aluminium welding rod

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I posted yesterday that there was something up with my machine that the weld came out all grainey like there was sand in it well here it is. I use Harris rod R4043 on 3008 material I went over my machine with a fine tip comb all was good I super cleaned my material and rod by this time im bugging out. I had some old 4043 rod laying around from a different company the beads were perfect. now what can this tell me? that rod was 3/32 I also have the same problem with the 1/8 inch Harris rod. have any of you had problems like this?
Reply:I have seen more problems lately while learning my new machine, and I am figuring they are base metal related, not filler related. I am using both 5356, and 4043. And, I am using multiple size filler rod. With the 1/8" filler, I am seeing the "sand" as you point out. But I see almost none with my 1/16 rod. The issue??? Base material temp and gas coverage. I can get it to happen with the alum. clean, and dirty/ unscrubbed. The puddle in the base metal is where the issue is. No wonder they say consistency is the key to tigging aluminum.
Reply:Without seeing pics it's hard to tell, and are you sure on the 3008 as a base material? I show a 3003, and a 3004 as alloys, but nothing for a 3008. Can you grind the top of the weld down a little, cause what you are describing almost sounds like you would have porosity under the surface of the weld, which you would surely see if you could remove a small amount of the weld.How are you cleaning the material? are you brushing it first, then using a cleaner/degreaser? if so you'll want to use the degreaser/cleaner first, then use the stainless brush. Acetone works well, then brush with a stainless brush that you know has never seen carbon steel. What you are describing sounds like a part or filler metal contamination, or a shielding gas issue. As Zap likes to say "The crap always floats to the top" If I had to guess as to what your problem is I would pick the shielding gas, either not enough or too much, or contaminated material. I had this exact same issue come up at a customers yesterday, who bought a new Miller Syncrowave 350LX, the owner of the company called me shortly after it was delivered saying his guys were having "dirty welds" when I got there I first started to weld with the machine at the settings they had it on, and noticed a very turbulent puddle, that and the postflow was set at zero. He was using a 3/8" id cup, with the flow set at 50 cfh, I knocked his flow down to 18 at the torch, problem gone! Post up some pics if you can.
Reply:i took both rods and ran a bead down a butt joint I couldn't belive it the rods were different same heat same filler duration im going to take the bad rod into work tomarrow and see if they grain up on the miller welder I called esabtoday and they got back too me and said something about the amount of Tiin the material causing the grainy beads. im definately not happy about the situation and its makeing me sick. Im scared about buying filler rod now weather or not its going to flow right on my esab. Im paranoid about my welder this sucks.
Reply:sorry the material is 3003. ive had this machine for 3 yrs no problems now this happens. im cleaning the material with a wire brush and laquor thinner.I going to have to post a pic tomarrow so you can see what im talking about.but its not dirty its like the rod is reacting weird to the heat its funny that the rods I have are both 4043 but from different companies and the beads are different
Reply:Hey mfurick,Just as an experiment, why not try some .062 AL MIG wire to see if you get the same results? I have never had any problems with any AL MIG wire I use with the symptoms you describe. Just a thought....DennyComplete Welding/Machine/Fab. ShopMobile UnitFinally retired*Moderator*"A man's word is his honor...without honor there is nothing.""Words are like bullets.... Once they leave your muzzle, you cannot get them back."
Reply:will try 2nite its very odd whats happening im going too try a couple other things as well thanks. I brought the rod to work today and used it on the miller and it welded fine so there is something up with the welder.
Reply:Too much heat and moving too fast will give you a grainy bead appearance. Some machines are more touchy than others, just a few amps can make a difference.
Reply:ok so I went home to play with the welder I tried everything I even switched out the main board on the welder. My buddy works for Esab he is an electrical engineer for them. My thought was that the arc was peppering the surface of the beads after the pass. still no good. I realized that I can get the weld to look decent on the flat pass but it looks like dodo on the inside 90 degrees so when i      took the rod into work yesterday I never tried an inside 90  so I went back into work last night and welded an inside 90 my rod against rod we have in work an sure enough the rod is garbage. now also the welding company we get our gas from had a problem with contamination of co2 in the argon so there still might be   traces of that still in the bottles. but as far as im concerned theres nothing wrong with my welder I will post pics tomarrow.