When To Change Argon Cylinder?

[bplayer405]

Another thing I forgot to mention is adjusting your frequency up to between 100 and 150 htz. This gives you a more focused arc and will narrow your puddle and bead.

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[HRTKD]

Another thing I forgot to mention is adjusting your frequency up to between 100 and 150 htz. This gives you a more focused arc and will narrow your puddle and bead.

I was playing with that a little bit yesterday. I think because of my issues, I wasn't getting the expected results. With things hopefully back to normal I would like to try it again.

[BillE.Dee]

also, the tilt on the torch should be little from 90*. YOu want to just peak at the tungsten. Just seems to me that in one of the pictures of the welds there is loss of gas coverage. Keep practicing.

[G-ManBart]

Another thing I forgot to mention is adjusting your frequency up to between 100 and 150 htz. This gives you a more focused arc and will narrow your puddle and bead.

To clarify, increasing the frequency reduces the heat input a bit, which will make things worse if he doesn't increase maximum amps.

[HRTKD]

To clarify, increasing the frequency reduces the heat input a bit, which will make things worse if he doesn't increase maximum amps.

That's the relationship I was trying to figure out Saturday. Somewhere there is probably a mathematical formula that explains that. Nothing was working right Saturday. Sunday, much better results, but not enough Argon in the tank to experiment with.

[SweetMK]

I was reading the owners manual to a welder I am considering buying.
The manual started off by saying ONLY TIG weld with argon,, no mixes,,, PERIOD.

For a couple paragraphs the manual went on describing many ways that contaminated argon tanks are obtained.

If a filler does not properly purge a 75%- 25% tank,, the residual CO2 can contaminate the tank of argon.
then,, the manual went on,, and on,, and on,,,,, about contaminated argon,, and other strange mixes.

The manual even said it would be cheaper to buy a larger welder, than consider welding with helium, as helium is so expensive,,
PM me if you want to know where I found the manual with this info,,,

[vwguy3]

My .02 is get equipment info from the company that makes/sells equipment. Get gas info from a gas supplier.
Yes, I am aware that opinions of some gas sales people are not the best, but like in welding, you have good weldors, you have amazing weldors and you have weldors that cannot chew gum and walk at the same time. The same thing happens in the gas industry.

[HRTKD]

Another day of practice. Beads are coming out decent. I made it through two filler rods without trashing the tungsten. That's real progress for me. When I shut down, I looked over all my equipment a lot more carefully and noticed that the copper braid on my ground clamp looks like it got too hot. My welding table that I attach the clamp to is 3/4" plate steel. I don't have any braid but I do have 2/0 welding cable and ring terminals that I might be able to fit in there.

[Oscar]

Another day of practice. Beads are coming out decent. I made it through two filler rods without trashing the tungsten. That's real progress for me. When I shut down, I looked over all my equipment a lot more carefully and noticed that the copper braid on my ground clamp looks like it got too hot. My welding table that I attach the clamp to is 3/4" plate steel. I don't have any braid but I do have 2/0 welding cable and ring terminals that I might be able to fit in there.

Home Depot has Lincoln brand work clamps with all copper parts, including nut/bolt for about $7. I'd be willing to to bet it would be 1000% better than that basic clamp, and might even work better overall for the whole system.

[albrightree]

Best practice when welding aluminum is to attach Work/ground clamp to the aluminum itself. If you are using the table itself as the ground path for the aluminum, you may find pitting and arcing marks on the back of your work. If you're trying to make something pretty out of aluminum, you might not appreciate the pockmarks/craters. The same could be said for stainless, to a lesser extent mild steel.

good luck

PS. - You might ry to get the copper parts of the clamp in contact with the work, it looks like the nose of that clamp is steel. Putting lots of amps through that before the copper might cause it to run hotter.

[HRTKD]

Thanks for the suggestions. Next practice session I'll try connecting the ground to the aluminum and see what happens. I'll check out the clamps at HD next time I'm there.

[cornchip]

i can tell right now you put the cart before the horse. aluminum is tempramental and hard to weld if you dont know what your doing. spend a while welding steel until you understand the basics. youll only slow your progress by continuing with aluminum, without first understanding the basics

[Kelvin]

If you have an O/A rig, you could melt some copper (solid electrical wire conductor would work) onto the steel contact points of your work clamp...or even braze a couple of pre-1980 pennies to the contact points...

[G-ManBart]

Thanks for the suggestions. Next practice session I'll try connecting the ground to the aluminum and see what happens. I'll check out the clamps at HD next time I'm there.

Harbor freight has a really nice 400A work clamp that runs about $15....seems just as nice as the Tweco it copies for a lot less.

For some work I use a cheap machinist's vise to hold the work. I welded a tab on it for the work clamp so it's a solid connection. At times that seems to work better than clamping directly to the work...just an option to consider.

[bplayer405]

I needed to upgrade the work clamp on my Weldpro tig machine. I could barely get the thing to open 3/4" wide. Found one at Blain's Farm and Fleet from KT Industries for just over $10. Opens the widest on any I've tried out so far and would fit over 2" exhaust fairly easily. So far it's working well.

By the way, I'm down to around 125 psi on a 42cf tank and my machine was still welding fine. I was at least able to complete my project last night.

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[seagiant]

Hi,
Good thread, I'm in the same boat as the OP, except most of my problems are probably me.

I first learned to stick weld, then went to MIG.

Finally saw a good deal on a Thermal Arc 185 TIG and bought that.

Big difference, to me!

A lot more things to learn about, machine settings, grinding the Tungsten, ect., ect.

Things, experienced Tig Welders, probably don't even think about, but new info for the beginner.

I am today, going to go refill my Argon tank, and now that I am retired, try to fiqure this, TIG out.

