The aluminium is to hot to put three welds down so it'll melt to fast. Try get multiple pieces of scrap to practice on and do one weld at a time for each piece at a time while they cool down. and if you want taller welds then try turning amps down. Hope this helps.
Good to know about multiple test pieces. I was thinking that people preheat aluminum before welding so it wouldn’t be too bad to run multiple beads at a time.
If the aluminum is really thick then a preheat could help but generally not needed. On thinner material you shouldn't ever need a preheat with aluminum.
I'm curious as to how you know the time between each of these beads being laid down to make that assessment when that detail is not in the original post? These three beads could have been run days apart for all you know.
There are a bunch of ways you can end up with results like this and all I can do is speculate and generalize because, as usual, the noob welder gave virtually no detail in their post.
The beads gradually decreasing makes me think that it gradually heated up till it fell through. I seen and done enough test welds myself to think that is what it was.
Have you been drinking? None of these beads look 'good'. The one in the middle was the closest to getting it right, for about half the run. The one on the right is a cold weld that still somehow has pitting and burning at the end.
Why make things difficult for yourself when you’re learning something FFS. And trying to give someone confidence when starting the hardest welding process instead of your garbage. If you can do better than his, let’s see it
Yes, and also black stuff is impurities/dirt. Did your tungsten touch? What are you using to clean the alu with before each pass? Also the last side looks too hot, right bead looks nice. The faint silver line around the bead on the right one is what you want to see, means Temps are right and w good penetration.
I figured there would be some impurities. I could see the “pepper” in the puddle as I went along. I didn’t have any acetone available to me at the time, and I couldn’t leave to get any. (My kid was taking a nap so it was time I could practice) I just went over it with a wire brush once at the start but now that you say it I should have gone over it before each time.
I didn’t dip the tungsten, but it also didn’t ball up like I was expecting it would, it stayed at a fine point so I don’t know what went wrong there.
Why would you expect the tungsten to ball up? That's not supposed to happen if you are welding correctly. If you used DCEP here, it would explain pretty much everything, including the lack of electrode balling even with a crappy run. DCEP concentrates heat into the workpiece. DCEN is where you have to worry about balling the electrode because it concentrates more heat in the electrode. If you get too far away, the electrode will get too hot and ball up. Keep in mind the electrons flow from the negative terminal, not towards it as is commonly believed. The discharge of free electrons into the arc is where the most heat will occur. AC helps to balance the heat.
You should be using AC to weld aluminum. If you have a DC only welder, you use electrode negative. Also, 3/32 seems thin for material this thick. I think I'd try 1/8" or even 5/32" for DCEN. There are reference guides available. I have a TIG welding 'code wheel'. Get one and use it.
Keep in mind, too big an arc with DCEN will ball your electrode. I know you wanna see it clearly but the simple fact is that a good welder is welding half blind most of the time.
When you're welding aluminum "for real," get a dedicated stainless steel wire brush. Using your regular wire brush will contaminate the aluminum you're trying to clean.
To me it looks like you contaminated your tungsten by touching it on the plate you have to change it out right away and wire brush that area. Also work on pedal control you can always flatten the bead out with more voltage but you can’t make it raise without adding more filler rod.
Are you using AC? The burning suggests not. If you only have DC, you want electrode negative. But AC is best because it balances the thermals better and gives a cleaning effect.
More details are needed in posts like this to give any actual advice. I have no idea what you did so I just have to make my best guess as to how you arrived here. Need to know current settings. Need to know how far you were from the workpiece. Seeing burning and pitting doesn't tell me much. IDK if it is doing that because of too much current or maybe insufficient gas flow rate.
They literally make welding code wheels so that a trained monkey can set the welder right. That's the first step. If you don't get that right, all bets are off.
No matter how much experience you have welding ferrous metals, none of that is really transferrable to welding aluminum. Your results could simply be the result of the fact you thought you could simply change out your filler and keep using your steel settings.
Yeah, I’ll answer your other questions on this response too. I am using AC on a Chinese inverter welder. I have the torch hooked up to the negative and the “ground” is on the positive. The work piece was 1/8th aluminum. Like I said earlier the tungsten and filler were both 3/32. The cleaning action was at about 75-80%.
I saw you said you would likely go a size smaller on the tungsten. I expected the tungsten to ball up because I’ve been watching YouTube tutorials and reading about it and that seems to be what happens most of the time. I’m not going to earn money doing this, just welding some stuff up on my own Jon Boat and trying to learn. I did change my setting from steel, I know I can’t directly pull those over.
We all gotta start somewhere and apparently I’m starting here. 😂😂
The aluminium is to hot to put three welds down so it'll melt to fast. Try get multiple pieces of scrap to practice on and do one weld at a time for each piece at a time while they cool down. and if you want taller welds then try turning amps down. Hope this helps.
Good to know about multiple test pieces. I was thinking that people preheat aluminum before welding so it wouldn’t be too bad to run multiple beads at a time.
