Hello all,

I am very new to welding . Right now I have done some steel and aluminum, simple practice stuff, and have not done very well. I'm trying to make a shelf unit out of 1" square, 1/8" wall aluminum extruded tubing. I got 1/8 wall because it was freely available and relatively cheap, but should probably have gone with a 1/16 wall.

Anyway my first request is could there be a video made showing how best to start a fillet weld on tee joints? There's lot's of stuff on butt welded plates, which seems to be a bit easier, but I have a hell of a time getting a fillet weld started.

Extra info: I should also add that I am trying TIG, on a Lincoln precision TIG 185. I've been running a number 5 cup 3/32" lanthanated tungsten. AC at roughly 70% penetration / 30% cleaning (it's just a dial knob so a bit approximate). Maximum current is set to 160 amps - not sure what current I am really running because I'm not going full tilt on the pedal.

I did just watch "Intro to TIG Welding EP11 - How NOT to TIG Weld" which has certainly raised some interesting points and given me a good direction to check.

And now my first question, which is - when your aluminum weld bead is all gray, rather than shiny, what does that indicate? I'm guessing too much heat, so maybe too slow travel?

EDIT: Got rid of the waffle. TL; DR. Thanks for looking.

OK, well I watched Jody's intro to TIG welding course here, and spent a few hours just practicing on flat aluminum blanks, and that has helped a lot. I had a lot of bad habits creeping in, bad torch angle, too far away from the metal for starters. After a few hours of practice I have managed to start actually feeding filler wire, keep the beads shiny and am dipping the tungsten a lot less, and even managed a Tee joint without blobbing filler wire everywhere so maybe there's hope for me yet. The practice drills help a great deal.

It's still a bit difficult to get a puddle started on a Tee joint. Do you point the electrode right into the apex of the joint, or do you get a puddle started next to the joint on one piece, and then try and bridge it over? Also, although I can now travel a ways a long a piece of aluminum, after a distance as the material heats up the puddle runs away in size and starts to crater. I let off the pedal, but the arc cuts out quickly. Perhaps I should turn my amp limit down some more, in case I am operating at the bottom end of the pedal travel? I can't see what current I am actually running - maybe I'll try and set up my camera to film that while I'm doing a test to see what is going on.

I had my rig set to 120 amps max on my last set of tests, and certainly didn't have any issue getting full penetration on a piece of aluminum, as long as I waited a bit at the start before taking off.

Hi Stuart, Jody just made some edits to this video: https://welderskills.vhx.tv/videos/2f-tee-ally-welderskills in response to your issues here that will hopefully help as well.

Thank you, just watched that- super helpful. Honestly the videos that show how NOT to do it (like one section in that video) are very helpful to make it easier to relate what I am doing wrong to the correct way. Good to see it done on a similar machine to mine as well. Thanks again.