Marty Escarcega wrote:


In my case, never having welded aluminum before, I had a local club
member come over to check things out and he gave me some pointers. What
he told me to watch for was the shiny spot, that shiny spot on the
aluminum is the weld pool and what to watch for. The tough thing for me
was not developing the "shiny spot" rather, learning to back off the heat
and not weld too hot...never going to get that "stacked look of dimes"
that way. I did manage to do it a couple times. I know this is gonna take
a bunch of practice!

I use a NexGen EQC, I also picked up a 2X magnification lens, should help
the aging eyes. TIG demo today at my house, going to have a crowd of club
members there!
I don't think magnification is any problem. Doing test samples, I can
get plenty close to see what I'm doing. The "shiny spot" is quite
clear. I guess the idea is to keep that weld pool very small.

I hadn't found my thoriated electrodes when I was last trying the
aluminum, and was having a HELL of a problem with pure Tungsten
electrodes. I found those Thoriated electrodes, and they made a huge
difference when welding steel. So, I will have to try a few pieces of
aluminum and see how it works. I just got a refill on the Argon bottle.

Jon