WANTED, Welding Guru

[getreel]

I am a first time TIG wannabe. I needed some aluminum welding done on my boat, long story short, I could not get anyone to come to my house (boat is in the water). I decided to buy my own welder, I researched, checked out the cheaper china brands and ended up with a Miller Dynasty 200 SD with a finger tip control contractor kit. I have only been able to read a lot but I have no one to show me right from wrong, and I can sure melt some aluminum. First, how can I tell if the HF is working? It seems that the only way to get an arc is if I touch start it. I have been playing with 1/8" pieces of aluminum, I have the machine set to the specs in the manual and from Millers welding calculater. I have been using 3/32 red band tungston sharpened to a point (thats what the miller store told me to use). It seems that maybe its way to hot, do I get it hot at first and then turn it down when a puddle forms? What would a good learning project be, trying to stick two pieces together or just try to run a normal looking bead on a piece of flat stock? Any help will be a big help. Are there any good videos or DVD's that will show me some pointers? Thanks

[MAC702]

Put your location in your profile. We might have someone nearby willing to help in person, which is about what you're gonna need.

[grumpy42]

Congratulations on a great little welder.

My father and I have been learning welding on our own in preparation for an upcoming project. I am quite new to welding, however, I have a few comments that you may find useful. I know you wanted a guru, so I hope you are not too disappointed.

My first recommendation is to read everything you can and try to find pictures of both good and bad welds. If you can find someone local to you to show you the ropes, I would recommend it as it would probably get you over some of the initial rough spots.

I would suggest that you may want to start out with mild steel instead of aluminum. Aluminum is somewhat more difficult than steel. It would probably be easier for you to perfect your technique on steel then move to aluminum once you are fairly confident with steel.

You may want to consider getting a foot control. We started with a fingertip control and soon invested in a foot control. I found the fingertip control awkward to use and it certainly impeded my learning. I can’t imagine using the fingertip control with aluminum where more current control is required.

I can’t comment on the HF start since we have been exclusively using lift-arc starting (the welder is in close proximity to a computer)

You may want to change your tungsten to either orange, yellow, or blue (2% ceriated, 1.5% lanthinated, and 2% lanthinated respectively). Red (thoriated) contains thorium which is slightly radioactive - grinding dust could be harmful. Also, lanthinated tungsten seems to hold up well when doing aluminum (doesn’t ball up as fast).

I believe that you should grind a small flat on the end of the tip. There is a page in the manual that describes proper tungsten preparation.

Finally, practice, practice, practice and when your done, practice some more. You will probably want to start with just running beads and move on to basic joints - butt, lap, outside corner, fillet (listed in order of difficulty for me). A good first project might be to build a cart to hold the welder, tank and contractor kit (this is what we are about to attempt).

I hope this was helpful, and I am sure that some more experienced people will chime in.

Good luck, and most importantly, don’t get discouraged.

[weld_13]

I know you were looking more on the side of pro instructional videos but you cant beet free from youtube . Heres a link to a tig welding aluminum search on there

http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...&search=Search

[Darmik]

There's a guy on here his name is Bert he lives where you do in FL try and email him or start a thread asking for Bert. He might be able to help ya in person. The rest of us could just assume and speculate what's going on with out pictures.

[calweld]

There's a guy on here his name is Bert he lives where you do in FL .

???????? I just looked up his profile, Bert's location is Hawaii???????? My geography may be a little rusty, but I recall Hawaii and Florida about as far apart as you can get and still stay in the US ?? Or maybe they moved closer together when I wasn't looking???

[Darmik]

Hey what the he!! do I know about the states I live in canada but then I don't even know where toronto is.?

Smart AZZ. I though he lived close to there.Sorry getreel I tried to help.TKS calweld.

[Bert]

sorry guys I live in Hawaii, my in-laws live in Davenport, Florida!!!
Getreel, I would have loved to help/showed you, but....might not be there till next summer!!!

[djbtech]

Aluminum...let me suggest you get your tungsten ready to go first:

Switch your rig to DC positive, keep the amps down, and the tip will form a ball. It may take a couple tries to get it neat. Flip back to AC and weld away.

[djbtech]

Practice making beads in aluminum flat stock, no filler. Dwell at the start until the pool forms, then move and lower amps briefly while pausing. With filler, it just takes time to find what works for you, but if it's consistently too hot, back off your amps 25-33% each pause/dab you do. Have fun.