Welding Tips and Tricks

I tried the aluminum drill that jody had posted on the site. only I am not sure if my issues were due to my machine not being and inverter type


his settings were
amps 130-150
balance 65%-70%
Frequency 100-120hz (i don't have this setting)
Electrode 3/32 slight taper
Argon 11-15 cfh
Cup #5 gas lens

my settings that worked
amps 80 with arc start switch 130 with foot pedal at 60%
Balance 60-70%
Electrode started with taper but balled up to a stub in 2 seconds
Cup #6 no lens

Nothing i could do to narrow the puddle as the ball had it spread pretty wide. But the puddle was a mirror. the first passes at the top of the plate melted the edge right off with A.S.S. and 4T. after 3 passes I went to 80 amps and A.S.S. 4T. I could actually build a bead but then when i finished it was pretty flat and wide with a crack right down the middle. so fed up I eliminated the A.S.S. and my Pulser unit from the equation, the unit was disabled though, and went straight foot pedal. Now i didn't get a stack of dimes per say more like a stack of mixed change but that was mostly due to hand positioning, and getting a rhythm. My lap and T joints were very similar to each other. Reverse keyholed. top corner of shoulder and bottom of the puddle moved far forward from the inside corner and would only be filled by using a lot of filler rod and the puddles were very wide.

Very few structural applications with aluminum welding would call for a narrow puddle. I have welded aluminum with a transformer machine for over 25 years and I rarely ever use any setting much outside of "balanced" on the AC balance setting, at least with our every day type alloys. I typically overcome other differences with amperage and travel speed adjustments and electrode sizes. I use pure tungsten on everything from the 4xxx to 6xxx series of aluminum and cast as well which is the mystery meat of the aluminum welding industry.

When using a transformer machine, start out by the old book. Look for what you consider to be shortfalls after that and adjust accordingly. 9 out of 10 times, you will find you can get by with the proven methods for the most part and everything else becomes over thought.