TFS: Why is the Filler Melting and Balling?

[Music] not again why is my fielder bawling like that this is so frustrating so this episode started out like most of them do with a bunch of messages in a TFS saying hey why is my filler balling before it gets into the weld pool so here are three causes and three fixes for filler balling starting with number one your torch height and angle now I don't understand the most common reason why filler balls-up we really have to understand the geometry of the cone that comes off the tungsten it's that little spacing between the tungsten and the work now for all intents and purposes on this episode we're just gonna call that the cone zone when you strike an arc and look at the size of lower portion of the cone you'll notice it directly corresponds to the size of the weld pool that size is controlled by a few key factors like amperage travel speed and such but the number one factor that controls the size of that cone base is torch height if we have a nice tight torch height we have a small weld pool that we can control if we raise that torch height the base of the cone gets larger thus the weld pool gets larger so obviously the solution is to keep the torch as close as possible to the work without actually touching the work but what about angle now the books will tell you that the perfect relationship of the torch and the filler is going to be at an angle of 90 degrees between the two of them however any increase of angle of the torch will mean that the cone will project in the direction of the angle and the basin will form a large weld pool even if the torch height is really really tight if you have a high torch height with a serious angle forget it there's no way you're gonna be able to keep that under control so the number one cause is a pretty obvious one being torch height and angle the solution is to keep the torch as close to the work as possible without touching it while maintaining an angle as perpendicular to the work as possible we usually say no more than about 10 to 15 degrees of a forward angle forward as in the direction of your filler which that actually brings us right into number two parking let's have a look at that arc geometry once again if we view it from the top the weld pool is perfectly controlled that round spot here the tungsten is right in the middle if we are right-handed that means that we are going from right to left and our filler is right here the filler gets added to the weld pool right there this is the leading edge of the weld pool if we take a look at the side that leading edge is right here the filler does not go in between the tungsten and the weld pool we also do not lazy lay wire and though that is a technique but we're not going to use that we also do not ever lift that torch to add filler because that violates rule number one about torch height we also do not back the torch up to add the filler and because the weld pool goes with the tungsten or with the torch meaning that the filler will freeze right into the leading edge of that bead the filler rod goes into the leading edge before the rod comes back out now parking is the second most common cause of filler balling now a lot of people will keep it parked in there because they think you have to keep the filler wire in that containment zone while the truth is from the cup yes in that gas zone it's a good practice to keep your filler contained in that area but that's not the same size as the cone zone the cone zone is a much smaller area and the gas that comes out of the cup depending on the size of it it's a very large area so remember rod goes in rod comes back out no other way around it finally number three commitment when you first start TIG welding you're going to melt a lot of metal down until you get it under control you're never good at anything you've never learned TIG welding is no different there is no universal setting that someone is keeping from you and there is nothing that you're missing except for knowledge and skill which is acquired from practice with that being said those settings that you've got off of those people on Facebook Welding groups after you posted your first weld with the what am I doing wrong caption are the settings that work best for that person when you plug those settings into your machine you probably melted down a lot of metal and said screw it I'll just turn the amps down and that's exactly where you screwed up coming in too cold on a weld means you don't have enough amps to form a weld pool and melt the filler wire at the same time which is what you need what happens is a puddle shaped shiny spot appears on the resembling a proper weld pool you go in for a dab but then it just balls and melts away because there's nowhere for it to go there's just no energy to melt both of them so what you need to do is commit to your weld set your machine properly to about one ampere thousandth of an inch or 40 amps per millimeter and try to keep up your goal is to get your speed and your accuracy up turning the amps down often only makes it worse for you ask anyone who has ever sat in a TFS TIG glass and it had to have a round in the timeout chair they'll tell you exactly what I mean now that's all I've got for this episode and I want to thank you guys for watching as always I'll catch you all in the next round

Channel: The Fabrication Series

Views: 81,724

Rating: 4.9711504 out of 5

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Id: ayS-MdoxyJc

Length: 5min 12sec (312 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 16 2020