Welding Tips and Tricks

For Tungsten sharpening: I am breaking off the contaminated tip and regrinding. Should I also be cleaning/breaking-off/regrinding the oxidized area up the tungsten?

For material: are there any consideration that need addressed when welding together different aluminums, I.e. 5052 to 6061?
I am mostly working with scraps and off-cuts but prefer to practice welding projects as opposed to coupons/test joints.

Thanks for the help!

JHenze646 wrote:For Tungsten sharpening: I am breaking off the contaminated tip and regrinding. Should I also be cleaning/breaking-off/regrinding the oxidized area up the tungsten?

Yes, you should remove all of the tungsten that has any contaminates on it, especially with AL. The oxides will continue to develop and get worse if left on the tungsten. Use a cutoff wheel to remove the entire portion with oxides on it and regrind.

JHenze646 wrote:For material: are there any consideration that need addressed when welding together different aluminums, I.e. 5052 to 6061?
I am mostly working with scraps and off-cuts but prefer to practice welding projects as opposed to coupons/test joints.

For practice welds, no, not really. So long as the alloys are similar enough, you likely won't notice much difference. Now if you get into some of the more exotic architectural aluminum alloys, then that may create some issues with practice welds. Of course, for actual welding jobs, you will want to either use the same alloy, or verify that the alloys are compatible for welding and service.

Edit: Also avoid breaking your tungstens. This can often lead to splits and fractures in the tungsten when using it, especially on AC. Always use a cutoff wheel or similar to resize your tungstens.

Spartan wrote:

JHenze646 wrote:For Tungsten sharpening: I am breaking off the contaminated tip and regrinding. Should I also be cleaning/breaking-off/regrinding the oxidized area up the tungsten?

Yes, you should remove all of the tungsten that has any contaminates on it, especially with AL. The oxides will continue to develop and get worse if left on the tungsten. Use a cutoff wheel to remove the entire portion with oxides on it and regrind.

JHenze646 wrote:For material: are there any consideration that need addressed when welding together different aluminums, I.e. 5052 to 6061?
I am mostly working with scraps and off-cuts but prefer to practice welding projects as opposed to coupons/test joints.

For practice welds, no, not really. So long as the alloys are similar enough, you likely won't notice much difference. Now if you get into some of the more exotic architectural aluminum alloys, then that may create some issues with practice welds. Of course, for actual welding jobs, you will want to either use the same alloy, or verify that the alloys are compatible for welding and service.

Edit: Also avoid breaking your tungstens. This can often lead to splits and fractures in the tungsten when using it, especially on AC. Always use a cutoff wheel or similar to resize your tungstens.

Never snap a tungsten off. Once you do, you can forget it ever welding right again. May not notice it on low amps, short runs, but if you crank up the amps (AC especially) the tip will spit bits of tungsten into your weld. A sure fail on any welding test (yeah, I get it, maybe you don’t weld professionally, but you still need to practice good habits).

If you need to shorten a tungsten, use the edge of a grinder and grind the tungsten in half. Then sharpen with the tip pointed at the wheel, not across it. Even cut-off wheels can produce splintered tungstens so you should use a diamond wheel in those instances.

Yes, stop breaking your tungstens. Unless it's severely contaminated, I just grind off the contamination. If the contamination climbed up more than ⅛" above the grind, then I'll cut it off with a cut-off wheel (otherwise I grind it down until it is all removed) . Makes quick work and you don't have to worry about splintering.

For Tungsten sharpening: I am breaking off the contaminated tip and regrinding. Should I also be cleaning/breaking-off/regrinding the oxidized area up the tungsten?

I never break off my tungstens under almost any circumstance. Seems a waste to me and in my experience it is unnecessary. To sharpen my tungstens I use an ordinary cheap-o bench top belt sander. I chuck up the tungsten in a cordless drill and I slowly spin the tungsten while sharpening. just sharpen back to a suitable point then if there is contamination remaining, I wrap sand paper around the tungsten and spin it with the drill. My experience has been that the tungsten doesn't absorb the aluminum (or steel) and it just sits on the surface. I have never experienced any contamination issues doing it this way.

