Lightningmcnulty

Some of you may remember that a while ago on the 'lobster bends' thread I threatened to buy a tig welder and have a go at welding aluminum.

Well I ordered it on thursday and this is what arrived yesterday

Lightningmcnulty

So I joined the youtube university and heres what I did with it

First weld



second




third





first time welding 2 things together





Now I know that i'm not going to be getting any calls for emergency food or structural grade welding but bear in mind that I have only used a tig welder once in my life and that was having a go for 5 minutes about 10 years ago, also this is with the cheapest welder I could find running on 110v!!!! So I'm quite proud of it

I know some of you guys out there will be able to give me advice on what i need to change but I think with practise I can get ok with this

Van

Congrats! I'm jealous!

refresh951

Nice!

Paulyy

Is that a water-cooled handle? looks like 2 black hoses going to it?

The welds look exactly like mine did when i first started. Do you have pulse? that helps with aluminium. It'll pulse high amps and it'll melt the filler wire, then it'll pulse low amps which dries it up. if that makes sense.

If the aluminium goes black it means its dirty, which is no good to weld with dirty metal. When its white it means it's clean.

Best thing to do is play around with tip sizes thick and thin and nozzle sizes.

admiralkhole

Are you making oscillations with the torch? Try walking the torch in a straight line and dipping the rod in a constant rhythm. Also when you first start your puddle, make sure it is thoroughly wetted in and maintain constant penetration. I see some cold lapping which means you're not going in hot enough, but if you go in too hot you'll see melted aluminum on the back, which you do not want. Keep on at it! Aluminum is a little tricky at first. If you have any questions feel free to ask!

mclarenno9

Nice rig man, have fun with it. Soon you'll be looking around for things to repair and excuses to build random parts!

Lightningmcnulty

Thanks guys

I just had another go at that same joint and its way better

It has what they (eastwood) call a clearance effect dial which I gather is to alter the frequency, it goes from -5 to +5 at the moment its set to -1 per the recommended settings from the machine for this thickness i'm not sure which way is which though ha ha, I will play with it when I get a chance.

I will try walking the cup, I'm kinda worried about scooping up molten aluminum with it ha ha.

How can I spot the cold lapping so that I know what to avoid?

I'm nervous about melting through everything I need to get over it then I think it will improve

no water cooled handle just the plasma cutters pipes i think.

I'm really surprised by the machine, I'm sure that the pros out there would hate using it but for me in my garage its great, I can hardly believe it works for the money and its on 110v.


Thanks everyone

Kim

alxdgr8

I'll have to check in and see how it's doing in a few months, I've been thinking of picking up the same machine myself. Can't beat if for the price and warranty!

Lightningmcnulty

Cool, send me a pm and i'll let you know, The way I figure it I have a machine for at least 3 years even if it goes back a few times.

I believe they send you a call tag for warranty shipping so I don't think you even have to pay for that

Paulyy

I would comment on the machine if i could but i wont because i know i'll call anything that's cheap "crap" compared to mine.

Having said that i have a very small TIG that can do ARC that can literally fit in a desk draw. it does 130 amps on 240V but wont do aluminium (DC only). We bought that for home at the time we had our factories leased out and had no 3 phase power to run the Lincoln to do my exhaust. It did a good job!

But i always say "you cannot afford a cheap tool" (in the industry not really house hold/garage) meaning that a cheap tool will break and you'll have to buy another one where the expensive (better one) wont and last for ever

Dougs951

I really want a tig welder.

badcoupe

A few guys on one the other local boards have them and like them really well. Take your time and go slow and you'll be good at it in no-time. I first learned to tig when I was a engineer for visteon building some prototype coolers for C&R, once you get al down the rest is easy. stainless and chromoly are bit different as well but the principles remain. Get the fundamentals down. Look for vidoes by Ron Covell you may have to do some torrent searching but they are excellent.

admiralkhole

I meant move the torch in a straight line with no oscillations, no movement other than your direction of travel. Set your angle and distance from the work and move only in the direction you're going. It also helps to have a very narrow angle with your filler rod...about 15 degrees....almost parallel so you can just kind of tap it into the puddle and help not draw air in. Cold lap is when the edges of the bead don't fuse completely with the base material...like it overflows on to the work...it's basically because you're not wetting in enough, or completely fusing filler and base metals.

Start an arc on your work, hold the torch there until the aluminum melts and looks like a circle of liquid mercury, tap in your filler and stay moving in your direction of travel at a steady pace and dip your filler about every half second. Aluminum melts quick so keep your pace steady and brisk. I hope this helps...Let's see more pics as you progress!

Lightningmcnulty

I agree there is no such thing as a cheap tool, accept this. the reason I say that is because its literally a fifth the price of an equilivent miller model and has a three year warranty, I have to be onto my sixth and a minimum of 15 years in before I start loosing money!! now I know that the miller will always have a resale value that this won't, Just playing devils advocate!

Dougs, get one you'll love it, warm up the credit card ha ha

Oh I see what you mean, I will try it out tomorrow.

Here is one from this evening its a little more consistant but I think I still need it hotter



I need to practise feeding the filler metal with my hand, I cant do the thing where your automatically feed it through your fingers so I have to almost pause it get more filler material available

thanks

Kim