Thread: Balled tungsten for Aluminium

yep, sharp tip melts away. I normally grind to a point as normal, then knock the tip off the point on the grinder then do a run at highish amps and it balls straight away....then I commence work on my job.

I have no idea what the advantage of doing this is though.

All welding equipment will have a manual stating the preferred way to use their product. You could have a 2 similar welding machines, and lets use tig as our example, from 2 different manufacturers. If these 2 machines are from the same vintage and have the technology you will find that operating them will be very much the same as well and the consumables they use will be similar.

Getting to the point (pardon the punt), all transformer based tig welding machines will operate best with thoristed (for all dc- welding ) and zirconiated (for all ac welding). These machines using this technology using the above mentioned tungsten electrodes will always ball up the ends. Balling up the tips is not as easy as some others have said because if you dont have a nice shiny balled tip your finished welds on aluminium will be difficult to acheive. Sometimes a small knodule may form on the tungsten like a small pimple and it may be in the middle or on the side. You will be still be able to run a bead but it will be difficult to control as the arc will wonder all over the place. Your aim should be like the end of a ball point pen and you will get the best out of the welder and the rest is up to the skill of the operator.

All inverter type tig welder machine obviously use a different technolgy than transformer based machines. I believe that they are so much better to use and have the advantage of been more portable. We put money into R&D to improve and expand on what we all ready have for the benefit of the end user and the inviroment. These inverter tig machines reduce the time it takes to heat the parent metal to begin welding and the benefit is saving $ in power and gas. They use rare earth tungsten electrodes which are designed to be used pointed for a more focused arc aimed at just where you want to put your weld. Small tight welds can be acheived and less concern about swapping tungstens for aluminium to steel welding

If you have a inverter tig follow the recommendations by the manufacturer and you will get the best out of your tig. One final thing, these inverters use far less power than transformer units and you will notice this on your power bill. It probally costs you more to sit and watch your lcd or plasma tv for an hour than welding with the inverter for the same time

I hope that i answered your question cause i felt that i ran of track a bit.

Originally Posted by 19brendan81

yep, sharp tip melts away. I normally grind to a point as normal, then knock the tip off the point on the grinder then do a run at highish amps and it balls straight away....

thanks Brendan, yeah this is what I did the first few times, then wondered why bother? I noticed that regardless of the amount of tungsten balling, the cleaning width was about the same and welding seemed better when sharp.

Originally Posted by Dobre

They use rare earth tungsten electrodes which are designed to be used pointed for a more focused arc aimed at just where you want to put your weld. Small tight welds can be acheived and less concern about swapping tungstens for aluminium to steel welding...

So when I was practicing on some 2mm aluminium I just went for using a sharp pointed 2.4mm tungsten, but on relatively low amps and I found it much better (more accurate, better penetration, less heat affected zone, etc.). I was using 50% AC balance and the tip stayed reasonably sharp. Hence my original question - is there any advantage to balling? Dobre - I think you've answered it - probably not if using an inverter machine and rare earth tungsten. For the record, my machine is an IGBT inverter of the 4-in-1 variety. To date I've found this to be flawless but I keep my fingers firmly crossed (which is my excuse for my hopeless filler rod feeding technique).

Originally Posted by Dobre

...I hope that i answered your question cause i felt that i ran of track a bit.

Personally I'm happy to have as much extra information as you're willing to give even if it takes a while to get to the question. Thanks - Mick

Ok then, the advantage would be in producing a wider/broader weld and this may help you when welding thicker mater. In effect the tungstens arc is larger and not pin pointed and this may appeal to you as an advantage. Basically this is how that type of machine and tungsten work. Maybe some one with electonic back ground can push this further. As you have an inverter machine you would struggle to change the way the welder will form the end of the tungsten. Mind you it will still form a very small ball end but nothing like it would with a zirconated tungsten (the same diameter as the tungsten) and transformer machine.

I use the Zirconated rod with my inverter and it never balls up which I expected but it ends up sort of splitting at the end and makes tigging very difficult.
Any idea what could be causing this.
No problem with tigging stainless using thoriated tips.

The splitting can be caused by grinding the tungsten on a wheel that has been used for grinding and cleaning steel and anything else. Keep one grind wheel just for your tungstens.

Originally Posted by Dobre

It probally costs you more to sit and watch your lcd or plasma tv for an hour than welding with the inverter for the same time
.

you must have a a bloody big tv .?

Originally Posted by Dobre

The splitting can be caused by grinding the tungsten on a wheel that has been used for grinding and cleaning steel and anything else. Keep one grind wheel just for your tungstens.

Thanks for the advice mate.
I'll have to buy a cheap grinder from work just for welding tips.

BTW can you grind the different electrodes on the same wheel.

Originally Posted by lornety

you must have a a bloody big tv .?

I wish. It was to make the point that these small inverters are really power efficient. So this is another reason why they are a good purchase for home use.

Originally Posted by Dobre

I wish. It was to make the point that these small inverters are really power efficient. So this is another reason why they are a good purchase for home use.

only till you run them on a generator and you will find out how much power they take to run.