Thanks for the post flow tip. I was welding aluminum with PoF set to the machine default of 2 seconds. My tungsten was always a dull black, and often times the start of the weld would be dirty. Changed the PoF to 6 seconds. The tungsten is shiny and the start of the bead is clean. Many thanks.
1977 I learned how to weld with an AC/DC machine. It had a lever for AC setting or DC setting. Had a lever for High range or Low range. A wheel dial to set amps. The decal for amps faded and rubbed off. Turn the wheel to that should do it. Strike arc on practice piece turn wheel up or down to that might be right! Strike arc on practice piece awww that’s it! I welded by the seat of my pants,,,,,,,feel,,,,,,,sound,,,,,,,sight. I’m 67 and think back on the “O.J.T.” Listening to the old timers,,,,,,,watching the old timers then go to the welding table and try to imitate what the old timers were doing! Thanks to all the old timers who took time to show me the right and wrong of various types of welding!
I cannot express enough gratitude for you putting these videos together - Top notch quality. Excellent and informative content. Keep up the great work! Your tips are indeed helping!
The post flow tip was fantastic! I couldn't figure out why my tungsten was burned after a pass. Now I have adjusted the post flow it always remains shiny.
Ive been tig welding stainless for 2.5years… sheet metal, just recently started dabbling into aluminum work this helped me spot what may have been my issue the entire time trying this aluminum project, not enough post flow and taking the torch away from workpiece to soon
I will try this. My shop is letting me practice TIG when the flux core work is done. Nobody around to guide me so I am toying my way through learning. I practice filets on 1/4 carbon steel. I knew it was too low tonight at 120a. Will try 250a next time. I was able to do a pretty nice lap joint on stainless (for the handle of my hanging Skyjack toolbox) with 110a. It was about 1/8” thick
@@1979Spica I'd be willing to bet 250 is too high at full pedal but as he said it's a good place to start and work from. Just remember welding is about balance, keeping travel speed, filler diameter, amperage, etc all in balance. Higher amps will often require higher travel speed, and at some point larger filler to match the puddle size created from all that amperage. Experience will help you refine the amp per thou guideline and you'll just memorize ranges per thickness after enough arc time
I have a job at the shop right now & I totally failed at it. I have scanned RU-vid & Google for suggestions on my HTP221 inverter & man … am I glad I found your channel. . THANK YOU!
The different settings is fact. Where I work we mig and tig aluminum I get the joy of getting the new people set up and started, every mig machine will put the same beads down with different settings gotta find the right settings for each one.
Thanks! You are correct. Even though the charts give a ballpark, I'm trying to make notes in a book of heat settings with my materials, and see what works, and what doesn't........ A learning experience for sure! So grateful that you take the time to explain things!!!!!!!!!!!👍
Your cleaning or balance settings will greatly affect your current settings with AC welding. With the cleaning set high positive, your electrode will glow much more and melt the tip much easier. I heard him talk about this as I was typing. I typically run 30%.
I find your channel very informative & subscribed. I have zero experience TIG welding, but plan to buy a machine soon. I have only used flux & mig the past few years. No professional experience or training. Just learning as I go. A hobby I picked up after retiring the military. Glad I found your channel. Thank you
Dang, that was text Book explanation, I'm just getting started, ( no school ). You did a very good, simple explanation. You should be teaching classes under your own private school. Thank you !!
one thing I would like to see in a video of the future is how to analyze heat input while welding. I understand penetration but sometimes I have high amperage and the weld is glowing hot. The same with low amperage. A lot of welders talk about "saturating" but don't really explain it very well. A tutorial on this would be nice.
And time is money so stop dragging out the videos with all the stupid childish funny haha's from tattoo boy. Get to the point and don't belabor it, we can rewind on jTube. This video could have been 3 minutes yet it was almost 13 ffs!!
Tighten up your arc length the tig is a scalpel, tighter arc will minimize your heat affected zone, large arc is like gas oxy ace welding. Tig is tight!
Also never forget along with amperage, Tungsten arc length and Time all effect the heat effected zone. So even if you have the amperage set right & the arc length good if you dwell in one spot to long you will still dump to much heat. Also what helps is the size of the filler rod, if you're welding 1/16" stock and using 1/8" filler rod you will over heat the weld. I have the same issue.
