Bad Argon ??

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Anyone encountered a bad or mislabeled bottle of argon? I hooked up a fresh bottle of what is labeled and purchased to be 100% argon. Quality welds are almost impossible. I'm able to fuse decent using the foot pedal, "bump" method but adding filler, ( 4043,,1/16,,3/32),  don't work. It turds up, grays/blacks. I've varied flow rate, cleaned aluminum with acetone, lacquer thinner, degreaser, brushed, wire wheeled, sanded, tried 3/32 lan. tung., 1/16 lan tung. It's got to be the argon. I working with 0.080 to 0.125, 5052, 3003, mill finish aluminum sheet.Miller TrailBlazer 251Miller HF-250-1Miller MaxStar 150 STLHyperTherm PowerMax 380 plasmaLincoln PowerMig 180Millermatic 252Miller Diversion 180
Reply:I've never had a bottle of bad argon but I've had a bottle of mislabeled 95/5. I would imagine it's very possable....Mike
Reply:In the last few months, there were a few reports of bad gas; so while rare it's very possible.  Suggest you swap out the cylinder at your gas supplier.Rick V 1 Airco Heliwelder 3A/DDR3 CTC 70/90 amp Stick/Tig Inverters in Parallel1 Lincoln MIG PAK 151 Oxy-Acet
Reply:Once I put on a new bottle of pure argon. Was Tigging mild steel. Pinholed like crazy. Funny thing was that using the same bottle on stainless wouldn't pinhole. Didn't try it on alum. Changed it out and everything went back to normal.
Reply:wagin - when I was in outside sales for the LWS I had a couple of customers complain of bad gas in their Argon.  Customer one has a leaky connection, customer two didn't want to pay for the gas and was just pulling a few tricks.I am guessing it may be in some connection or component between the gas an nozzle.It actually could be a bottle of contaminated gas, but the way our store filled the bottle's, they filled a bank of 30 bottle's at a time, so if one was contaminated, probably all 30 bottles would be bad.However I don't know how your supplier fills their bottles, perhaps only 1 could be effected?I would at least call the store and have a salesman come out and check it with you...Maybe inspect and spray the connections/hose/etc..with some soapy water??hope this helps a tiny bit...I'd be interested to find out later what the problem was."The trouble with quotes on the Internet is that you can never know if they are genuine." - Abraham Lincoln
Reply:Pull the reg and quickly open and shut the valve, check the sintered bronze filter, reconnect, open valve and soap all connections, check flow out collet (they some times get squished from overtightening), weld again, if same problem adjust the gas flow up and down and weld again, then when all have failed return bottle to supplier.
Reply:Originally Posted by welds4dOnce I put on a new bottle of pure argon. Was Tigging mild steel. Pinholed like crazy. Funny thing was that using the same bottle on stainless wouldn't pinhole. Didn't try it on alum. Changed it out and everything went back to normal.
Reply:Make sure your machine is on AC for aluminum (it happens lol)I had a similar problem and thought it was bad argon as well (which it may have been) but when I got a new tank I was still have less but some trouble. Turns out I had condensation in my regulator doing everything you mentioned as well as varying CFM.
Reply:Originally Posted by Heavy Metal ServiceYou will get better results using  mig gas  ( argon - Co2 ) mix with mild steel Tig
Reply:Originally Posted by DSWHuh? Did you just suggest 75/25 for TIG?!!  You need to look at the sticky about what happens when you try this. It wasn't pretty.
Reply:Originally Posted by Heavy Metal ServiceI read the sticky and I'm not sure what to tell ya but I've been Tig welding mild steel and chromoly  for to many years with mig mix to even remember  but I can tell you this my tig has the argon bottle on it all the time but you are going to run into a mild steel job were argon won't produce a quality weld read (pin holes) and mig mix will I have never had that happen or now any trades man around me that has maybe of shore cups