Miller Dynasty tig welding aluminum question

question from web site visitor

I am welding .032 5052 aluminum and am having a hard time getting both sides of a lap joint up to welding temp at the same time. I am using a Miller dynasty at 35 amps, not sure about the type of tungsten. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks,

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Mark,

thin lap joints are a pain. First things first. Make sure you are not using pure tungsten. When using an inverter tig welder, Pure tungsten is as useless as tits on a bull.

Use either 2% thoriated, ceriated, or lanthanated. (I just changed over to 2% lanthanated as an all purpose electrode and it is working great for DC and AC welding).... sharpen it not quite as sharp as you would use for steel. Set the balance to 60 hz freq to 120. main amperage to around 35--50 and control with foot pedal.

the main thing other than the settings is torch angle, You almost want to weld it like it was a butt joint. IF you point the electrode in to the edge it will curl away and make you cuss.

the other thing is arc length. dont use a long arc.

Light up and move the arc slightly from the edge to the base making sure they both puddle evenly before proceeding.Also, you need to tack stuff that thin around every 2 inches. and make sure not to have gaps.good luck....