Welding Aluminum...How to with pics inside!!!

[Gadget]

I had to live up to my screen name.

[jbman45]

As we all know aluminum is supposed to have a balled tungsten. The ole classic way was to reverse polarity and strike an arc against brass which gives you a EP arc which balls the tungsten and brass won't contaminate it. Also there is a chemical sharpening tool you can use which balls nicely but don't know the cost, probably high.

I couldn't find a way to reverse polarity to ball tungsten for aluminum on the 200P since it's hard wired in....but eventually figured out a neat trick. Strike an arc on a brass object with a nicely tapered tungsten, then start to increase your cleaning knob setting. as you approach 50% then 60 or so you will see you're actually going to EP mode and the electrode begins to ball. Don't go too far and you'll have a nice ball for aluminum work. Go too far and you'll consume too much electrode. But use some form of copper to keep the contaminants down.

PS: Don't tell those miller guys....

[Gadget]

Excellent tip JBMan. Your secret is safe with us.
Dan

[KHK]

jbman45, thanks for the tip, we will not tell the Miller poeple.

[vault]

how did you figure that out???

[jbman45]

Hi Vault: Well sometimes ya put 2 and 2 together. I knew balling (in the aluminum sense) was the way to do aluminum; An old welding instructor showed me the reverse arc on copper so as not to contaminate the tungsten. and I was trying to find a way on the 200P to do that; but couldn't.

without a good manual what I have been doing is setting an arc, then taking each knob and going from max to mix so see the result; then I realized % cleaning is really going from EN to EP which is what we want to do to ball the tungsten. It will glow yellow if you're not careful. controlling the % clean is a way to move heat from the object to the torch so helps a bit also on very thin aluminum.

lots of fun!

[kb3gun]

Nice welds. Your shot of the cut (cross section) is amazing. I can't even see where the material ends and weld begins. Very nice.
I see a tig on my horizon. Dang, another tool. Just when I thought I had enough tools... lol

[technomitch]

As KB3gun says, the cross section was just amazing !! I wish i could weld STEEL that well.

Thinking real hard about getting a TIG machine . . .

[junes]

The welding is ok at best. The weakenss of the crappy machine is showing with a shaky arc. As for us "miller" guys on out inverter machines we dont have to ball the end of the tungsten it stays sharp. DCEN welding of aluminum is possible with UHP helium.

[junes]

As for the cross section you would not see where the tie in is due to the fact that it is not pollished it is really rough and you can t tell anything from that.