Considering a TIG purchase - syncrowave 200?

[HoleshotHolset]

Steve, is your TA machine balling the tungsten when using AC at all?

My Sync 180 would always do that... the pulse on the Sync 200 helped to eliminate that.



I had a dedicated cheap 4. 5" angle grinder for sharpening tungsten... wasn't anything special, but it worked. The Miller guys had a special tungsten sharpener at the booth - I'll own one of those someday.



Here's a picture of my first successful attempt at TIG'ing aluminum (fusion)...

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... and I attached a picture of one of the first things I cut while messing with my old Hypertherm PowerMax 380... 1/4" galvanized steel. They use this stuff on telephone poles to connect "x" to "y".



Matt

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Nope, it doesn't ball the tungsten at all. But I'm running an advanced wave biased towards EN (70%) - 30% EP and at 110 Hz. Haven't messed with the pulser yet.

 

[GHarman]

Nope, it doesn't ball the tungsten at all. But I'm running an advanced wave biased towards EN (70%) - 30% EP and at 110 Hz. Haven't messed with the pulser yet.

Steve, Have you tried sharpening the tungsten to a truncated cone? Grinding direction parallel to the axis of the tungsten, with a small diameter flat ( . 015"-. 020") on the tip. You may then get a slight ball, using your stated parameter. Not necessarily a narrower weld! Try increasing your frequency to narrow the weld. This kind of stuff is the fun part. The trick is - is it reproduceable. Are you making notes of your parameters and your results? I have welded Aluminum under laboratory conditions using pulsed, DCEN. This alloy was super clean, Wrapped with foil until it reached the welding process area and handled with white cotton gloves=). Argon and Helium mixed as a cover gas. I have never used Lanthaninated tungsten. If you have the opportunity, try the Zirconium tungsten. Pure Tungsten melts @ 6192 degrees F. It is very easy to loose the ball into the weld with pure tungsten. The arc force in balanced AC can blow it off. For your info. , the arc plasma temperature in the GTAW process is tens of thousands of degrees F. at the electrode, and 10-20,000 degrees F at the weld. Greg H.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Actually, I have been putting a blunt end on the tungsten - that's what was suggested. It was suggested that a complete point was likely to blow the tip off and cause an inclusion. It doesn't ball though - it stays flat. I have been taking notes on my settings and one real nice thing about this machine is that I can save 5 setups and recall them later so it makes it real easy for experimenting.

 

[GHarman]

Matt, Hope you dont mind the critique? Your autogeneous edge weld looks good, but you didnt finish it. The end is unfused. This is where heat control is critical. Your plasma cutting has two indicators. . you need to speed up and/or your tip is eroded from use or moisture. Water is the enemy of plasma cutters. Compressed air is loaded with condensation. You must remove it. Filters are inadequate if you live in a moist climate. A miniscule drop of water will expand 1600 times its volume when it flashes into steam. Steam is very erosive. It will blow out a plasma orifice on the first light-up. A refrigerated air drying system is the best option in line with the basic filters.

(Harbor Freight is a source) Bottled air is another option-specifying DRY air. This is based on experience. GregH.

 

[GHarman]

Steve , Good enough. With your balance parameter you are concentrating more heat on the part , less on the tungsten. Needle sharp points always blow off=). As long as your weld is clean and you are getting fusion, the lack of a ball is irrevelent. GregH.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

I experimented with the pulser some tonight - really liked the results of that. Also experimented with changing the HF. Here's a few pics from tonights practice:



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That's a fusion weld on the outside corner of 1/8" aluminum - my first attempts at this just completely melted through and destroyed the piece.



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That's an inside corner of the same material. This melted out a bit in trying to get to that very inside corner. You can also see that the arc was wandering over to the right side.



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That's the inside as well where I gave up on trying to hit the very bottom of the corner (this was earlier than the above). I have a hard time with the arc wanting to wander side to side when welding into the corner. I tried turning up the HF all the way to 150hz which seems to help some but not all the way. Getting down into the corner is VERY hard. I tried sticking the tungsten out farther from the cup and the furthest out I can get is about 1/4" before it falls apart - that's running the gas at 25 cfh. The hardest part is seeing what's going on down in that corner. Any suggestions would be welcome. I tried to get some of the long cups that a friend suggested about but the local welding supply places do not stock them.



Also on the pulser any suggestions on settings? Tonight I tried a 50% pulse (100a top (50%), 50a bottom(50%)) at 100hz.



Thanks for the help guys!!

 

[HoleshotHolset]

Greg - thanks for the criticism... I need all the help I can get!



