You are absolutely correct on everything, there are different levels of penetration. A lot of things can play a big factor in that as well, fit up, material prep are just a few. Most things that I personally do, do not require full penetration but a few things do. Example, anything that is gonna have vibration or has to hold flammable liquids. Such as fuel tanks, transfer tanks boats etc I always shoot for full penetration. Best wishes bro and feel free to reach out with any questions.

I wouldn’t go as far as like a 250 deg pre heat, but if there is moisture in the part you will see it boil out and yes it will help tremendously. Aluminum and humidity do not like one another at all.

Absolutely, hopefully this will help you understand what does what and ultimately helps become a better tuner. Thanks for watching Jim.

Glad you enjoyed it Martin. I hope it helped you.

Joey Collier yes. You’ve got it. I use it to primarily preserve the grind on my tungsten which in turn creates a more stable arc. I’ll also use this for penetration purposes. Let’s just say for instance I’m just border line on punching through, instead of adjusting my main amperage, I’ll just bump the EN a few amps and it doesn’t affect my cleaning, it only adds a bit more penetration. Hope that helps bro.

Absolutely, when I get home from working this outage in Trinidad I’d be more than happy to.

This is just a pancake hood like a lot of the pipeliner guys use. Basically the box in the hood seals around your face to keep light from glaring in your lense. The reason I used it here was because of the high bay lighting causing a glare and I needed to see really well what I was doing.

It’s been a lil tricky.