Ok brand new smiley, 3/32" red 2% thoriated tungsten, 1/16" 309 filler rod. 304 stainlless pipe from acestainless, 100% argon set at 17-18cfh and running around 65-70amps. I wire wheeled the ---- outa my metal, used aceton on both metal and rod before welding. This is my result. WTF?

Not showing contamination....


Flow....


------- results!!!

 

How fast are you moving? Set on DC right?

 

I'm moving pretty darn slow from what I can tell... It seems like the second I strike the arc and get a puddle, I can see contaminants floating in the puddle, no matter how hard I wire wheel and acetone it.

This is how the welder is set at... DC yes.

 

i know what is going on, your collet that holds the tungston tight is backwards.

it still tightens and holds the tungston down and you can still hear the gas in there but it is at a way lower flow rate. try taking the end cap off and turning the collet around.

 

This is how I have it.... aside from my cup is backwards in the pic lol.

 

ok it looks like the metal is crappy and your not getting enough gas coverage, is there even a slight breeze where you are welding?

 

Try to stop dropping ***. The hydrogen in methane leads to hydrogen enbrittlement.

Seriously though, I'd say crank the gas up just for ***** and giggles. Worst you can do is waste $2 in extra gas. I'd try to check if there was a leak somewhere after the solenoid valve, that would make the flow meter go up, but not give enough gas. You might also want to try diffferent metal as alluded to. If there's one thing I learned, 'learning' a new welder is one thing you don't want to do with ---- materials or w/o the right tools.

 

all of the pipe is brand new from acestainless... I have cranked the gas up with the same results(cranked as in 25-40cfh). I will have to check the solenoid valve thinger... its a brand new machine but its also a brand new smiley lol so its bound to have problems I think.

More suggestions if you have them though!

 

in the one pic it looks like the pulse current is on, maby take that down to zero. im not sure what that does, or i that high freq start?

 

why does your tungsten look rusted? put the tungsten further into the collet body. Have you tried to just fuse it together without filler. Maybe the filler is bad. But it just could be your tungsten. Mine has never looked like that lol. and why are you welding schedule 40 stuff at like 60amps