When I made that coupon - I glued up the right hand side, then the left. From there, I layed a bead all the way across. I lost it at the end... I think I was using too much heat.



As for the plasma cutting coupon... let's just say that the air supply was never what it should be for that machine. Dad's compressor always had a ton of water in the tank... dang New England moisture! I had a air/water separator right before the machine and some kind of $90 inline water trap with replaceable cartridges in it after that to help trap all the water.



The consumables were also a bit old. I bought the machine used as a demo unit from Hypertherm. Also - that's galvanized steel... that nasty slag almost seemed unavoidable when cutting that stuff. Luckily I never cut it that often.



Steve: I have always had a HUGE problem with the arc wandering all over the place using AC - I'm hoping to find out solutions to avoid that. Sounds like the pulse and balance options are helping out. That little TA inverter box sounds like it is working well so far. The biggest issue is that it's an inside corner... I'm thinking that a shorter arc length will help, but I tend to stay back for fear of sticking the tungsten to the workpiece. ... takes a lot of practice. Have you tried doing steel yet? I got a kick out of being able to fusion weld soft copper tubing.



I never tried a blunt tungsten and mostly used pure tungsten for aluminum. Other than that, I used 2% thoriated for mild steel and stainless work. Sharpening the tungsten was almost a waste of time... it balled up and the arc would just wander all over the place. Grrr.



Thanks,



Matt

 

[GHarman]

Steve, You dont need to weld inside the angle. You can melt through from the outside. No open root or purge required! I wish I could do a demo for you! Clean the edges with a file. The tops and bottoms, back about 1/4 inch with a stainless brush. Butt them tight. Tack-em, then weld from the outside. The puddle will sink as it penetrates, add a little rod and advance. Back off on your heat as you approach an outer edge. Better yet on angle, weld from the outside to the corner, the metal gets thicker! Slope out slow to avoid the crater.

Matt, keep the milk handy when burning or welding galvanized( for some the milk is worse=) ). Better-yet; Wear a respirator! Plasma cutting vaporizes metal. The smoke you are breathing is vaporized metal. I beg you to wear a resporator while plasma cutting. That stuff is worse than smoking 3 packs of CAMELS a day for 40 years in one day of cutting. Your personal health when you are my age is directly dependent on how you take care of yourself NOW. Have fun, Be aware! GregH.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

The reason I want to do it from the inside is because I want the outside of the base to be completely flat because that's what sits against the bottom of the table and I want the good looking side to be the bottom of what your seeing in the pictures because that's what the customers will see. I played around with the settings a bit more tonight and I got it MUCH better. It's good enough now that I can get the work out and improve over time. I have 4 tables that have to be delivered by Oct 6th. The practice welds I did tonight look 500% better than the MIG welds I did on the previous tables I shipped to this customer and that's with no grinding or clean up on these welds and I had to grind a TON on the MIG welds. It looks like I'll be able to get these done with zero grinding which will save a ton of time (probably 20 minutes per table). That along with the jig I'm building right now I should be able to cut at least 45 minutes off the build time of each table.



A friend of mine suggested trying to have the balance more towards cleaning and that might help with my arc wander problem and it did. I also turned up the frequency of the pulse and spread out the amperage on the pulse. The settings I'm using now are:



30 amp hot start

100 amp peak pulse current (50%)

40 amp base pulse current (50%)

300 Hz pulse frequency



100 hz AC frequency

50% wave balance



Here's a flat weld across a piece:



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Here's the back side of that same piece (the back side of the weld is not more than a few thousandths over the base material - can barely feel it. BIG improvement over the past):



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Here's a corner on the outside (fusion):



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Here's the inside of that same corner:



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I'm sure I'll improve a ton with more time but this is good enough to get the work out the door for now and is a huge improvement over past processes. Any further suggestions are still DEFINATELY appreciated.

 

[832]

Another thing to consider when welding aluminum and it will happen when you do more of it is to make sure that at the end of your weld in the crater to back your heat down and add filler so you don't have the crater present. What you will find like the other gentelmen said is that you get cracks in your weld that are visible which will lead to the weld failing. That is the number one failure for aluminum welds is when the person welding doesnt properly fill the weld crater. Also keep the torch there for a few seconds to let the shield gas keep the molten metal in a inhert atmosphere if you aren't already doing it. Welds are showing progress though.

 

[GHarman]

[

Excellent bead, Steve. Have you tried a gas lense collet body on your torch? It will allow you to extend your tungsten out far enough to get into the inside corner. What torch and model number are you using? I may have some part numbers for you. Try clamping a smooth flat heat sink to the outside edge ou your weld joint. This can be copper, steel, or stainless steel. Each type of heat sink has its own heat absorbtion characteristic, but will limit the penetration to a flat surface. Second time I typed this, lost the first, type slow. Neck hurts. Will add more later. Thread not cooperating. Have to type 10 more characters. GregH.