I like to check in on fabrication and welding videos from time to time....most are very useful but yours is by far the most useful for welding. Keep up the great work and sharing your information...I'll be glad to share your work and subscribe.
You probably already know this, but if you press in the adjustment dial while adjusting, you'll move by 10-amp increments on your PowerTIG 255EXT. Cool feature. Great video. Thank you!
I have a vintage Lincoln Square wave tig 175, and the pre flow is 5 secs, post flow is 10 secs and you can’t change that, nope! This transformer 84kgs beast has an auto balance 😳 meaning that you turn the knob up or down for your desire Amperage! Shining welds and shiny tungsten everytime, guaranteed 😁
You are a very talented Tig welder! You mentioned balance control should be around around 80 neg & 20 pos. Which is fine, but you can only achieve that using an inverter. With conventional transformer types you will be limited from 68 to possibly 72 with different brands. Most will me 68 percent neg max on the balance. The tungsten will not stay sharp. You can not adjust frequency on transformer power sources ,so you loose arc focus. And third, with some inverters you have a amplitude setting also called offset to focus every move energy farther to the pos or neg side of the arc. Which also can improve tungsten life and keep the tungsten sharp when welding thicker aluminum. 😎🇺🇸👨🏭
Your video’s are awesome. You’ve helped me tremendously. One video I would like to see is the feeder Rod hand in action. Camera set up on your hand as you weld and feed the rod. Thanks for all your help. Jimmy
I weld hardened thick tool steel like D-2 and A-2 that’s pre heated to around 500 degrees , I keep my amps at around 175 amps , capping a chipped cutting edge sometimes melts leaving voids if the amps are too high
I would also add another item for a source of contamination. This would be that all the components on the torch are properly tightened. I recently had a problem when welding aluminum where I could not get a decent bead. I check my torch and the collet and screen had become loose. I tightened them up and the problem was solved.
The most important thing is to be able to see the weld properly, what I mean by that is, the right brightness in the helmet, extra glass with if it doesn't help with glasses. Then it is important to always keep the same width of the weld, look at the melt, keep the same width and drip in filler wire at an even speed, eg 1 2 3, 1 2 3, 1 2 3, etc..
the chart doesn't mean anything. i could crank my Lincoln 450 to the max , my brain controlling everything. the foot pedal my travel speed is a skill. it depend on people.
@@bjireton Late to the party, but I think you missed the point in your rush to boast. No matter how good your foot pedal control is you're gonna struggle not to melt both you and the piece you're working at 19k amps. You'll need 43 of your Lincolns connected in parallel to reach that level.
In the old days you ran a pure AC sine wave, usually 50/50 balance, and a pure tungsten (green) electrode. In that case you ball up the end of the electrode. Now using "square wave" with balance control and a bunch of new electrode types you can sharpen the electrode to a point for aluminum.
Very clear and valuable information for anyone not yet great at TIG welding, and that definitely include me. 😟 Now, is there any way to ensure the tungsten electrode don't touch the weldpool, or the filler rod for that matter, apart from skillful control, or to some extend, by using a "walk the cup" method to basically wriggle the ceremic gas nozzle so it, "walk along" at an angle and pace to suit the job.? 🙄 ☆ Niels.
I've watched 100rds of videos on welding. Both tig and mig and all of them where straight forward to the point and very educational. Your video however seems to be designed to focus on you being some sort of super smart guy. Sorry Mr wonderful but the other videos are more informative and to the point.
Welding is now a science... RU-vid welders and coded welders are 2 different animals. No doubt. Although RU-vid information is somewhat correct, most of the times they are not xray or ut welders. They are very focused on theory as if welding proficiency can be achieved by information instead of welding hours of high scrutiny subjected welds.
I'm an old skool welder. Not a lot of tig welding. More mig and cracker box welding. Working in a big shop with lots of guys. All the settings are changed on the welders all the time. Mostly by guys who have no idea what they are doing in the 1st place. They can't weld to begin with. So they twist on every knob hoping to make magic happen. So I never change the settings unless I just absolutely have to. I've learned to adapt to how it's set and move on. So settings is not something I'm good at. That's why I might ask what settings you use. Regardless of the machine. It would give me a starting point. This might give you the idea I'm not a very good welder. But, I can weld a bulls ass if you can hold him still. LOL
80/20 is a bit extreme. Is that that you normally use? General recommendation is 70/30. I usually use that. Sometimes 75/25, but that’s rare unless I’m using a lot of current on thick aluminum where a smaller amount of cleaning is still a lot of power. I’ve done 60/40 for thinner material with low current.