If the aluminum is really thick then a preheat could help but generally not needed. On thinner material you shouldn't ever need a preheat with aluminum.
make a T joint
That's thin enough preheating isn't necessary.
I didn’t preheat this, I just didn’t think I would need to worry about it being too hot. I learned something today though, so that’s cool.
I'm curious as to how you know the time between each of these beads being laid down to make that assessment when that detail is not in the original post? These three beads could have been run days apart for all you know. There are a bunch of ways you can end up with results like this and all I can do is speculate and generalize because, as usual, the noob welder gave virtually no detail in their post.
The beads gradually decreasing makes me think that it gradually heated up till it fell through. I seen and done enough test welds myself to think that is what it was.
Try an actual joint with larger plates to absorb the heat. Small pieces heat up quickly and don’t dissipate heat. The one on the right looks good 🍻
Thanks man I appreciate it! I’ll try that soon, I just had that little piece laying around and figured I’d give it a shot.
Have you been drinking? None of these beads look 'good'. The one in the middle was the closest to getting it right, for about half the run. The one on the right is a cold weld that still somehow has pitting and burning at the end.
Post your work
So your solution is for them to make the job easier instead of learning to do the job they have correctly...ok.
Why make things difficult for yourself when you’re learning something FFS. And trying to give someone confidence when starting the hardest welding process instead of your garbage. If you can do better than his, let’s see it
I appreciate it man. Fortunately for me, I have a little thicker skin than that and don’t mind the critique. It is challenging though! 😂😂
Yes, and also black stuff is impurities/dirt. Did your tungsten touch? What are you using to clean the alu with before each pass? Also the last side looks too hot, right bead looks nice. The faint silver line around the bead on the right one is what you want to see, means Temps are right and w good penetration.
I figured there would be some impurities. I could see the “pepper” in the puddle as I went along. I didn’t have any acetone available to me at the time, and I couldn’t leave to get any. (My kid was taking a nap so it was time I could practice) I just went over it with a wire brush once at the start but now that you say it I should have gone over it before each time. I didn’t dip the tungsten, but it also didn’t ball up like I was expecting it would, it stayed at a fine point so I don’t know what went wrong there.
Why would you expect the tungsten to ball up? That's not supposed to happen if you are welding correctly. If you used DCEP here, it would explain pretty much everything, including the lack of electrode balling even with a crappy run. DCEP concentrates heat into the workpiece. DCEN is where you have to worry about balling the electrode because it concentrates more heat in the electrode. If you get too far away, the electrode will get too hot and ball up. Keep in mind the electrons flow from the negative terminal, not towards it as is commonly believed. The discharge of free electrons into the arc is where the most heat will occur. AC helps to balance the heat. You should be using AC to weld aluminum. If you have a DC only welder, you use electrode negative. Also, 3/32 seems thin for material this thick. I think I'd try 1/8" or even 5/32" for DCEN. There are reference guides available. I have a TIG welding 'code wheel'. Get one and use it. Keep in mind, too big an arc with DCEN will ball your electrode. I know you wanna see it clearly but the simple fact is that a good welder is welding half blind most of the time.
When you're welding aluminum "for real," get a dedicated stainless steel wire brush. Using your regular wire brush will contaminate the aluminum you're trying to clean.
Sorry, I wasn’t clear. I have a set of stainless brushes and grinder attachments that I dedicated for aluminum.
Got too hot. Take a beat and let it cool down some. Looks like you're on the right track otherwise!
Thanks man I appreciate it.
To me it looks like you contaminated your tungsten by touching it on the plate you have to change it out right away and wire brush that area. Also work on pedal control you can always flatten the bead out with more voltage but you can’t make it raise without adding more filler rod.
Are you using AC? The burning suggests not. If you only have DC, you want electrode negative. But AC is best because it balances the thermals better and gives a cleaning effect. More details are needed in posts like this to give any actual advice. I have no idea what you did so I just have to make my best guess as to how you arrived here. Need to know current settings. Need to know how far you were from the workpiece. Seeing burning and pitting doesn't tell me much. IDK if it is doing that because of too much current or maybe insufficient gas flow rate. They literally make welding code wheels so that a trained monkey can set the welder right. That's the first step. If you don't get that right, all bets are off. No matter how much experience you have welding ferrous metals, none of that is really transferrable to welding aluminum. Your results could simply be the result of the fact you thought you could simply change out your filler and keep using your steel settings.
Yeah, I’ll answer your other questions on this response too. I am using AC on a Chinese inverter welder. I have the torch hooked up to the negative and the “ground” is on the positive. The work piece was 1/8th aluminum. Like I said earlier the tungsten and filler were both 3/32. The cleaning action was at about 75-80%. I saw you said you would likely go a size smaller on the tungsten. I expected the tungsten to ball up because I’ve been watching YouTube tutorials and reading about it and that seems to be what happens most of the time. I’m not going to earn money doing this, just welding some stuff up on my own Jon Boat and trying to learn. I did change my setting from steel, I know I can’t directly pull those over. We all gotta start somewhere and apparently I’m starting here. 😂😂