The settings I'm using now are:



30 amp hot start

100 amp peak pulse current (50%)

40 amp base pulse current (50%)

300 Hz pulse frequency



100 hz AC frequency

50% wave balance



Here's a flat weld across a piece:



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Here's the back side of that same piece (the back side of the weld is not more than a few thousandths over the base material - can barely feel it. BIG improvement over the past):



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Here's a corner on the outside (fusion):



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Here's the inside of that same corner:



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I'm sure I'll improve a ton with more time but this is good enough to get the work out the door for now and is a huge improvement over past processes. Any further suggestions are still DEFINATELY appreciated. [/QUOTE]

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

I haven't tried a gas lense yet but aren't they a larger diameter which would make getting in there harder yet? That's what it looks like on the Weld Pro video I have anyways. My torch is a CK17

 

[BBRam]

Steve, when you get it figured out, you can give me some lessons. I have the tig, but I havent tried aluminum yet. BRIAN

 

[GHarman]

Steve, The Gas lens Collet body and cup are larger in diameter. Dont let that fool you. (In some applications they may be considered unnecessary, like welding in a small hole. ) You will get superior gas coverage and be able to extend your tungsten out past the end of the cup in a corner weld 1/2" or better. The old style TIG collets and cups provide inefficient gas coverage for the flow rate and tend to aspirate atmosphere around the outside edge of the gas column due to turbulence. Gas lens collet bodies straighten out the gas flow and allow it to travel in a straight line with minimal turbulence. You can actually get better coverage with less flow. Using the old style collet bodies and cups is like putting BIAS ply RETREADS on a new Dodge/ Cummins truck=). I am using a 20 series, 250 Amp water cooled torch on my outfit. Tweco or Weldcraft, dont remember. The parts are interchangeable. The 17 series torch must be the air cooled unit. The cups for the 20 series torch are 3/4' O. D. at the shank and 1' long. Orifice size 1/4" to 1/2" I. D. in 1/16" increments. For your application I recommend 7/16"-1/2" orifice cup on a gas lens collet body. I dont know if they will fit your torch. Ask your dealer; you will need a collet, gas lens collet body, and cup.

 

[GHarman]

Steve, Didn't hear if you checked with your supplier so I contacted mine. Buckeye Welding Supply in Commerce City, Co. . Not being familiar with the particulars of a CK-17 torch ( I dont know it all=) ), I asked! Their response was that it was similar the WP-17 torch ( imagine that!). The part #'s they gave me for a 3/32" tungsten are; 45V26-gas lens, 10N24-collet, 54N15-#7 cup, 54N14-#8 cup. Number designations for cup sizes are the orifice size in 1/16" increments. Hope this helps. GregH.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

I have some on the way - should be here any day.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

I received my gas lens, cups, collet's, etc today. Probably won't get a chance to try it out for a couple weeks as I have some production I need to get done right now and then I'll be out of town for a week (going on a cruise for our anniversary). Will let you know how it works out when I get the chance to use them.

 

[GHarman]

Have FUN on your cruise. I get to work in my shop this weekend. Looking forward to running the milling machine. My welder is gathering dust=(. GH

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Continuing to plug away and am having a blast with this thing!! I built a jig for building the frames and built the 4 that I need to ship next week. It used to be a day long project to build 4 of these with the mig welder between cutting them, welding them, and then grinding down the ugly welds and dressing them up. I've got it down to 2 hours to build 4 of em and no grinding necessary at all :rockon: . Here's some pics of the latest work. Some of the jig was done with the tig welder and some with the mig. I have another jig I'm building right now that I'll post pics of in a little while.



First the jig with one half of the frame welded and about to cut the other side:



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These are the other side of the jig (cutting side) where I built mitre boxes that I cut the corners with using a portable band saw:



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Here's the other end of the jig (the welding end) showing the fitup pre-weld:



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and here's the corner welded:



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I'm using very little filler - about 2 inches worth on a frame - most of it is fusion welded because of the tight fit up thanks to the jig. What I do is clamp two long pieces in and cut the corners on one side of each, then I cut the two cross pieces. I turn the long pieces around and put a cross piece in the jig (weld end), clamp them in place, and weld them up on the top. Then I cut the opposite side of the long pieces, turn the frame around, put the other cross piece in the jig and weld the tops of those corners. Then flip the frame other and finish the insides of the corners. They look great.



Thanks for all your help thus far!