Power Tig 185 Micro Low Amp Use

[cbmkr]

Tried welding some aluminum cans, and never thought that everyone welding cans was using lower amps than my machine would start at in AC.

Here are some of my conversations with Mark.

Mark

Hate to bother you but i was passing time and was welding on some pop cans, Actually had some success laying decent beads and joining some cans,seems like the arc was popping in and out a lot . I tried to raise the amps and it got a lot better.
But burning thru was a problem, Area being welded the bottom edge of the can , I also did some on the flat bottom and side and still had popping. Machine setting was 11 amps AC Freq 200 hz, AC Balance 20% , 1/16" Tungsten #4 nozzle , gas 18 cfm.

Throw some ideas my way if you can gas , to low amps for this machine not enough settings to dial it in ???

Butch,
You guessed it. Too low of amps. The 185 is rated for 20 amps on AC for minimum controlled arc/start. Only the 250EX and 256 have the low amp start on AC.
If you get lower, fine, but this is our rating on it from the beginnning and what the factory promised. If you are wanting to do can work, raise the AC balance to 40 or 50% and put more heat on the tungsten. Gas is kind of high. I'd say around 12. Frequency probably is best around 120 or so.[/QUOTE]

I tried some of his suggestions set the machine to 22 amps and balance to 40%, nozzle to a number 6 and the gas to 12cfm.
Also started with 1/16" filler but had better success with 3/32, seems the larger filler rod pulls the heat away from the base material.
I wish i had some .040 tungsten to try but i do not, material thickness showed .00030 on my Mitutoyo

Here are some pics of the welds , i know they do not look to good but i think with tungsten size and machine limits i was pushing it to get this quality.

[MoparCar]

Hey that's pretty cool. I've pondered the low amp AC arc on the machines too and always thought it would be nice on the whole line up of TIGS but I honestly probably wouldn't use it except for practice as you are doing. But then again if you have it you'll probably find a use for it! Thanks for posting Mark's advice for the soda cans.

[performance]

Don't forget that the sugars left in the can, add carbon and make soot so don't feel bad...That's a good weld...The cans will break before the weld does. lol. (although ideally, the weld should yield at the same time the rest of the metal does...but who we kidding??? A weld like this deserves to be stronger than the surrounding metal.