Anything welding

Had to explain this purchase to the wife before she saw it in the bank statement haha

 

Not good yet but definitely seeing some improvement on aluminum.

 

Picture?

 

Really happy with this Northern Tool table and fab hardware. Super easy to make a temporary jig for repeat positioning.

I’m making ten support brackets so I can mount a gutter to a dock roof. Metal roof panels just overhang the 1x2.75 tubing so gotta make something for the gutter hangers to attach to.

Everything cut and tacked together to test fit tomorrow. Then finish the welds, clean, paint, and install.

oh and whoever built this roof years ago didn’t put it on square. Overhang increased by nearly three inches across 28 feet length.

 

Interesting. Getting started playing with TIG is on my to do list this year so I’ve been look at electrode types.

This seems like a decent most-purpose option? Be curious how it turns out for you.

 

I actually got it on recommendation for aluminum from a really talented fabricator friend I have. I have seen a few people recommend this as a "most purpose" option.

 

Mig or tig?

 

Yes you have lanthinated there and good choice for higher amperage welding and pulse welding. Some guys use it for high and low amps. Ceriated works great too.
Sometimes you might find it a bit better on lower amperage welding.
Do not use green (pure tungsten) for alum. It’s obsolete.

 

More practice for consistent muscle memory to get the pattern even. Think small motions.

 

mig

 

Yeah, its better than it was, but you're right. If its anything like my handwriting, its never going to be pretty

 

These are the options I have for now. My friend recommended the red for steels and the pink for aluminum. I bought the purple based on some tutorials I watched and it worked well on the mild steel. I need to learn more about the differences but these have worked for me so far.

 

Hmm interesting your purple and pink do not indicate what they are alloyed with. I would not use it if the supplier can not tell you what it’s alloyed with or that’s a variable you cannot troubleshoot out of an issue should you have one. The red “thoriated” has been obsolete for years. Throw it away to save yourself frustrations.
It, along with pure (normally green), has a very high EV rating meaning it does not perform well on a number of levels (I won’t bore you with those details however can explain if you care to know more)
Many teaching institutions as well as companies in the know also will not allow for it to be used due to the fact the dust when dressing it on a stone is low-level radioactive.
I stopped using it with all my crews and instructions in ~2006.
Use the ceriated or lanthanated for both steel and aluminum. It’s all in your tip prep before you weld. Pointed with ~.010-.030 flattened tip for steel and when you switch to alum flatten the tip a little more say ~.060-.080 (of course this depends on the diameter of rod you are using to begin with) when you start welding the alum on AC the tip will ball-up on its own.
Also because you can use the one kind for both you have no switching back and forth of rods and no chance of mixing up the tungsten when swapping back and forth. All you have to do, if at all, is redress your tip and switch your polarity.
I have seen some of the most skilled welders not understanding the tungsten they are using and caused problems they couldn’t figure out.

 

Here are the specifications for the pink and purple tungsten. The pink came with a spec sheet in the package.

Pink



Purple

 

You have a leg up on most that can’t see. Don’t lose that, it’s the singularly most valuable asset any craftsman can have. What does spatter tell you?

 

So it appears to be alloyed with both lanthanated and ceriated. That’s great. I tend to stay away from those types for no other reason than in my neck of the woods they tend to be costlier.
Do yourself a favour and loose the red
Tungsten alloys all have amperage range they perform best in. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the range that the alloy and rod diameter is rated for. If you exceed that you’ll end up with grain growth in your rod which is a killer of rod. If you are using say a 3/32 rod at 250 amps, just throwing numbers out, you will significantly reduce the efficiency of your rod.
A good indicator of that is if you experience arc wander when starting up your arc. Kinda wonders everywhere except where you are pointing before finding “center”.
Your rod can look mint, using adaquate post flow, but if you’ve exceeded your range it’s toast inside and you’ll chase other issues.

 

Usually i associate spatter with not enough welding gas, either not enough flowing or probably more likely in this case, I had the gun too far from the weld. Probably need to get better positioned than I was so I can keep that in check.

 

Man, if anybody on this site wants to set a goal, run "Weldporn.com" search and look at the images page of your browser. Some guys just piss me off they are so good!

 

what pattern is that?

finished some welding this morning, nothing crazy.



I wish I didn’t make the tack in the middle so goddamn big.

 

Was attempting to do this that I had seen a couple weeks ago. I think I'll review it again before I go back out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ods6Jp7hEh0


I struggle with tacks, either I make them too small, or too big, or in the wrong spot. Experience helps with them I think.