Progress gallery

[araspitfire]

Yea, I guess it's hard to see in the pictures... My close-up image is centered on the box in your picture...

I'm at the point where I get these huge meltdowns when I run it at recommended current. I haven't figure out the 'cooling it down with filler' thing yet.

Must try harder....

Thanks for taking the time to help.

Al...

[c wagner]

You need some work on your consistency but that comes with experience. If you get a meltdown running at the recommended settings then you need to dip your filler a little quicker or just plain move a little faster if your fusing two pieces together. Aluminum is a tricky beast, you look like your doing pretty well for such limited experience.

[fun4now]

you can use your foot peddle to cool a little as well as filler till you get a better hang of it.
its all about smooth consistent heat, dip, move, repeat. the puddle will start to jell as you add cold filler to it, then move forward and do it again. aluminum takes a bit of filler too. more like a push then a dip. i like about 1/8-3/16" of filler then move and do it again. if you need to you can back off the peddle a tad (don't shut it down, just back off a tad) to help with the cooling. or you can use the pulse feature. many use the pulse to help with getting a consistent dab and move rhythm going. you might try that out a little see how you like it. for the most part its still all going to come down to putting in the torch time to get good, smooth, consistent beads.

don't be discouraged, you ARE off to a great start. trust me i have seen a lot worse form people with way more time in than you. so stick with it and soon it will be 2nd hand to ya.

[zondfive]

wish my beads looked like yours. I am still in th chicken residue stage.
Z