Advanced TIG Welding Aluminum Settings and Techniques

Pulsing with the foot pedal with a PrimeWeld TIG225 - Aluminum lap joint

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PRIMEWELD TIG225 HERE

In the first video, we go over advanced settings on a miller dynasty 280 with expansion card.

The expansion card did not come with the Miller Dynasty 280DX welder and is an extra charge. Which kinda sucks considering the price of the welder... but it does unlock some great advanced features like independent amplitude settings for aluminum.

Independent amplitude is a setting that allows for setting independent amperage for the electrode positive and electrode negative portions of the AC cycle differently allowing for better electrode life and pinpointed arc etc.

My friend Brad Goodman aka @deepsouthdimestacker on instagram was visiting and gave a rundown on how he sets the miller dynasty 280 for tig welding aluminum.

Brad fabricates and sells dog boxes, dog feeders, and a lot more out of aluminum and his customers seem to want that stack of dimes look.

Brad often uses the pedal pump technique where he pulses with the foot pedal to achieve a stack of dimes look.

Pulse settings can also be used but do not give the flexibility and adaptability of pulsing manually with a foot pedal.

Pulsing with foot pedal technique shown on an aluminum dog feeder part

Pulsing with the foot pedal Technique - Aluminum Tee joint fillet

Pulsing with the foot pedal is just one of many tig welding techniques that can help you get the job done.

Brad uses this pedal pump technique a lot because it lets him achieve full penetration on outside corner joints while running a fairly heavy bead on .090" - .125" 5052 aluminum.

For full strength on outside corner joints, full penetration with a heavy bead helps a lot.

Especially if the outside corner weld needs to be sanded and polished after welding.