TIG welding first attempt..

On heavier aluminum it helps to preheat the part. Be careful of over heating the part of you may have a molten pile of metal . Repair looks good.
 
In retrospect, I did preheat the part in a weird sort of way. The puddle wasn't forming so I let the plasma torch heat up the work for a while. I really
didn't think about it much but by the time I got to welding, I had to handle the cover with gloves. Next time I try some thick aluminum, I will set
the amperes to 180 or more and use the foot pedal instead of the 2T trigger. The Everlast manual is pretty basic so having to learn the hard way...:)
I can see where welding on thinner new and clean material would be easier to do so looking forward to that.
 
This guy has some great videos on all types of welding, including how to TIG weld aluminum.

www.youtube.com

weldingtipsandtricks

Clear Arc Shots and Plain Talk to help you Pass a Test, Fix Stuff, Build Stuff, Get a Raise, Build a Better Life. Disclaimer: These videos are intended for e...
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Ted
 
As others have said cleanliness is super important in aluminum welding. Aluminum is kind of porous compared to other metals so it will tend to have deep contamination when a part has had contact with oil or similar chemicals. Small parts may benefit from soaking in acetone in addition to grinding/brushing off surface contaminants.

Also as @Liljoebrshooter said some alloys are just not very good for welding, and some can't be successfully welded at all.

As far as tungsten choice, they say you can use lanthanated for AC welding but I never have good luck with it. I always get the best and most consistent performance from pure tungsten for AC. Again like was said before, aluminum takes a lot of amperage so you may consider going up to 1/8" tungsten.
 
I also don't remember you saying what you had your balance control set at??? Maybe you did and I missed it. 30% positive and 70% negative is a good place to start. You want good cleaning action without burning your tungsten up. You said in your first post that the tungsten burned away, which might indicate the setting was way off and you were actually just "balling" you tungsten and it burned way back too far. If you don't know what I mean, check YouTube for "balling your tungsten". It's a practice where you intentionally burn the end of your tungsten back to form a sphere (ball) on the end of it. This is an old practice and most say not necessary with modern TIG welders. But, you need to have your balance set correctly to get good welds in aluminum (not used for other metals).

Ted
 
It looks like it worked very well, so I would be happy with it.
 
Technical Ted said:
I also don't remember you saying what you had your balance control set at??? Maybe you did and I missed it. 30% positive and 70% negative is a good place to start. You want good cleaning action without burning your tungsten up. You said in your first post that the tungsten burned away, which might indicate the setting was way off and you were actually just "balling" you tungsten and it burned way back too far. If you don't know what I mean, check YouTube for "balling your tungsten". It's a practice where you intentionally burn the end of your tungsten back to form a sphere (ball) on the end of it. This is an old practice and most say not necessary with modern TIG welders. But, you need to have your balance set correctly to get good welds in aluminum (not used for other metals).

Ted
Click to expand...
Yes, Ted I know about balance but it was not clear as far as how to set the welder up properly for 30/70. The main difficulty I have is
with the instructions and how to apply them. I need to learn how to set the balance with this machine.
 
Some of the new machines have soooo many adjustments. They give you so much control that it's kind of overwhelming.
 
We have a piece of bus-bar copper for "balling the tungsten" and always use pure for aluminum.
 
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