For material: are there any consideration that need addressed when welding together different aluminums, I.e. 5052 to 6061? I am mostly working with scraps and off-cuts but prefer to practice welding projects as opposed to coupons/test joints.

Its going to come down to knowing which aluminum alloys are not weldable and selecting the correct filler for the alloys you want to join. https://www.hobartbrothers.com/download ... i_1lOo.pdf

So I should cut off on the right side of my finger? (for clarification)

Of course, for actual welding jobs, you will want to either use the same alloy, or verify that the alloys are compatible for welding and service.
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Where would I find this information?

Your tungsten doesn't look that bad. I thought you meant you were dipping it and getting aluminum oxide running up it. What you have there should clean off with scotchbrite or similar, and doesn't look like it needs to be cut off. Check your post flow, though. Your tungsten shouldn't look like that after a weld. It should remain mostly silver. When welding on AC, your tungsten gets quite a bit hotter, and therefore needs more time to cool down while still shielded, so often a good idea to bump up your postflow when running AC compared to the same amperage on DC. Try 9 or 10 seconds as a starting point and adjust from there.

As far as alloy references, check out Audel's Welding pocket reference, JFLF's Metals and How to Weld Them, and of course Google. However, the right answer for what can be welded to what and with what in a professional setting is whatever the engineers and designers put in the procedure and prints. They have lots of years of schooling to help them make those decisions based on numerous factors.

JHenze646 wrote:So I should cut off on the right side of my finger? (for clarification)

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its fine for me, tho add some extra post flow. i would just keep using it.
(tho i'm not a pro).

JHenze646 wrote:So I should cut off on the right side of my finger? (for clarification)

483B3B63-48F4-4EE9-941F-D1A223B706CE.jpeg

I would not. I could touch up that tungsten in no time flat on my little harbor freight 3" grinder/polisher. If you want to keep chopping off 1 inch each time that happens, that's gonna be quite expensive. You can literally restore that tungsten with minimal grinding. Restore the grind angle & tip, then polish/abrade off the oxidation. Bam, done.

I received my first tig welder last month and quickly put it to use welding on a jon boat project. I've had aluminum balls contaminate my tungsten close to an inch up from the sharpened end. I broke my tungsten off only once and the result way a splintered mess that took a lot of grinding to fix. So, I tried just grinding off the aluminum at 90° from how I sharpen my tungsten and I haven't tried anything else. It just works. Yes, it can and will thin the tungsten diameter, but it still works. I've been running my cfh at 2x my cup size at 5 seconds post flow. My tungsten does darken a little like you're seeing, or turns a blue or red color that will clean up with a stainless hand brush and keep welding usually fine. Cleaning the material being welded well goes a long way at helping keep your tungsten clean before the occasional dip has you feeling like you don't know what you're doing and heading to the grinder again...

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Turn your post flow up, I do realize depending on where your located you can be absolutely robbed on gas but 99% of the time saving a few extra seconds of gas isn't worth the degradation to your tungsten.

For actual oxidation on the tungsten though I've found chucking the tungsten in a drill and using high grit automotive sandpaper to work very well. if it has heavy aluminum contamination you can usually clean it off pretty easily if you have a belt sander and drill. but worst case it is better to cut it with a cutoff wheel rather than break it which can cause your tungsten to splinter.

Thanks for all the help.

I usually regind the tip and scotchbrite the discolored portion. The reason I asked is because am having a lot of arc wander and I wanted to make sure it wasn’t a torch hygiene issue.

It’s most likely a technique problem and I need to get more hours on Aluminum.

I reckon you've got something else screwy going on as well. You must have a leak somewhere. Do a soap leak test.