inside corner joint - whats the secret

[dgarnier]

I gotten the hang of running beads and butt welds on both steel and aluminum, but the inside corner joint is not woring too well. The arc favors one side or the other, some times I get the tungsten point so close to the side the arc jumps out the side of the tungten to got to the other side. My latest attemps have been on 3/16" wall 1" square aluminum tube welding tee's. For the 2 butt welds I can run a nice bead and looks like a stack of dimes with a few nickels mixed in. I could call it good enought with just the two welds, but I would like to learn the inside corner before I get started on another project. I am using a 2% cerited 3/32 tungsten and 3/32 4043 filler #7 cup and 10 cfh

[MikeGyver]

Try to (quickly) develop the puddle on both sides evenly. Put more heat into the thicker/larger part then add filler to it once the puddle develops. Then merge that blob to the other part by adding filler to the other side. Once you bridge the gap it's smooth sailing since filler will fllow onto both parts depending on how you distribute the heat.

[Timberwolf]

mike has a pretty good explanation but you can also give it a quick pulse of move amps to force the arc off the end of then tungsten to where you want it to go. Also make sure the tungsten has a nice grind and is properly shaped for what you are wanting to do.

[dgarnier]

well its not pretty but building up a gob to get the puddle seemed to work. Now I am going to try with a 1/16" filler and see if I can get a smaller bead on this 1/8" flat stock. That is the 3/32 tungsten I am using.

Attachment 2302

[Timberwolf]

That's a T joint. Looks like you're getting it. Grind a small land on the end of the tungsten. It will help it take the amps when welding on A/C. For DC I would keep it just the way it is. just jam the tungsten in right in between the two and light up. The heat will build up then as you feed in filler it will wick itself up to the top piece. from the looks of it you've already kind of picked up on that. Just keep at it