No sleeping through the alarm this time, and well worth it. Very interesting Zoom meeting, hearing about how customer service is paramount. That is the way to win over new customers and to keep them for life, which, as the podcast shows, is exactly what’s happening. So much so, if I were in the market for a new welder, based solely on what I heard last night, I’d definitely be going for Primeweld regardless of the shipping to, and import duties and taxes in, the UK.

I hope Primeweld goes from stregth to strength: they clearly deserve it.

Joey Collier One more thing, Joey: as it is now, if I have a question , I will need to hunt through the Notifications until I find this one again to ask my question . Could there be a new icon along the bottom marked Questions, or something similar so that, anyone with a question can simply open the WelderSkills app, tap on the relevant icon, and then find themselves immediately in this Questions channel?

Joey Collier Thanks, Joey!

@Joey Collier

OK Joey I’m checking I’ve understood this right. We put any questions here in this Comments section as I’m now doing, with the @ and the name to start with, yes?

But any questions related to a specific video should still go in the Comments section of that video, yes?

And any questions for a forthcoming podcast also go here, too.? (Obviously, questions during a podcast go in the Chat/Q&A section of whichever meeting app we’re using eg Zoom, rather than here.)

Hey Jody,

It always amazes me that just 2 parts in one hundred of the doping agent, thorium, lanthanum, zirconium, cerium, …. can make all the difference in the world. And it also never ceases to amaze me that, when I look at all my ancient Lincoln books, the temptation is to think there can’t possibly be anything left to discover about TIG welding, and yet here we are, a quarter of the way through the 21st Century, and you constantly demonstrate that the more we learn, the more we realise there is to learn. Certainly, I put far more weight on your practical demonstrations and experiments than any number of books full of theoretical discussions and ideas.

Thank you, Jody; just one video like this one justifies a whole year’s subscription to WelderSkills.

Happy Christmas.

Martin

Brad Goodman Hey, Brad,

I just found the same information. It’s by Frank Armao, President of Aluminum Consulting Inc.

His last paragraph says:

“As for welding in very humid conditions, I must admit that high humidity does make it more difficult to make porosity-free welds. However, this is usually because your housekeeping has gotten sloppy. If you return to basics and complete the necessary weld preparation, you should be able to make porosity-free welds even at very high levels of humidity.” I find that reassuring: it tells me if I find humidity is affecting my welding, I need to smarten up my act!

https://www.thefabricator.com/thewelder/article/aluminumwelding/preventing-porosity-in-humid-environments

Thanks, Brad.

Sorry I joined you late: I slept through my alarm, getting up for a pee about 40 minutes late. I’ve watched the recorded video twice through now, and, even though this is the third video with Brad on advanced tig settings, there is still limitless gold left in the mine. For my money, you could keep revisiting this topic every 6 months and it still wouldn’t be too much. The hard-won experience in this video could save hours and hours of frustration, looking for non-existent argon leaks and following false trails in forums and still gettiing nowhere, when the answer is likely to be as simple as cup size, gas flow rate or damp air.

As for the different waveforms, I think of it as the energy going into the workpiece/tungsten being directly proportional to the area under the wave. So you get the maximum electrical energy with a square wave, the minimum with triagular, and sine and the others being somewhere in between. Same goes for the independently adjustable EN and EP settings on Brad’s machine; when Brad dials down the EP ampage to reduce the tungsten erosion, he’s reducing the area under the EP square wave by lowering the height of the EP square. AC balance similarly also changes the area in the EN and EP squares by moving the cross-over either left or right, increasing one area at the expense of the other, so the total area on the EP side and the EN side always adds up to 100%, but you’re just taking some of the energy from one side, say EN, and giving it to the other, EP, side, or vice versa.

Thanks again for a great discussion, along with the personal anecdotes and experiences.

Great question; can I expand on it, please, Tristan?

1. If the gas flow is properly tuned so no outside air is drawn in, surely the puddle is shrouded in argon until it solidifies, so the ambient humidity shouldn’t matter?

2. And if the problem is invisible moisture on, or in, the workpiece, after the first inch or so, when the heat has run ahead of the puddle, wouldn’t any humidity have been boiled off?

Clearly, humidity has an effect - Brad once said there are times when it’s so bad that he can’t weld. And I, as mentioed in the podcast, have scratched my head looking for gas leaks when welding in my garage on a rainy day. So, what is the mechanism? If damp air is being drawn into the puddle, we’d also see peppering, and if it’s dampness absorbed into the oxide layer, would a good preheat solve the problem?

Jody,

It’s captivating, if not awesome, watching how the edges of the weld pool form over the previous “dime” and overlap each other so consistently, especially when walking the cup. It’s thanks to your close-up video of the arc and the puddle that we can see things we can never see that clearly when carrying out the weld. These close-up shots help us to know what should be happening and what to look out for when critcally examing our handiwork after the weld is cool.

Many thanks

Martin

Great to go back to basics, Matt. I say that, but I’m quite sure no-one has ever taught me the consequences of the collet body being loose or even slightly loose, never mind the possibility of air getting into the argon stream.

As you and Jody always say, you never stop learning, and the tightness of the collet body is something I won’t ever be on autopiloy about in future.

Thanks, Matt.

Martin