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Unread 10-02-2015, 11:36
catacon catacon is offline
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FRC #1444 (Lightning Lancers)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Rookie Year: 2006
Location: St. Louis
Posts: 154
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Re: 1444's First Fully TIG-Welded Frame

Quote:
Originally Posted by JamesCH95 View Post
Very nice!

I would suggest two things (as someone who has earned certs in aluminum and steel TIG):

1) 50/50 Ar/He gas is wonderful, especially for welding thicker aluminum sections. The added heat transfer from helium allows you to weld thicker material at lower currents as well as run higher currents on smaller electrodes. Welding thin sections also benefits from 50/50 as well.

2) Toss the pure tungsten, it is pure garbage. I know it's 'old school' to use pure tungsten, but it's simply not as good as alloyed tungsten in current capacity or arc stability. A zirconated (yellow) or E3 (purple) tungsten will hold a point under load, resulting in better arc control, and the end will never melt and fall into the weld pool.

Otherwise, keep up the good work!
Thanks for the advice! I'd love to give Ar/He mix a try. We have a bunch of pure electrodes, so I figured I would use those up before getting something nicer.