help me on setting Lincoln Invertec V205-T AC/DC

Anybody has knowledge on this topic?

Your machine settings seem good, you're trying to do a rather difficult weld though and it's going to take a good deal of practice. Start with some thicker material, you need something thick enough to be able to see the puddle of melted aluminum before it falls apart.

Practice. Practice a lot. If you need the job done soon, send it to someone who can do it or hire them to come and do it at your shop so you can watch them.

Best of luck with it,

John

John, thank you you give me will power to continue. I enjoy myseelf to weld like hobby, I get your suggestion to meka practice and practice, but have you any tips for me ? Exploring Intenet I have seen some works of the same thickness well done, before I am not thinking was possible and may be that my machine is able to do that.

Sorry for my English I am Italian.

Any luck it will be accepted !!!

Atomino

Gunner just posted this link. Its a good beginner's TIG (GTAW) welding article for aluminum.

It tells you all the things you need to do to start welding aluminum. The kind of weld you are trying to do (welding a corner) is a difficult weld. Maybe you should practice first on a flat piece of scrap from the aluminum that you are using, and once you find the right settings and are making a good weld, go to the piece that you really want to weld right away.

No problem!

Don't worry about your English, it's a lot better than my Italian.. I think the best thing you could do is spend a couple of hours, maybe more, going through the Google archives for this group. There's so much useful information there that it'll take quite a while to go through it, you'll learn more than you'd imagine.

Practice too..

Good luck, let us know how it goes,

John

Many thanks to John and Artemia,

I will start to make practice, regarding your suggestions.

I will inform you on my progress...

Atomino

Atomino,

Your English is much better than my Italian!

I notice you mention "green" tungstens. Here in the USA green is the color code for pure tungsten. According to Ernie, one of our most illustrious contributors, pure tungstens "suck eggs". I hope the sense of this translates well.

But at the expense of irritating Ernie by speaking for him without his permission, I THINK Ernie is suggesting that ANY other tungstens (such as lanthanated, ceriated, thoriated, etc.) is better than PURE tungstens.

Furthermore, I THINK I remember that Ernie recommended ceriated tungstens for low amperage work. However, I do not remember if ceriated tungstens are appropriate for aluminum.

I am fearful that Ernie has had a nervous breakdown from answering so many questions by us in here. I haven't seen anything from him lately. Therefore, I will continue to screw up his great advice until he returns to claim his TIG throne.

Vernon - TIG upstart

Vernon

Your setting look right except for the amperage. You say 6 but I think you mean 60. 60 is about what you need.

I would suggest you first practise on some aluminum about 6 mm thick. and just make a puddle and move the puddle across the piece. When I first tried welding aluminum, I did not have the current set high enough and was not getting any aluminum to melt.

For a box with 1.5 mm thick aluminum, I would clamp a block of copper on the inside against the seam you are going to weld. Then set the box so the seam is horizontal and weld on the outside of the box. The copper will help keep from burning holes. Next month you won't need the copper, but might as well make it as easy as possible now.

Dan

Many thanks at all and now also to Dan, I will take practice with the suggestion to use a block of copper.

See you later, I will update with my progress, next week I will be in holiday so that I can take more practice, I hope my friend will found some pieces of aluminium to throw away.

Atomino

Sorry but I have two more questions now : the electrode must be pointed or not ? Do I need filler rod also during practice? Need to clean the aluminium before and in what kind I have to do ?

Atomino

When welding aluminum with a pure ( Green ) tungsten, you make an arc on a bit of scrap and increase the current until the end of the tungsten melts and forms a ball on the end. Maybe a little easier to do if the tungsten is some what pointed.

You don't need filler rod when you first start practicing.

You should clean the aluminum. I clean aluminum with sandpaper to get the clear oxide off.

Dan

Nervous breakdown..........hmmmmmmm. Must give that some thought.

No I have just been buried teaching and contracting. Little time for usenet.

I have checked in every once and a while and everyone seemed to be tooling along without any interference needed from myself.

Ceriated and Lanthanated are the 2 tungsten types that are AC/DC.

Lanthanated is best for all around TIG.

Ceriated is best for extremely low amperages.

Zirconiated are AC only, but they do have the highest current capacity for AC

Thoriated will almost work on AC, but they degrade rapidly and tend to shed bits into the weld puddle, so they are best used on DC only

And green is best for sucking eggs. Yes???

By the way, I bought two boxes of 1.5% lanthanated tungstens from our local Praxair.

The box of 10 3/32" tungstens was more than fifty bucks! The two boxes and a few doo-dads was over a hundred dollars!

Of interest (and concern) is that these ProStar brand (made in China) tungstens contain a warning to the effect that "these tungstens contain thorium, a radioactive material (yada yada). I don't know if that verbage simply got recyclied from their thoriated tungsten labels or if they're saying that even lanthanated tungstens contain some thorium. I was slightly miffed by this (not to mention $100 poorer) because I bought 'em due to the collective concern about the health hazards of grinding thoriated tungstens.

Glad to see you're back. Especially glad to know we didn't drive you off the deep end.

V

Lanthanted tungstens contain no THoria. The boxes were likely recycled.

By your tungstens online from Aglevtech on eBay. The cost about $12 per box of 10 3/32", 1.5% Lanthanated, plus maybe $4 shipping.

...I start to make practice with these results:

- electrode 1.6 mm (0.060 in) pure tungsten

- amperage between 30 and 45 amp

- AC welding frequency 130Hz

- AC balance 50%

if I start to weld externally from the beginning of the corner and the two edges are fused making an hole, otherwise if start shortly after the welding it seems good but I don't know how to proceed withe the two end, I have put inside a stainless steel block, I am looking for copper, all without filler rod. Other problem, if there is a little sheet separation is impossible to weld like the beginning of the corner, only holes, the puddle instead to go to meet the other sheet go in opposite side enlarging the separation.

The same result also for internal corner.

So, for the moment I am able to weld only external corner in intermediate segment.

Any suggestions ? I am going to terminate my scraps.....

Ernie, sorry I forgot a question about electrode, in my case, aluminium and low amperages, Ceriated can be better than pure tungsten?

Atomino, I am in central italy (Molise, near Campobasso), where are you located?

-tony

Hi tony,

I continue to speak in english to respect the usenet forum, I live in Pisa .

i have a website (in italian) at

there is a "Library" (libreria) section .. in there you should find a few articles about TIG welding (aluminum), electrode sharpening, etc. maybe they could be of some help.

Pisa is a bit far, but if you feel like driving down, I'd be happy to help with the aluminum welding.

-tony