Aluminum TIG - Tungsten being immediately consumed.

[astronut]

Originally Posted by Shade Tree Welder

Bad gas is an excuse for bad welders... LOL.

Kind of like farting in the wellfare line? I am just clowning.

[greywynd]

We have lanthanated at work, and I find on steel the tip melts back fast. Haven’t tried it on aluminum. This is on a year old syncrowave 400.

At work I just check to see if there’s gas flow, don’t worry much about the rate. At home I usually run between 15 and 20 cfm.


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[JBFab]

Well, I switched to a pure tungsten and #5 cup and have success. I think though that my problem was the #7 cup I was using had a crack in it, as when I took it apart part of the rim broke off. Maybe it was sucking air through there?

No matter, things are up and running now, thanks for your helpful suggestions!

[milomilo]

Originally Posted by JBFab

Well, I switched to a pure tungsten and #5 cup and have success. I think though that my problem was the #7 cup I was using had a crack in it, as when I took it apart part of the rim broke off. Maybe it was sucking air through there?

No matter, things are up and running now, thanks for your helpful suggestions!

Glad to hear it is all well now. Too bad fixes are not always obvious ones..

[Shade Tree Welder]

Originally Posted by JBFab

Well, I switched to a pure tungsten and #5 cup and have success. I think though that my problem was the #7 cup I was using had a crack in it, as when I took it apart part of the rim broke off. Maybe it was sucking air through there?

No matter, things are up and running now, thanks for your helpful suggestions!

Excellent, I was wondering if I was going to have to
head up north and sort your shit out for you.

[JBFab]

Originally Posted by Shade Tree Welder

Excellent, I was wondering if I was going to have to
head up north and sort your shit out for you.

Lol, projects not done yet!

[Gadgeteer]

Originally Posted by JBFab

Well, I switched to a pure tungsten and #5 cup and have success. I think though that my problem was the #7 cup I was using had a crack in it, as when I took it apart part of the rim broke off. Maybe it was sucking air through there?

No matter, things are up and running now, thanks for your helpful suggestions!

Good to learn the problem has been solved. Now, that you have the perfect opportunity to compare pure tungsten with lanthanated, how about you switch back to the lanthanated to compare results?

[JBFab]

Originally Posted by Gadgeteer

Good to learn the problem has been solved. Now, that you have the perfect opportunity to compare pure tungsten with lanthanated, how about you switch back to the lanthanated to compare results?

Planning on it. I don't have an inverter machine, so my evaluation will be performance on a transformer machine only.

[greywynd]

When I got my Lincoln PT185, also a transformer machine, I experimented with some of the various tungstens. Ended up going back to pure for aluminum/AC, and thoriated for DC work.


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