Paul Charron Yep, it makes sense. I agree with you.

JD, I think, that "flush" welds got some turbulence from arc being too close to the standard collet body (or gas nozzle, if you use it for AL, but I think it is waste). Thus, Argon is mixing with atmosphere, because the actual flow of the Argon is too close to the material. It can be visible on that weld itself, it is "dirty", seems like little black skin is on it. On the other side, the "stick out" variant seems to be much more cleaner. Just for fun, try to decrease the Argon flow on the "flush" welds and see if it will improve. Me personally, I always weld all of TIG welds with little bit tungsten stick out, if the situation allows it.

That looks awesome! I missed you & your content, Roy 👍👌

Oh, thank you Joey for letting me know 👍 Wishing him all the best as well, hopefully we will see him some day again here on WS 👌

No, it isn't harder, it is just different. I think, it is not true that if you are skilled in welding AL, you can easily weld other metals you have mentioned. Welding thick aluminium is different that welding really thin stainless steel etc.

Martin Rubenstein No worries Martin. Here is quick look up at 6G Carbon Steel pipe I have done some years ago in one welding school. It was 6G position (HL-045 here in EU). Diameter was 160x25 mm (quite a thick walled one), this is right side, all free handed using stinger beads from root to filler caps up to this massive cap...

Not true Martin, I can weld pretty, but pretty awesome looking welds using freehand technique on 6G pipes etc. In fact, I am using exclusively freehand technique all the way and it rocks, especially in hard to go places on some crazy industrial repairs...