First time tig welder!

admin

Just purchased a Tig machine, its a Lincoln percision 185.  Just tried running a few beads on aluminum tonight.  Not the prettiest, but keep in mind I've never tig'd before. Attached Images
Reply:Not bad for your first time.   Don't know what you've researched, but the first thing to know is to remove any possible oils with a solvent such as acetone, then remove the surface oxide with a clean stainless steel bush that is dedicated only to aluminum preparation.  When hand wire brushing you will feel the slick/non-gripping oxide give way to a sticky/resistive bare aluminum as you get down to clean base metal.  With aluminum, cleanliness, and removal of oxide is the critical first step to sound welds.  Hand filing of the weld joint sufaces is also a good procedure to remove oxide prior to welding.  Power brushing or grinding could result in localized point contact heating  with excess oxide formation if it is too agressive.Cleanliness and oxide removal is first thing to think about with aluminum welding.
Reply:Originally Posted by pulserNot bad for your first time.   Don't know what you've researched, but the first thing to know is to remove any possible oils with a solvent such as acetone, then remove the surface oxide with a clean stainless steel bush that is dedicated only to aluminum preparation.  When hand wire brushing you will feel the slick/non-gripping oxide give way to a sticky/resistive bare aluminum as you get down to clean base metal.  With aluminum, cleanliness, and removal of oxide is the critical first step to sound welds.  Hand filing of the weld joint sufaces is also a good procedure to remove oxide prior to welding.  Power brushing or grinding could result in localized point contact heating  with excess oxide formation if it is too agressive.Cleanliness and oxide removal is first thing to think about with aluminum welding.
Reply:Have been doing a little more practicing welding alu.  Here is another pic. Attached Images