Jeff ---

Have you tried welding thin sheet metal with DCEP?? On TIG??

That's funny. My guys go through cases of that crap a year welding farm fencing. I grew up thinking that was the only way to weld! :_paranoid

Hey -- I used to BRAZE (with brass fill rod and that welding stuff called Oxy Acetylene!) fenders on and patch panels... and anything thicker than that was 6011!

Oh -- gee -- and then we discovered bondo reacts (not favorably!) with brass! LOL

I'm always waiting to recognize some of those "crap repairs" we "discover" now on these 40+ year old cars... as something I might have done!! :rofl:

So this was YOU, you bastage! Now I'm faced with trying to fix all this crap!

http://pic40.picturetrail.com/VOL267.../399560662.jpg

One of my friends was looking at this and commenting on what a half-assed bs repair it was... that's just how it was done years back. Painful, but common.

Jeff-

I did flip it over there tonight and try to start an arc on some 18ga. Even with the setting on 75, it put out a glow like I was welding thick aluminum and turned the tungsten red almost immeadiately and balled the end of it. Of course it blew right through the 18ga. DCEP must use much lower settings than DCEN?
I didn't continue to fool with it because obviously I needed to ask someone what sort of stoopid sheet I was doing with electrode positive... :_paranoid

Jeff-

OMG!! I remember that car!!



:willy: :willy: :rofl:



Seriously Jeff -- I'm really not that good of a welder.... better than many -- not nearly as talented as I'd like to be... not enough steady day in and day out welding to get to expert level. My skill is more from many many years of welding various 'stuff' -- and understanding the warp - the clamp - and being able to get 'er done.

DCEP is not something I'd bother with in TIG - because - WTF - it's hard enough making nice just trying to do the standard stuff the standard way. But it is "described" as a way to weld thin sheet. I can weld thin sheet in DCEN so "why bother" doing it any other way....

The reason I "PUSH" the Dynasty 200 machine - because it has so many controls that help us do better work. The settings really do help - pulse - and frequency control etc. and it will do the gauges that we commonly work in. I don't see the need to ever buy another machine for TIG unless this one gives up the ghost some day.

If I was welding frames all day -- I'd have a bigger machine and a water cooled torch... But I weld a little here and a little there - a patch panel - a bracket - someones busted up lawn mower... and it's more than enough for that. I have a couple torches -- the #2 is used the most - it's small and has a super supple supply line....

Please, Please get yourself some 2% Lanthanated or Ceriated and stop using Pure tungsten for your Aluminum welding, you won't believe the difference in performance. Also when welding 1/16 wall aluminum tubing, 3/32 dia. electrode works well.

From what I've been seeing on the bench and what I've been reading in this post that is what I'm going to do... I started with a 3/32 orange band and with 3/32 filler rod that came with the welder. I've switched to 1/16" filler which seems to be more controllable and I think the rest of my early issues fall back to how I was grinding the tungsten.

The switch to TIG has definately been a learning experience and I've got a simple TIG welder... it looks like it is going to be a whole new ball game when I step up to something bigger that has more buttons and dials!:lol:

Still I've made huge progress since the first sparks! I've got dimes, quarters, lumps.... but no melt downs. 3" Vibrant intercooler tubing.. The picture makes it look huge but the weld is less than 1/4"
http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/v...0Pics/Weld.jpg

You really don't need to scuff the aluminum with the wire brush etc if you're welding with A/C... the A/C will do the cleaning.

Try it.

Can you set frequency etc on your welder?

Looks like it might have been wire brushed after the welding. If not there is not much cleaning etch visible around the weld.