Re:learning to weld
 

I wish I had a TIG to play with.. don't u have instructors there that know what they are doing?

Re:learning to weld
 

no instructors, really. its for something called formula SAE. im learning how to tig because we make a race car every year, and all of our really good welders have graduated. the only instruction ive had is the basics of setting up the welder and general technique, shown to me by one of the people that will be leaving

Re:learning to weld
 

how hot are your running it, and what type of filler metal are you using, you might wanna try ER4043, make sure the base metal and your filler metal are both clean of any oxide that has formed. it would really help out if you could tell me what position your welding in and what type of joints your welding. and what kind of lincoln elertic welder you are using.

quadnie is right, don't your instructors know what there doin

Re:learning to weld
 

bringing this back from the dead...

i figured out what the problem was. i wasnt getting close enoung to the metal, and i also was not getting the Al clean enough.

i showed one of my peices to the grad student who has been helping me, and he said i wasnt getting the Al clean enough. so, i got a couple peices REALLY clean, and tried to weld them in front of him. still got crappy results. he then tried doing it to see if it was something with my set-up, and he got it to work well. turns out i wasnt getting close enough to the surface, and this was letting too much oxygen into the metal. i then tried it again, this time getting the tip as close as i could, and it worked quite well. in fact, my weld was better than the grad student's own ;D

Re:learning to weld
 

now this is the torch part you're talking about that is flowing shielding gas that wasn't penetrating the welding area?

Re:learning to weld
 

yup. that little bastard gets friggin HOT when its set to AC voltage