Congratulations guys. Can’t wait for the next challenge.

Here’s something I read a few years back. Thought I’d share with you guys.

. All porosity in aluminum welds is caused by hydrogen. Liquid aluminum can dissolve a lot of hydrogen, but solid aluminum can dissolve almost no hydrogen. So a molten aluminum weld sucks up any hydrogen around. As it solidifies, the weld tries to get rid of the hydrogen. If it can, everything is OK. If it can't, you get porosity.

So where does the hydrogen come from? Basically, there are two sources. The first is any sort of hydrocarbon, like oils, greases, and solvents. The second is water vapor. The temperature in a welding arc is more than 10,000 degrees F, hot enough to break down these substances into hydrogen plus something else.

tristan The 1/8” tungsten at amperage below 200 serves as a heat sink due to the shear diameter difference of the tungsten so the affected heat zone of the tungsten is smaller. As far as it affecting gas flow I’ve found that I do not see a significant difference above a 4 cup. 5 cup you may have to increase your argon a cfh or two but not enough to be significantly noticeable

While it is absolutely possible to use the 1/8” tungsten and it will definitely handle the amperage a bit better, it really comes to down to preference as far as I’m concerned. You would need to make sure your machine settings reflect 1/8 tungsten versus say 3/32 to acquire better more calibrated arc starts. As a shop owner cost is a factor as well. If I had a hired hand in there blowing thru tungsten daily I’d prefer to pay for 3/32 versus 1/8. But it will absolutely get the job done.

In my assumption so I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that humid air with microscopic water droplets will probably overpower your argon at certain cfh levels.

Nice.

The plates I sent you are 5052. Use 5356 filler for best results.

Nice job Matt.