Welding Tips and Tricks

New to tig welding. I recently over the last month or so purchased the Primeweld AC225 welder and have really enjoyed learning the process of TIG. I have had several difficulties in learning the process, but those have been lessons learned and moving forward has been frustrating but also enjoyable. I spent my first few weeks just running beads on a 1/8" thick by 4 " wide aluminum flat bar and then moved on to fillet welds and some outside corner joints. I know for most people Tack welding is generally a simple objective. However, I can not get a tack weld to form. For example: on an outside corner joint, the arc will jump from the lower plate to the upper plate and I have had hardly any luck getting them to join together without burning through or creating a mess. Before you know it the plates are way too hot to touch and I will have to wait to come back to try again. I read somewhere to crank up the amperage to a pretty high level and get on and off the pedal as soon as the arc starts to fuse them together. I haven't tried that yet, I was hoping someone could maybe shed some light on this topic for me. Thank you for the help!

Material : 1/8" 6061 aluminum (Square tubing and flat bar)
Machine: Primeweld AC225
Tungstens: 2% ceriated and Pure
Gas flow: 10-15
Filler rods: ER4043 (1/16 and 3/32)
Frequency: 100
Balance: 30
Amperage: set to 125. I usually never really run full power while welding
All material gets brushed with stainless brush and wiped down with acetone prior to welding.

Welding aluminum is a lot trickier than carbon steel. If you’re trying to “learn” at this stage, swap materials to develop the technique, then swap materials back.

Essentially, point the tungsten at a 45* straight into the root, with aluminum, you can’t tolerate a gap between the pieces when tacking. Set your amps to 150-160. Full pedal, two dabs of filler, off the pedal and hold your torch still over the tack until the post flow finishes.

Aluminum tacks have very little strength. So as you move along the piece, it’s common for previous tacks to crack and pop. Use the 1/16 filler too and stuff it in there.

Logan3232 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 30, 2021 11:41 am New to tig welding. I recently over the last month or so purchased the Primeweld AC225 welder and have really enjoyed learning the process of TIG. I have had several difficulties in learning the process, but those have been lessons learned and moving forward has been frustrating but also enjoyable. I spent my first few weeks just running beads on a 1/8" thick by 4 " wide aluminum flat bar and then moved on to fillet welds and some outside corner joints. I know for most people Tack welding is generally a simple objective. However, I can not get a tack weld to form. For example: on an outside corner joint, the arc will jump from the lower plate to the upper plate and I have had hardly any luck getting them to join together without burning through or creating a mess. Before you know it the plates are way too hot to touch and I will have to wait to come back to try again. I read somewhere to crank up the amperage to a pretty high level and get on and off the pedal as soon as the arc starts to fuse them together. I haven't tried that yet, I was hoping someone could maybe shed some light on this topic for me. Thank you for the help!

Material : 1/8" 6061 aluminum (Square tubing and flat bar)
Machine: Primeweld AC225
Tungstens: 2% ceriated and Pure
Gas flow: 10-15
Filler rods: ER4043 (1/16 and 3/32)
Frequency: 100
Balance: 30
Amperage: set to 125. I usually never really run full power while welding
All material gets brushed with stainless brush and wiped down with acetone prior to welding.

The part I highlighted is key. As you have found, aluminum transfers heat efficiently, and the part heats up quickly. If you don't get a puddle started all you're doing is putting heat into the work. The challenge with aluminum is that the base aluminum melts at around 1200*F. The aluminum oxide layer on the surface (essentially always present) melts at around 3800*F. You have to very quickly raise the heat high enough to melt the oxide layer, and quickly drop down to keep from blowing through the work. If you try to gradually add heat it just gets the base metal closer to melting, and when you finally get enough heat to melt the oxide, the base blows through.

Practice simply getting a puddle started in 1-2 seconds on flat plate...set the machine for something like 150A, hit the pedal hard, then back off when you see it turn liquid. That's all there really is to a tack. After you do that you'll be able to get tacks started, but you'll have to experiment with angle and distance in the various joint configurations.

