Thought I would share this with the forum. I am new to tig and have been practicing daily. From the very beginning I had problems with oxidation while welding aluminum. I would have to turn the argon up to twenty five or thirty to get the weld to behave. Lately it was getting worse. I checked everything with soapy water and could not find any leaks. I ordered a flow tester for my torch but it hadn't come yet. Not wanting to wait I decided to try strapping a balloon onto the end of the torch and sealing it with a rubber band. I then turned the after flow up to 30 seconds and operated the pedal. It immediately became clear I had a leak. The balloon would barely inflate unless I put the flow up to thirty or so. Once I brought it down to twenty the balloon would shrink quickly. Turns out the plastic valve body on my gas solenoid was cracked on the outflow side. I am running a Lincoln Square Wave 355. Anyway I made a temporary repair to stop the leak and tested it with the balloon again. Now the balloon will inflate at even the lowest settings and will stay inflated. I tried a few welds with it at fifteen and it was amazing how much better it worked. Now I just need to find another valve for my machine.
- Otto Nobedder
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Joined:Thu Jan 06, 2011 11:40 pm
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Location:Near New Orleans
That's good thinking, and an idea I'll keep for future use. Thanks for sharing!
Steve S
Steve S
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Location:Melbourne, Australia
Doneinone, great idea, thanks for the tip. And think of the money you're now saving in Argon costs!
Trev
Trev
EWM Phonenix 355 Pulse MIG set mainly for Aluminum, CIGWeld 300Amp AC/DC TIG, TRANSMIG S3C 300 Amp MIG, etc, etc