TIG Complications

[lorenzo]

The other day at work I had to TIG up some roller drums, the drum skin, the end plates and the baffle were 16 ga. and the axle tube was 2.375 OD and a 1.875 ID. I cleaned and preped all the materials welded it up.

I'd like to add that the job sucked and I'm glad it is done.

Any way...... my question is this... after I was done I used a new flap disc ground and radiused the edges, I found a few spots I wanted to touch up and when I went to weld them the area seemed to bubble up like a casting and as I brought the wire in to the arc zone the end of the wire would ball up. I couldn't get the puddle to wet up. It was very strange, I've never experienced this before.

So EXPERTS..... what was I experiencing?

[Doolittle]

Sounds like something from the flap disk contaminated your metal.. Sorta like those problems I was having on that thick aluminum a while back.. But of course, Im no expert..

[zapster]

Originally Posted by lorenzo

The other day at work I had to TIG up some roller drums, the drum skin, the end plates and the baffle were 16 ga. and the axle tube was 2.375 OD and a 1.875 ID. I cleaned and preped all the materials welded it up.

I'd like to add that the job sucked and I'm glad it is done.

Any way...... my question is this... after I was done I used a new flap disc ground and radiused the edges, I found a few spots I wanted to touch up and when I went to weld them the area seemed to bubble up like a casting and as I brought the wire in to the arc zone the end of the wire would ball up. I couldn't get the puddle to wet up. It was very strange, I've never experienced this before.

So EXPERTS..... what was I experiencing?

Was it acting like someone was turning off your gas here and there..?
Starts percolating..sparking...making a mess out on the tungestion that you just painstakenly ground??

I get that all the time when i'm building up shafts that the bearing was spinning on and tearing it up..


I put it down as "funk in the junk" your trying to build up..

It did it to me this morning in one place.. see "More precision with a tig" thread..
But I never thought to take a pic of it when it happens..
So next time i will..

...zap!

[lorenzo]

Originally Posted by zapster

Was it acting like someone was turning off your gas here and there..?
Starts percolating..sparking...making a mess out on the tungestion that you just painstakenly ground??

I get that all the time when i'm building up shafts that the bearing was spinning on and tearing it up..


I put it down as "funk in the junk" your trying to build up..

It did it to me this morning in one place.. see "More precision with a tig" thread..
But I never thought to take a pic of it when it happens..
So next time i will..

...zap!

Very strange.... all the material was new, clean.... it should have welded up pretty slick. It really made for a much harder time than needed to be.

[zapster]

Sometimes even that the steel is "new"..
Ground up pieces of Toyotas find their way into the "mix"..

And thats enough to screw up anything..

In all reality..
I've turned brand "new" tubing in my lathe and every once in a while..ping!
There goes my toolbit..

Find the break spot and get out the pointy chisel and hammer to get under "something" in the metal thats very hard..

Imported steel is notorious for having trash in it..

But not the stuff from Canada..

...zap!

[lorenzo]

I forgot to mention that it was aluminum.........

[zapster]

Originally Posted by lorenzo

I forgot to mention that it was aluminum.........

Hmmmm
I doubt a flapper wheel would cause such a mess..

Interesting indeed!

The only thing it could be is contamination..
But from where?..


...zap!

[lorenzo]

I even switched back to pure tungsten...... This also didn't happen it only one spot. You know how a magnet reacts if you try to put them together at the wrong ends... one wobbles all over the plcae right? The arc was just like that .... all over the place. I actually blew the ball right off the tungsten at one point. I just smoothed it all out and called it good. This job was a mess!!!

[zapster]

Hmmmph..

Beats me..
And I thought I'd seen it all..

the only time something happend like that was the stainless with the ooops! aluminum filler I as telling you about last week..


...zap!

[weldingman24]

Originally Posted by zapster

Hmmmph..

Beats me..
And I thought I'd seen it all..

the only time something happend like that was the stainless with the ooops! aluminum filler I as telling you about last week..


...zap!

done that but the other way around

[zapster]

Originally Posted by weldingman24

done that but the other way around

We all make mistakes..

...zap!

[lorenzo]

Originally Posted by zapster

the only time something happend like that was the stainless with the ooops! aluminum filler I as telling you about last week..
...zap!

Don't worry........... I tried that too

[zapster]

Originally Posted by lorenzo

Don't worry........... I tried that too

Glad I'm not the only one..

...zap!

[Kalroy]

Double check your high freq. We had this problem on a drag chute stand and couldn't isolate it because we were using a loud mo-gas miller portable (on a trailer) and couldn't hear the sound of the points, and there was just enough high freq to fool us at the torch. Pitted, and improperly gapped points. New points fixed the problem for us.

Kalroy

[MicroZone]

I've almost done that, grabbed the 5356, instead of the 309L. Now I have them seperated in a duadrant container.

[David R]

Lorenzo, was your flap disk aluminum oxide? Since you had a new one, maybe you grabbed the wrong one. I have done that.

David

[weldrwomn]

Without really being able to get a good mental pic of what the weldment is, I would ask if there was a hollow area under the weld (Like welding the ends of a tube or something) where pressure could build up and try to escape through your molten puddle? I used to have to cap off holes that machinists would drill by mistake and that would happen all the time....I used to get so mad