Welding Aluminum...Top 10 Mistakes Noobs make TIG welding Aluminum

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"Hobart and Lincoln both offer 1-2 week Tig Welding Classes...just do it! "

"Hobart and Lincoln both offer 1-2 week Tig Welding Classes...just do it! "

1. Forgetting to set high frequency to continuous when tig welding aluminum ….. this will result in the machine stuttering at low amperage because the alternating current will loose some of its half cycles when the direction of the current changes. Its pretty obvious and hard to miss. If the machine sounds like a Volkswagen with one spark plug wire missing, this is probably what it is.

2. Wrong size electrode … the electrode gets really hot at 250 amps on a/c. Using the same size tungsten as you would on DCEN does not work! The tip of the electrode will ball up and quiver and will eventually explode into your weld. Trying to weld beer cans with a 1/8” electrode is just as bad. The arc will wander and you will cuss.

If tig welding aluminum is making you cuss, you are doing something wrong.

3. Wrong size filler rod …too small a filler rod will result in the rod melting before it ever gets to the puddle. Too big a rod can actually block the shielding gas and will suck the heat right out of the puddle.

4. Cleaning aluminum with a carbon steel brush instead of using a stainless steel wire brush … every text book tells you to brush aluminum with a stainless steel brush dedicated for aluminum. The books are right on this one.

5. Too much torch angle … too much angle of the dangle will melt the filler metal and make it blob into the puddle. When you use the right torch angle which usually means only about 10 degrees tilt, the wire will feed into the puddle instead of blobbing.

6. Too long an arc see number 5…you have got to find a sweet spot where your arc is close enough but not so close that you spend more time prepping electrodes than you do tig welding aluminum.

7. Too much argon on the torch ….this one is subtle because most resources for tig welding aluminum recommend too much torch gas. If the arc is really noisy…like rattling your brains out, you probably have too much argon flow. For a 7/16” tig cup, you only need about 13-15 cfh depending on how far you have to extend the electrode. More torch gas is not better.

8. Not enough electrode stickout …some manuals are just plain whack when it comes to electrode stickout. Hobart training manuals actually recommend only 1 to 1 ½ electrode diameters.! thats whack!!! If you can’t see the tip of the electrode, you can’t be sure your arc length is right. Right??

Use this rule of thumb: Extend the electrode far enough to see the tip without getting a pinched nerve in your neck. No more than that.

9. Using pure tungsten ….pure tungsten is is not that great. it balls up nicely but thats about all it has going for it. For years, textbooks have called for pure tungsten for tig welding aluminum. But pure tungsten often requires using a bigger electrode. And some inverter tig welders dont like pure tungsten at all.

If you want a good all purpose electrode , good for a/c and dcen. Get some 2% lanthanated.

10. Balling the electrode …never “ball” the electrode. Just round it.. the ball shouldn’t resemble a monkey fist or tootsie roll pop. That ball makes the arc wander all around at low amperage. Who needs that?

11. Not using a tig finger

When you are about to pee in your pants because your fingers are so hot, its hard to make a good weld.

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Tig Welding Aluminum Tee Joint

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Today we are tig welding a vertical uphill tee joint.

Vertical fillet welds are called the "3F position" in AWS terminology.

I am using 11 ga 6061t6 aluminum. 

11 ga is 1/8" thick or .125" (about 3mm)

Tig welding vertical up is not all that different from welding flat or horizontal but there are a few things to keep in mind that makes it a lot easier.

Tig welding aluminum in the vertical position is most always going to go slower than if you were welding flat or horizontal where you could get more comfortable and be steadier.

Still, you want to try to go at a pace of around 1/8" (3mm) per second.

That means you should be adding rod every second and moving the torch about 1/8" in between each dabbing of the filler rod.

that will give you a travel speed of 1 inch every 8 seconds or around 8 inches per minute.

Here are some tips to think about to make your tig welding aluminum go better.

balling the electrode vs pointed...whats the best choice for aluminum?

Whether you round the electrode or use a tapered electrode depends a lot on the application.

for example, welding at the high end of an electrodes amperage range can make it do weird things. Little nodules can grow and spit into the weld.  Rounding the tip slightly helps in those situations.

Other times, being able to light up crisply at low amps is important and thats when I use a tapered electrode. It also helps in pinpointing the arc more precisely than you can with a balled or rounded tip.

Here is how to round the tip of a tungsten electrode using an inverter or other machine equipped with AC balance.

Adjust the AC balance to put more Electrode positive into the welding current.

using a piece of copper or aluminum, or clean bright steel, hold the electrode around 1/4" inch of the metal and press the foot pedal to start an arc. Increase amps slowly until you see the tip get bright and it will round a bit. Press  the foot pedal just enough slightly round the tip so as not to put a big ball on it.

Now set your AC balance control back to around 65% EN and you are ready to resume welding.

The need for foot or torch mounted amp control

Aluminum is very conductive. At first you need lots of amperage, but when the piece you are welding gets saturated with heat, you need much less amperage.  Without an amperage control, you cant make adjustments to compensate for aluminum's conductivity.

Prepping Aluminum for welding.

The most important thing is to make sure there are no oils or grease and you want to do this before you start brushing or sanding.

Remove residues with acetone BEfore using a wire brush or abrasive.

Brushing before wiping with acetone will contaminate your brushes and possibly just smear the gunk into the surface making it very difficult to remove.

Wipe with Acetone, wire brush with clean stainless steel brush, or use other abrasives wheels designed for aluminum.

Its even a good idea to label your wire brushes so that you only use certain brushes on aluminum.

How to prop while you are tig welding aluminum

There is always a way to prop.

But sometimes it takes some ingenuity to create a prop.

Why not just carry your prop in your pocket like me?

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