Seems a very good skill to have, and worth the time to learn!

[cornchip]

theres alot of variables tig welding steel but even more so with aluminum. a new guy can chase his tail for a long time with hardly any progress

[HRTKD]

theres alot of variables tig welding steel but even more so with aluminum. a new guy can chase his tail for a long time with hardly any progress

Just because something is difficult, doesn't mean I'm not going to try it. I'm making progress and learning a lot at the same time.

[shovelon]

Just because something is difficult, doesn't mean I'm not going to try it. I'm making progress and learning a lot at the same time.

You are not alone. I teach newcomers alum first. Easier to see, and easier to discover problems and sort them out. Like your pepper flakes.

I see right off that your standard collet body and cup don't work well with alum. Turbulent air fouled gas flow recontaminates the surface of alum that the cleaning action of reverse polarity lifts contaminants off. A switch to a gas lens solved that same problem problem for me. Steel with that cup and collet body is not so much of a problem so newbies plod along thinking all is well. Then when graduating to alum the world crashes in on them. Sort out your problems now and the gains transfer right over to steel. Not so the other way. I have a saying the steel is easy to learn, but hard to master. Alum is hard to learn but easy to master. Any one of my graduates feel alum is easier to weld.

[HRTKD]

You are not alone. I teach newcomers alum first. Easier to see, and easier to discover problems and sort them out. Like your pepper flakes.

I see right off that your standard collet body and cup don't work well with alum. Turbulent air fouled gas flow recontaminates the surface of alum that the cleaning action of reverse polarity lifts contaminants off. A switch to a gas lens solved that same problem problem for me. Steel with that cup and collet body is not so much of a problem so newbies plod along thinking all is well. Then when graduating to alum the world crashes in on them. Sort out your problems now and the gains transfer right over to steel. Not so the other way. I have a saying the steel is easy to learn, but hard to master. Alum is hard to learn but easy to master. Any one of my graduates feel alum is easier to weld.

So what you're saying is that once I have aluminum figured out, everything else is gravy? I like that!

In the picture you provided, I take it that the gas lens is on the left? What's a good source for gas lenses? Given my track record with the collet/collet body, I need to have a replacement gas lens waiting.

[Oscar]

So what you're saying is that once I have aluminum figured out, everything else is gravy? I like that!

In the picture you provided, I take it that the gas lens is on the left? What's a good source for gas lenses? Given my track record with the collet/collet body, I need to have a replacement gas lens waiting.

Only if you are cognizant of real world physical characteristics of steel. Really I think of it like, the same good practices and habits you need to do to learn/master aluminum, reap the same rewards when welding steels.

[shovelon]

So what you're saying is that once I have aluminum figured out, everything else is gravy? I like that!

In the picture you provided, I take it that the gas lens is on the left? What's a good source for gas lenses? Given my track record with the collet/collet body, I need to have a replacement gas lens waiting.

I have a saying. "Alum tig is hard to learn but easy to master. Steel tig is easy to learn but hard to master". Kind of like learning to drive a car. Many a driver can never make the switch to a manual transmission and give up in short order. But if you learn to drive on a stick, you know how to drive most anything.

[cornchip]

Just because something is difficult, doesn't mean I'm not going to try it. I'm making progress and learning a lot at the same time.

i didnt say give up or dont try it. but you dont even know the very basics of welding yet, or so it sounds. learn to walk before you try to run. aluminum is difficult if your not sure what your doing ,as i said before, as many variables can be a bit off and cause trouble. if you dont yet have the knowledge to identify the cause of the problem then how can you correct it.
your thought of a low argon bottle making bad weld was probly a small breeze going through the garage instead. steel is more forgiving and has less variables to be concearned with. its like this, if you want to learn to drive, you wouldnt get in a 50' long tractor trailer with 18spd transmission. no you would want toyota corrola with auto trans. but do as you wish

[shovelon]

i didnt say give up or dont try it. but you dont even know the very basics of welding yet, or so it sounds. learn to walk before you try to run. aluminum is difficult if your not sure what your doing ,as i said before, as many variables can be a bit off and cause trouble. if you dont yet have the knowledge to identify the cause of the problem then how can you correct it.
your thought of a low argon bottle making bad weld was probly a small breeze going through the garage instead. steel is more forgiving and has less variables to be concearned with. its like this, if you want to learn to drive, you wouldnt get in a 50' long tractor trailer with 18spd transmission. no you would want toyota corrola with auto trans. but do as you wish

That is the mindset of many schools. Steel historically has been cheap and the student has go navigate a gauntlet of processes before they are allowed to weld tig. So with the abundance of steel to pick off the floor steel it is. That was the way it was in my weld lab in college. Not that I did not learn anything but I spent a semester in oxy/acet then a year in a stick arc booth just to get to tig. I told the instructor that I had a job offer if I could tig alum and he put me in his booth next to his office. 2 weeks later I was welding thinwall alum tube. Key was getting real time instruction with both instructor and student behind the lens at the same time. With the abundance of knowledge on this forum there is no reason not to start with alum.

[HRTKD]

Making progress on laying beads on flat material. It isn't perfect, but it's way better than I was seeing a couple weeks ago. I filled in some holes and that worked better than I expected. I have a bunch of welding coupon material coming this week. I need to progress to welding joints.

A couple changes that I made that are positive.
1. Removed the protective layer on the 3/4" steel that I'm using for my welding table. Top, joined sides and the bottom where the ground clamp attaches.
2. New ground clamp from US Forge. It's better, but the OEM cable is kind of wimpy. I'm trying to figure out if I can simply replace the cable (maybe 8 awg at best) with thicker cable or if I need to replace the dinse connector also.
3. Used the gas flow meter at the torch to adjust the Argon flow. I had to increase the flow to get to ~14 CFH.