Tig Aluminum Problems

[Dozerash]

I picked up a Primeweld 225X to weld aluminum and thin steel. I have watched several videos on setting up this machine. For some reason I cannot weld with it. I can’t get a nice puddle going, it just melts the material and balls up the tungsten. I’m careful not to dip the tungsten and have tried different angles and distance (same luck). I have a tungsten grinder, I’m using gray and purple tungsten (about the same luck). Amps are set 1 amp per .001” (128 amps). Using foot pedal (seems to work as it should). I wire brushed and cleaned the material. Tungsten stick out is about 1/4”. Plugged into 220. I have welded aluminum with Mig spoolgun and a long time ago I ran a Heliarc which I could weld dirt bike clutch covers and other parts. That seemed easy to weld clean aluminum back then. I posted a picture of my settings and my aluminum mess. If someone sees anything obvious please let me know. Thanks

 

[Yomax4]

Be sure you are electrode negative, Turn your balance to around 20% instead of 40% where you have it now. Flip the pulse on and set at 1-2 pulses per second to slow everything down and pulse and background current to 50%..try that.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Use a larger cup size also for better gas coverage.