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

Really helpful video. Thanks, Jody. It’s also prompted me to refresh my memory of the classification system ie breaking down the numbers and lettering in, for example, ER70S-6. I think you touched on it quite a few years ago on one of the Weldingtipsandtricks videos. But if you ever feel like making a video but can’t think of a topic, perhaps you could delve into that again?

Thanks, Jody.

Martin

Yes, please, Brad, and when you do, perhaps you can tell us where such a tank is used, I mean is really for collecting people’s puke? Or perhaps puke means something different in the US than it does in the UK? 😀

Welcome to the club! One’s welding hood is the most important tool in the toolkit. I know the feeling you describe. For years, I’d decided that autodarkening helmets would never surpass the clarity of smoked glass. The gold standard was my Accustrike helmet with high quality German smoked-glass filters with a slight blue tint and a gold film on the front. Then 2 years ago I read how good modern ADF hoods are, especially Optrel Crystal 2.0. So I got an air-fed one, because I feel it’s essential for comfort and to prevent misting. And like you, I was blown away, another universe, indeed. I never thought such a helmet could be invented! There is a downside, though: it’s too good to be used on dirty processes eg MIG or stick - TIG only for me. I can’t say I’m aware of the blue tint; maybe that’s because I’ve always tried to create a blue tint, anyway. And with a minor modification to take my Optivisor magnification lenses, I’m in seventh heaven.

It’s great to see that I’m not the only one!

Very interesting Zoom conversation which anyone, not just the welding community, would find enlightening. Interesting also how it gradually became a conversation on leadership, too.

As a UK resident, I was also interested to hear how involved OSHA is in the safe operation of industry.

My eyes were opened to all the difficulties small-business owners constantly face and how quickly things could go badly wrong, even though they may well be adhering to all rules and regulations.

Thanks Aren and Sam for such a fascinating discussion.

JD,

Did you watch the WS podcast a couple of months ago with Brad and Jody on running a welding business? Eight minutes in, Brad mentions his son Cody made a spreadsheet that helps him account for everything when pricing his jobs

https://welderskills.com/programs/dad-and-brad-running-a-welding-business-3f7cc7

When you said you’re forever forgetting to include one of the taxes in your quotations, that’s exactly why Brad got his son to make the spreadsheet.

Definitely worth listening to, and I’m sure you’ll be able to contact Brad if you want further information.

Martin