Miller Settings!!!

by Charlie
(Louisville Ky)

Hey Mr Jody

I enjoy your web site as I have learned a LOT!

My Question is I have a Syncrowave 200 Miller and the instruction manual does not cover the alum.

Settings good on balance adjusting and dig settings?? (2 settings for alum what do they do and mean) You displayed a picture in your site showing the balance setting on high for proper alum.

Penetration, is this the correct setting? Miller’s manual is hard for a new welder to understand.

I don’t know why making things is addictive!!

Thanks for your web site and your indirect training... you are helping and providing a service for the work force of AMERICA! Keep it up!

Respectfully
Charlie Newman
Louisville Ky

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Charlie,

Thanks for the props.

The A/C balance on a miller syncrowave adjusts how much electrode positive / electrode negative mix in the alternating current wave.

the dig is for stick welding and higher settings give an aggressive arc and lower setting give a softer arc.

if you are not stick welding with your syncrowave 200 , just forget about the dig for now.



lets just talk about balance for tig welding aluminum...

to simplify it a little, you know how when you weld steel, that the heat is much more pinpointed than with a/c?...

thats because the direction of the flow of the electricity is like a garden hose coming out of the tip of the tungsten.

but if you set the machine on dcep (reverse polarity) that reverses the direction of the flow of electricity like the tig torch is a vacuum cleaner...and all the heat is directed at the tungsten and the tungsten gets hot and melts even a a really low amperage.

but dcep is where you get whats called a cleaning action from electrons bombarding the surface of the aluminum like a sandblaster. That is what allows you to penetrate that oxide layer of aluminum that is almost like a peel coat of plastic.

so that is why aluminum is welded on a/c because you get some characteristics of both dcen, and dcep...penetration from the dcen, and cleaning from the dcep.

sometimes you need a lot of cleaning, like on a pontoon boat that has been outside oxidizing for years...then you would set the ac balance for more cleaning.

sometimes you need penetration more like if you are building an aluminum truck box out of brand new diamond plate and you want a more pinpointed arc and you dont want that frosty band of cleaning action all around the welds.

adjusting the ac balance higher towards max penetration will give you more dcen and a more pinpointed arc....

for new metal I lean towards welding between 8 and 10 most of the time.

hope this helps,

jody