Generally speaking, when the arc is jumping from one piece to another you're too far away, have the wrong angle, the amperage is too low, or some combination of all of the above. Having an improperly prepared tungsten, or one that is too large in diameter for the amperage can enter into the mix as well.

You list both ceriated and pure tungstens. Generally speaking, you can't use pure tungstens with an inverter machine like your Primeweld. Ceriated tungstens are best at lower amperage and really aren't a great all-around choice. At a minimum, I would get some 2% Lanthanated in 3/32 and try those first. It won't hurt to get some 1/16 for lower amperage and 1/8 for higher amperage as well.

You can use 2% Lanthanated for pretty much anything and it will be fine. I've had great luck buying them from Midwest Tungsten Services off both Amazon and eBay. Almost all tungstens are imported from China now (those that aren't are from Europe and quite expensive). MTS seems to do a good job of specifying good quality and I have used a lot of them with zero issues. There are other brands, like CK that are great as well, but I think you're paying more for the same product in most cases.

https://www.amazon.com/Welding-Tungsten ... 297&sr=8-5

i'm a bit different.
much higher amps, i would set for 200 amps. you won't use that on the bead but it handy for the starts. stand on the pedal on the starts. the aluminium will suck a lot of that heat and take a bit before it warms up.

use 3/32 filler, otherwise you will be shoving a ton in. the bigger filler will handle the heat better (blob before you can dab) and it freezes the puddle better.

tungsten angle wants to be more blunt. the opposite of what you want for steel.

cup size around 5 is good. keep it small and it helps punch in.

I may be able to throw a couple things that were not stressed sufficiently IMHO.

1. Fit up. When just starting out and learning fitup will be crucial. For this outside corner especially. Make sure both pieces are touching each other until you get the hang of washing a tack pool over.

2. The puddle may need to be "washed over" to the other piece. While holding a really tight arc manipulate the torch to aim on one piece and just as the puddle forms you kind of twist at wrist and aim more to the other while giving a little dab and pulling back just enough to not suck it onto the tungsten. This is all done at once while really standing on the pedal. On that 1/8" stock, it wouldn't take more than a second or two to get a faint tack on. Then you can make it bigger if needed.

Once you get the hang of washing the puddle over fit up becomes much less critical. I am by no means skilled but I can easily wash the puddle over a 3/32" gap now on .083 thick al. Maybe even more but my fit up skills are better than my welds, ha.

Logan3232 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 30, 2021 11:41 am Amperage: set to 125.

Double this, that is the secret. (and then practicing more of course)

If we took record of all the aluminum TIG issues posted here, 9 out of 8 times the welding current is simply set way, way too low.

Oscar wrote: ↑Tue Aug 31, 2021 9:49 pm
If we took record of all the aluminum TIG issues posted here, 9 out of 8 times the welding current is simply set way, way too low.

That's 122.35% correct

On a serious note, that is absolutely true....for some reason new folks just don't want to crank up the machine.

Oscar wrote: ↑Tue Aug 31, 2021 9:49 pm

Logan3232 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 30, 2021 11:41 am Amperage: set to 125.

Double this, that is the secret. (and then practicing more of course)

You won’t be doubling 125 amps to use with an outside corner joint for .125 material. If you do, you’ll blow away the material as it’s in its thinnest profile. Anyone with experience welding outside joints knows how tricky heat control is for this configuration.

Yes, 125 amps is too low. But 250 (unattainable by his machine anyway) is unusable. Perhaps you were be facetious slightly?

Yes, using 250A would be unusable for the actual welding [of the main joint]. But setting the machine to a lot more and using the pedal to get a puddle started with a much stronger initial 'blast' is IMO the key to getting outside corners to bridge for aluminum.

From my empirical findings years and years ago on 16 ga aluminum...



