%, 120Hz

I'd start with what CJ said. But then you'll run a bead without having learned a damn thing.

So start there, but then also run a bead with it 20 amps hotter than that baseline, then run it 20 amps cooler.

Then bump your cleaning up 10%, then bump it down 10% from that baseline.

Then start moving your frequency up and down.

Light your arc. Try all the different combinations and different positions and you'll learn first-hand what works best and when, and you won't forget it.

Running settings that you read on a forum doesn't do you a lick of good unless you apply it and then change things to learn why it's a good baseline.

Wildwelder96 wrote:What would you guys set your parameters to for welding 1/8 aluminum with 3/32 tungsten? amperage, balance and frequency?

30% balance. frequency depends a bit on the machine if you have plenty of amps 100-120hz. 50/60hz if its a bit low powered.
amps, heaps. adjust with foot pedal as required. you want the puddle to form in a few seconds. back it off as the aluminium heats up.

Oscar has the correct answer, and is asking you pretty much what Shovelon asked you on the "other" forum. The fact of the matter is you have not provided enough data and even at that there is no one correct answer. Plus to make things even more interesting not all machines measure balance the same way. 35% on one machine could equal 65% on another. Plus balance, of all things, is most dependent on how clean the metal is. On my syncrowave, assuming a flat position fillet weld, I would set the balance to 6-7, maybe 140-150 amps on the panel and not really use nearly that much amperage, but would be controlling it from the foot pedal. On a horizontal outside corner I would probably start at 100 amps. I don't have frequency and or pulse adjustments and have never needed them. Balance in either situation is going to be set based on the amount of crud I see in the puddle. I will turn the balance down until I get a nice clean puddle without a lot of "peppering"

Louie1961 wrote: Balance in either situation is going to be set based on the amount of crud I see in the puddle. I will turn the balance down until I get a nice clean puddle without a lot of "peppering"

very good point.
all depends on if your fixing up some old contaminated item, practicing on some scrap thats been floating about on the workshop floor for a few years, or some nice clean fresh aluminium.

also keep in mind tungsten grind angle and cup sizes all come into play.