Sorted by
Latest activity Popular Newest posts
January 17
• Edited (Jan 22, 2025)
1 / 7
2 / 7
3 / 7
4 / 7
5 / 7
6 / 7
7 / 7

Edit. I thought that I'd posted this in the questions but ended up in General. So I thought I'd tag Matt Hayden in case he doesn't see it here. 

Not real crazy about what I saw when cut and etched some sample 2F welds with the dual shield at 25V/250 IPM 35 CFH C25. They look OK on the surface, but about zero root fusion, and pretty shallow penetration. The etch wasn't great and didn't photo well. The 1/4" material was spotless clean and square; no rounded over sheared rolled edges. It was belt sanded square. Maybe I was traveling a little too fast? The throat is definitely under 1/4". Thoughts anyone?

Photo 1 cross section is pull beads top left/bottom right, and pull top right/bottom left. Photo 2 is pull, and Photo 3 is push.

Edit to add: Not sure what the hell is going on. Ran two more beads. Photo 4 is 25/250 and photo 5 is the Auto Set suggested 22.9/265. Slower travel speed to build up a bigger bead, which it did, but as you can see in the last photo, the root fusion in both is terrible. Squashed it in the 40T press and it held up OK, but I would hope so, welded on both sides.

5
January 15

Question for you guys that run a lot of dual shield. Do you think that "slag you drag" is a hard rule? I was padding beads of .045" Lincoln 71M Outershield( C25 gas ) at on plate today set to 25V/250 IPM. Dragged the beads left to right, and pushed the beads right to left. Darned if I could tell the difference. Just used a very slight ( 5-10 deg ) tilt either to or away from the direction of travel, with the gun pointed straight in. I haven't tried a cut & etch yet to see if there's any difference inside, but on the surface it runs great either way. Love the spatter free welds. I must admit I was wearing Crocs and never so much as felt a spark in an hours welding! I know, I know, it's not proper footwear. My shop, my feet, my rules! :)

3
January 23

This is a sort of a rookie question.
What would be preferred method for welding 1/2" thick structural aluminum. 6061 grade. How does everyone like to accomplish this? We use a Lincoln 350mp with a push-pull gun and 4043 filler metal generally.
Straight mig or a pulse setting? Give me some of your favorite steps to make this right. Not sure who would be best to tag-
Joey Collier,

5
December 23, 2024

Here's what I think is a good question. What can be done with the filler rod chunks after it gets down so short you can't feed it into the puddle? Brad Goodman

5
December 29, 2024
• Edited (Dec 29, 2024)
1 / 2
2 / 2

This was brought to me by a locksmith. First time with an cast aluminum repair. Should I use high amps and move quickly, or lower amps and progress at a normal travel speed? What settings would be generally recommended for such a small part made of cast aluminum? Also, I am using CK Lazer green tungsten with my Primeweld 325x. Any help would be highly appreciated!

5
December 31, 2024

What causes the cystally finish on the right?
The one on the left is an earlier bead.

The lower are with filler. Ignore those for now.

Thanks

1
December 24, 2024
• Edited (Dec 24, 2024)

JODY COLLIER Merry Christmas to you Jody and your family. I was running through posts in the forum and saw something about torch cables and how stiff they can be causing the torch to be kicked at an angle making it hard to hold the torch in the position you want without some force. Another person said you carried torch cables and the proper dinse connections on weldmonger. I have a miller diversion 180 and my torch is kicked to left really hard no matter how I lay the line it's just hard to turn the torch toward the the downward angle. What is your recommendation for a new cable and the connector if needed to make that torch feel supple in my hand. Or is there a way to adjust what I have in order to get a better feel out of the miller setup I paid 3200 buckaroos for. In hindsight I wish I would have known what I know now about the prime weld machines. But that's a topic for another post. I'm determined to learn to be a good welder on the miller 180. Thank you for your advice on the torch setup. I would like to upgrade and have that supple feeling torch angle. 

2
December 24, 2024

Joey Collier hey man Merry Christmas to you and your family. I couple of weeks ago when I joined up there was some talk of WS stickers. I am trying to load my helmet lol. Any chance the are still available? Thank you. $?

2
December 19, 2024
1 / 2
2 / 2

This is my first attempt at 1/4" aluminum outside corner joints. Running 200amps, 100 hz, 40% balance and 1/8" tungsten.  After successfully welding out most of these mirrored 3 sided pyramids, I all of a sudden on the last half of the last weld had issues with blowing a hole in the outside corner joint. I let it cool, ground and cleaned the damaged area and tried again. Because of the increased width of the weld joint I decided to weave, but as I got close to meeting up with the previous weld things went sideways on me. Erratic arc, very hard time forming a weld pool and lots of porosity. Pictures are attached. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

5
December 16, 2024
1 / 2
2 / 2

This question is for JODY COLLIER since I joined this forum after watching YouTube videos hoping to learn from you. I have a body shop and I make rust repair panels and weld with my millermatic 135 all the time. I have never been taught a single thing about welding and never really got better. I mean I can get away with mig welding but I want to Tig and grow my skills. So I have been practicing like you said running beads and I can't seem to do anything decent on steel but am able to find myself creating better and better welds on aluminum. I need to understand why even when I'm following your parameters for 1/8 steel my welds are grey and my heat affected area is huge having no thin edge I guess the cleaning action like on aluminum. I am a very beginner to Tig with that being said where can I get the information I need to weld steel better?  Can you help me. Thank you for your time. A couple of pics one because if you can weld the blades that's cool and the other to show you my struggles in hopes for your point of view

4