Logan, as you can see all of those were with much more amperage than the 1A-per-0.001" that is used for the actual welding. You already read it, there is proof that what you read was correct, IMO. Sure there is more than 1 way to skin a cat, but this method simply works; you just have to get out there and do it to learn.

Could always go the 'interesting' route shown by 6061.com to bridge 2 puddles..

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Never tried it, but might as well as dipping the tungsten when welding alu is my default anyway..

Bye, Arno.

so 6061 is DISRUPTING SURFACE TENSION.

The setting higher method isn't a bad way to learn how many amps you like for tacking. Just setup a video of the front end of your machine while you do it and see how high the pedal went for your result.

Can probably narrow down your amps within 5 tacks and lower if needed to get more pedal control back.


Also with the 6061 video isn't that actually a thing though or am I crazy? Pretty sure I remember a article in the past about NASA and friction stir welding.

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Toggatug wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 8:24 pm Also with the 6061 video isn't that actually a thing though or am I crazy? Pretty sure I remember a article in the past about NASA and friction stir welding.

Friction-stir welding is quite different in that it takes what looks like a weirdly shaped milling cutter and by force jams it into the base metals and then just mushes it all up making a joint solid while sometimes adding an intert gas shielding (depends on the material, esp. titanium)

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No arc used in this process.

In this case 6061 is using TIG, but basically lightly/quickly dipping his tungsten in-between the 2 puddles on purpose to make them bridge the gap. By doing it quickly and lightly enough it's possible to do it with little to no contamination on the tungsten.

LIke mentioned above he's basically breaking the surface tension of the alu puddles.

Probably not something for beginner welders and likely frowned on for code welds as it carries the risk of metal inclusion if bits of tungsten break off at that moment.

Stomping on the pedal and quickly dabbing a tiny bit of filler between the puddles works too and is the common method as Jody has demonstrated often enough.

Still.. It's fun to see that it can be done differently..

Bye, Arno.

Arno wrote:

Toggatug wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 8:24 pm Also with the 6061 video isn't that actually a thing though or am I crazy? Pretty sure I remember a article in the past about NASA and friction stir welding.

Friction-stir welding is quite different in that it takes what looks like a weirdly shaped milling cutter and by force jams it into the base metals and then just mushes it all up making a joint solid while sometimes adding an intert gas shielding (depends on the material, esp. titanium)

VFBAAJJRhO4

No arc used in this process.

In this case 6061 is using TIG, but basically lightly/quickly dipping his tungsten in-between the 2 puddles on purpose to make them bridge the gap. By doing it quickly and lightly enough it's possible to do it with little to no contamination on the tungsten.

LIke mentioned above he's basically breaking the surface tension of the alu puddles.

Probably not something for beginner welders and likely frowned on for code welds as it carries the risk of metal inclusion if bits of tungsten break off at that moment.

Stomping on the pedal and quickly dabbing a tiny bit of filler between the puddles works too and is the common method as Jody has demonstrated often enough.

Still.. It's fun to see that it can be done differently..

Bye, Arno.

Well then, my wild guess on what friction stir welding base off a article headline was way off. So Im now going to guess it's fused together due to the shear amount of heat the friction creates while it's being "stirred"

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Hehehe, yes, like Oscar and others said, here's the secret to tack welds, set the machine to max and stomp that pedal for a second, if it's too thin, just hold off a touch from flooring it totally, if you try to creep up on it 9/10 times it'll inevitably start to all melt away from each other just leaving you a big gap you now need to try to tack up. With aluminum you want to blast that heat and puddle it immediately,

What I do is start a puddle on either side of an outside joint, throw in some filler metal for some meat so you don't burn through. Now you can high amp romp on the peddle with your tungsten pointed at the non-fussed edge using the arcs force to push and fuse the filler to that edge. You now have a tack that didn't burn through. Also if your aluminum has dust, oil, bug poo anything on it wont want to fuse correctly.