... What you want to use for aluminum is the green
Yep, that's what my friend who does the "fine" alu welding told me,
but the guy at the welding exuipment sales place told me to use the 'red' one.
Confused.
since you unit most likely has a high frequency arc stabilization built in.
Dunno.
Does it ?
Still more than slightly confused about the knobs here,
as the instructions that came with the equipment are ridiculously hard to understand.
Some drug-induced weird translation from Chines to English, and it seams that
there a no common way that the manufacturers use for describing the functions on the welding equipment.
The second thing is the filler rod. It is marked "AlMg5", which we can assume is 5356. 4043 has far less magnesium than that, being alloyed primarily with silocon. 5356 and 4043 are the two most popular fillers for aluminum. 4043 has the widest range of use, but 5356 is the one to use if the parts are to be anodized after welding. ...
Mmmmmm: I'm going to get a new bottle of argon tomorrow so I ask for some 4043 and see how it works.
Any drawback in using 5356 ?
Thank you for your patience with this here newbie !!!!!
Much appriciated.
OK, a clarification of a couple of things. The basic rule on tungsten diameter that I go by is not to weld with an electrode much larger than the thickness of the material that I'm welding. I generally use 1/16, 3/32, and 1/8 electrodes. I will weld up to 5/16 thick material from time to time with the 1/8 electrode, using multiple passes. Just don't try to weld .040 material with a 1/8 electrode as you will fight blowing holes in it.
Yes, your welder has high frequency. In DC mode is only works to start the arc, in AC mode it is on full time. It is an automatic feature of the machine and doesn't have a separate switch.
As far as what type of tungsten to use, with older machines if you were welding aluminum you needed to use pure tungsten (green end). With the newer inverter based machines that has changed. You can still use the pure, but the thoriated will keep a point on it welding AC with an inverter machine and allow you better control of where your arc is hitting the work. The square wave effect of the inverter machine makes this possible. With the traditional sine wave of the old machines thoriated would blow apart if you tried to use it with AC. I only use thoriated now, on everything I weld, and it works great. Makes buying supplies easier too. Most welders who learned the trade before inverter machines became common would not dream of using anything but green on aluminum, but technology sometimes changes things.
My machine is similar to yours, but doesn't have all the adjustments that you have. Maybe I can explain some of them a little bit to help.
Top left knob, PRE-FLOW TIME. Use this to adjust the amount of time that your argon flows after you hit the pedal and before the arc starts. Generally you don't need much more than a second or less of pre-flow, any more and you're wasting gas.
Top row, next one to the right, PEAK CURRENT. This controls the maximum amperage available when the pedal is mashed all the way. I generally leave mine set to the maximum, and control it with the pedal, unless I'm welding something very thin.
Top row, third from left, BASIC CURRENT. This is used in conjunction with the pulse feature. It should be set to a lower level than the PEAK CURRENT knob. (more about pulse later)
Top row, far right, DOWN SLOPE. This controls how much time the machine takes to decrease welding current to zero when you let off the pedal. I usually keep mine set at zero and use the pedal to control it.
Bottom row, left, ARC FORCE. I don't have this adjustment and am not quite sure what it would do to be honest. It may be an adjustment for the high frequency stabilization to allow you to use less in sensitive situations. I do know that some Miller and Lincoln square wave inverter machines have such an adjustment that allows welding without any high frequency at all when around computers and other equipment that may be damaged by it.
Bottom row, second from left, PULSE FREQUENCY. This is control for the built in pulse feature, which mimics pumping the pedal to turn the amperage up and down while welding. The benefit is that the machine is able to do it with perfect timing, and supposedly make more consistent welds. Frequency is just what it sounds like, how may times a minute or second it goes from peak to base current.
Bottom row, third from left, PULSE DUTY. This controls the percentage of time during the pulse cycle that the amperage is at maximum. I believe that the higher the knob is set the more time it will be at max, but experiment with it to see for yourself if you want to use the pulse feature.
Bottom row, fourth from left, CLEAN AREA WIDTH. This controls the percentage of time that the AC welding current is in electrode positive or electrode negative portion of the sine wave. One of the big advantages of inverter welders is that the circuitry can control the sine wave to make it asymetrical. This can be a big advantage in some instances, such as welding a dirty casting (you would want to set it so that you got more cleaning action, the electrons flowing from the metal toward the electrode carry impurities with them to the top of the pool), or getting extra penetration in very clean material (more electrons flowing from the electrode to the material makes more heat into the work.) Most of the time the middle position will be where you want to be, leave it set there while learning.
Bottom row, right, GAS AFTER FLOW. This controls how long the argon flows after the current stops. For aluminum, you want afterflow to keep the weld pool shielded until it cools enough that atmospheric gasses won't contaminate it. I leave mine set to max when welding aluminum. It uses more gas but makes better welds with less pitting at the end of the bead.
It looks like you've got the switches figured out. I'd recommend leaving the Pulse feature turned off while you're learning the basic technique. Most welders I know don't use it even if their machines have it.
This is how I understand it and what works for me, like I said before, your mileage may vary.
