Welding Tips and Tricks

I am new to TIG welding, currently working with aluminum. For the most part I am primarily practicing with 3/16" aluminum, fairly small pieces of angle and flat stock - around 2-4" length angle and approx 4"x"4" flat stock. The welds are solid, strong, I feel I am doing well - better than expected at this early stage.

As soon as I moved to larger pieces (still 3/16" thickness) for my production work the welding is much more difficult. I can't seem to get a puddle going, having to "sit" on the spot for quite a while. The welds are horrible, and the large flat pieces of aluminum become unusable. All settings are the same between my smaller practice pieces and the larger work: around 130 amps and -3 balance. 

Is this a heat-sink issue? 
A pre-heat issue? 

All work is performed over a flat piece of 3/8" steel. I did try boosting the amps a bit on the larger aluminum, but just does not seem to do the trick. 

Any input would be much appreciated. 

I can't imagine that 130 amps will form a puddle on a large piece of 3/16 aluminum. I'd be at 180 amps minimum to start, probably tapering off as I weld.

Practicing at home and using a different machine at work will yield different results. AC Balance, Freq, amps, torch configuration all play major factors on aluminum TIG.

Hopefully this will save other posters some time. This is a duplicate thread from another forum where more information has been shared. He said he upped the amperage after several folks suggest running 200A, and he had better luck when trying that, but then added some more info that changes everything.

He's running an Eastwood 200 AC/DC TIG with a foot pedal, but running it on 110V input. That will limit the output to 145A. He thought he was selecting 130A, then 200A, but was getting far less.

As suggest there...put the machine on 220V input, crank it to 200A output and see what happens.

G-ManBart wrote:Hopefully this will save other posters some time. This is a duplicate thread from another forum where more information has been shared. He said he upped the amperage after several folks suggest running 200A, and he had better luck when trying that, but then added some more info that changes everything.

He's running an Eastwood 200 AC/DC TIG with a foot pedal, but running it on 110V input. That will limit the output to 145A. He thought he was selecting 130A, then 200A, but was getting far less.

As suggest there...put the machine on 220V input, crank it to 200A output and see what happens.

Well there you go...

cj737 wrote:

G-ManBart wrote:Hopefully this will save other posters some time. This is a duplicate thread from another forum where more information has been shared. He said he upped the amperage after several folks suggest running 200A, and he had better luck when trying that, but then added some more info that changes everything.

He's running an Eastwood 200 AC/DC TIG with a foot pedal, but running it on 110V input. That will limit the output to 145A. He thought he was selecting 130A, then 200A, but was getting far less.

As suggest there...put the machine on 220V input, crank it to 200A output and see what happens.

Well there you go...

To be fair, the Eastwood website and manual could be a bit more clear on that topic. It's only if you go to the duty cycle chart that it shows a max output of 145A on 110V input.

the other thing is to setup everything else to your advantage.
eg use minimum cleaning action, a 6 cup with 1/8 tungsten or 5 cup with 3/32, low ac frequency, no pulse and do a bit of pre heating.

...AND at 200A you can expect to smoke that torch and 1pc power/gas hose (at the fitting where the hose connects to the torch) when trying to weld aluminum at 200A. Ask me how I know....

Ok Oscar, I will ask the question. How do you know?