One thing that caught me was when welding aluminum, you speak about Balance being DC.. but we're welding AC. Am I missing something here with understanding ?
Post flow should not be to protect the tungsten which is a consumable, but to protect the stop start from oxidisation on a joint which is subject to radiographic test. Eg: wormhole.
Unless you're grinding your tip before every weld any contamination on it will go straight into your weld pool. So sure the tip is consumable but having a few seconds post flow even when welding aluminium is good advice.
@rexp5350 If your tungsten touches the weld, no post flow will eliminate tungsten inclusion. And aluminium requires a rounded off tungsten. Sharpen it after every start if you want.
@@scoobeydoooo You're right about the tip shape, but then I didn't say sharpen. Obviously the post flow won't help if you've dipped but it does prevent oxidation, which is probably the word I should've used to prevent confusion. You don't have to take my word for it, here's what my Miller manual says "Postflow is required to cool tungsten and weld, and to prevent contamination of tungsten and weld. Increase postflow time if tungsten or weld are dark in appearance."
Could you guys please do a real world video of how to fix alluminum tig welding where everything clumps up and does not penetrate and blows hole into the base material? You keep showing perfect situations where we are not achieving or even getting close to. All youtubers that I have watched does the same perfect weld that i barely achieve one second then lose.
Why does my tungsten ball always get bad spots on it. I can ball it and it want be a min and it starts to have particles on tip . Thanks and enjoy your videos.
When yuo welding alumion, 1st thing is gleanig alumium oksidain and use allways iron clean tools that, Aluminium oksidain IS problem that melting point IS over 3000C, so that IS not melting, yuo see normal melt point pearl loking, what don't melt
Dusty, Can I make suggestion for us that are learning and in the vids we sometimes can't see what material you are welding for any certain tip you are talking about? I know that sounds confusing but there are so many variables in welding each materials (I know some ate constant) but some of us get confused with the variables on each material. Hope you understand this request?
Just a question, when welding aluminium I thought you were meant to us AC? You mentioned DC during the sine form explanation. Other than that a great video as per normal Dusty. Thank you. 😀
It's just a way to explain it. You could say that if you pass the AC current through a diode to cut off the bottom part of the sine wave then you're left with a DC + voltage even though it's a sine. It's just semantics.
We use AC for welding as a polarity, you are correct about that:) When using AC, this will cycle between the two polarities of DC+ and DC-. It took me a bit to get this one when I was going to school, but happy to share it here🤙 Thanks for watching🔥
AC is alternating direction of current flow. From the outlet that's 50% positive, 50% negative 60 times per second (or only 50 in europe). An invertor welder converts that to DC in the direction of your choice, making your electrode either the positive or negative side of the circuit. It can invert the direction of current flow anytime you want. If you chose to alternate that direction frequently we simply refer to that as alternating current again. Some prefer to think of it as AC, some as switched direction DC. Referring to it as DC+ for 20% of the cycle seems simpler than throwing in another new term like "duty cycle" which is probably a good thing for quick videos. On the other hand, some people tend to think of AC as being a sinusoidal waveform, but most welders would be a square wave. It's just a semantic battle.
@@twinchargedmr2 Not sure what’s going on in your life to be so negative. I’m an electrician by trade so know quite a lot about it’s uses. TIG welding; however, I am new to and am learning. But thanks for your input all the same.
Im not welder , don't have license just hobby and I got my first machine for Christmas. I'm good in electronics and programing,so I'm curious if I make a wire feeder with arduino and stepper motor ,just like 3d printer,then is will work? I mean if you can feed the wire by hand then with stepper motor should work also isn't?
I rtry to go by the gauges but I still go by how it performs , I turn up if the welder is crackling too much and turn down if it gets to much a hum and that black on edges , some welders just weld hot and some weld cold , could be dirty or just cheap
