1. Home
  2. ⚡ Welding Forums
  3. TIG Welding Aluminum with a Miller Dialarc using AC

TIG Welding Aluminum with a Miller Dialarc using AC

Hi to all.. I have been trying to practice wTig welding Aluminum using my Dialarc machine on AC. I am using Argon with a brown (tungsten and Zirconia) electrode ball shaped. I don't have access to a constant voltage machine right now. I am having a terrible time starting the arc. The weldament is clean and I run a SS brush over it before proceeding.

Any suggestions... or should I give up and buy a machine with Hi frequency???

Reply to
Fuseblower
Loading thread data ...

Uh, you *do* have your HF set to continuous, right? On AC your arc wants to go out every time it crosses zero 120 times a second. That's why the HF has a continuous setting.

Oh .. now after rereading it looks like you don't even have a DialArc HF at all. Well, no friggin' wonder.

If you have a DialArc HF set the HF to continuous. If you have a DialArc 250, may God have mercy on your soul - that machine will not!

Grant

Reply to
Grant

Its possible to do..but damned damned hard to do without HF.

You can pick up a HF box that would sit on top of your welding machine...

formatting link
or you could do as I do..and simply not tig aluminum with a tig rigged stick machine. I recently swapped up for an absolutely beautiful and mint older Cobra Heavy Duty Mig spool gun (has water coolant of the mig hose etc ) and and am using it for aluminum on top of one of my Miller 35s.

Im not a welder, nor do I play one on TV..sigh...but it really takes a proper HF tig machine to weld aluminum. Or a spool gun/mig

Or even stick

Gunner

'In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American... There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.. and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.' Theodore Ro osevelt 1907

Reply to
Gunner Asch

If you don't have high frequency you normally start the arc by scratching the tungsten across the parent metal - which will of course immediately contaminate the tungsten.....

Back before high frequency we used to use a small piece of sheet copper to start the arc. Just lay it on the parent metal and strike an arc on the copper and then move off onto the metal to be welded.

Cheers,

John B. (johnbslocombatgmaildotcom)

Reply to
John B.

You might have slightly better luck using a Tungsten doped with Cesium.

Dan

Reply to
dcaster

Thanks for the great advice from all of you. I am obviously using the wrong equipment for aluminum. I guess I had better start saving my pennies for an Inverter or a Synchrowave maybe. gunner suggested a HF add-on , I wonder will this adapt to my Dialarc, I must check that out.

Also Gunner...I like your quote from Thedore Rosevelt...It applies here in Canada as well....

Thanks again Keep your Rods Warm...

Reply to
fuseblower2

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.