TIG welding aluminum means using the TIG process on aluminum. Aluminum is trickier than steel because it’s easy to mess up if the surface isn’t clean and if you don’t move/heat the weld correctly.
“Clean surfaces” means the metal has to be free of dirt, oil, and oxidation before welding. If aluminum isn’t cleaned well, the weld can come out bad or even burn through.
Heat control means you have to manage how hot the metal gets while you weld and how fast you move. With aluminum, getting this wrong can cause the metal to melt too much (burn through) or not fuse properly.
“Burning through” means the weld gets too hot and melts a hole in the metal. It usually happens when the heat is too much or you’re not moving fast enough, and aluminum is especially unforgiving.
Term
pulse
A pulse setting means the welder’s power goes on and off quickly instead of staying constant. That helps control the puddle so the weld looks better and doesn’t overheat the metal.
Stick welding is a common welding method where a coated rod melts to create the weld. The coating makes a protective layer, so it can handle dirt and outdoor work better than some other types.
Oxidation is the dull, crusty layer that forms on aluminum when it sits in air. Before welding, you usually need to clean it off because it can stop the weld from bonding correctly.
Term
travel speeds
Travel speed is how quickly you move the torch along the seam. Move too slow and you dump too much heat; move too fast and you may not get a good weld.
Term
torch angles
Torch angle is the tilt of the welding torch. Changing the angle changes where the heat goes, which affects how deep and how smooth the weld turns out.
Term
arc length
Arc length is the distance between the welding tip and the metal. If it’s too long or too short, the weld can get inconsistent and harder to control.
The puddle is the small pool of melted metal you’re creating while welding. With aluminum, it can melt and move around quickly, so you have to feed filler and move the torch correctly.
Aluminum makes a tough coating on its surface when it’s exposed to air. That coating can mess up welding because it doesn’t melt and mix into the puddle the way the aluminum does.
A weld bead is the “string” of metal you see after the weld cools. If the puddle doesn’t mix correctly—like when oxide is present—the bead can turn into a messy blob.
The weld puddle is the liquid metal that forms while you’re welding. If aluminum’s surface oxide isn’t handled, that liquid pool can act weird and won’t flow the way you expect.
Aluminum has a thin coating on the surface called oxide. Welding has to break through or remove that layer, otherwise the weld won’t stick and won’t fuse correctly.
AC and DC are two ways electricity can flow in a welding machine. For aluminum, AC is usually preferred because it helps break up aluminum’s stubborn oxide layer so you can weld more reliably.
A sine wave is just the way AC power changes back and forth over time. The important part here is that AC flips polarity, and that polarity change helps with aluminum welding.
Penetration means how far the weld actually melts into the metal underneath. A good aluminum weld needs enough penetration so it’s strong, not just a surface-looking bead.
The puddle is the melted metal you’re building the weld with. If you don’t add enough filler into that melted pool, the weld can come out weak or uneven.
Stringers are simple, straight weld lines. Practicing them on flat metal helps you learn how to keep the bead consistent before you try joining two pieces.
Surface tension is why molten aluminum behaves a bit like it wants to clump up. That can make the weld bead bulge and shift sideways, leaving bigger gaps than you expect.
A gap is when the two metal pieces aren’t fully lined up. With aluminum, starting a weld across a gap can be tricky because the molten metal doesn’t behave as predictably.
The pedal controls how much heat the welder puts out. If you keep too much heat on, the metal can over-melt ahead of where you’re trying to weld, so you may need to ease off.
An air gap is a small space underneath the metal you’re welding. It helps because the metal under it can pull heat away too fast, making the weld harder to control.
A heat sink is anything that pulls heat away from your weld. If your part is sitting on something like steel, it can steal heat and make it harder to get the weld right.
A spool gun is a welding gun that carries the aluminum wire spool right on the gun. That makes it easier to feed aluminum wire smoothly and helps prevent feeding problems.
Tungsten is the tip/electrode used in TIG welding. If it’s not sharpened or set up right, the arc can be unstable and the weld won’t come out as clean.
The filler rod is the extra metal you add to the weld. You feed it into the molten puddle so it melts and becomes part of the joint.
Term
cup as a shield
The torch cup helps protect the weld area from air. If the torch is angled wrong, the filler rod can get heated too early and drop before it melts into the weld.
Term
ricocheting arc
A ricocheting arc means the welding “spark” isn’t staying where you want it. With the wrong torch angle, the arc can bounce around and make it harder to weld cleanly.
6061 aluminum is a specific type of aluminum alloy. It’s a popular choice for parts because it’s strong and commonly used, including for welded structures like chassis brackets.
Formula SAE is a competition where students build a small race car from scratch. They mention it because they learned welding while making chassis parts for those cars.
Concept
gap grows
When you start melting two pieces that have a gap, the gap can effectively get bigger as the metal softens. That can make it harder to get the weld to connect the two sides.
Aluminum filler is the metal rod you add while welding aluminum. Using the right filler helps the weld pool melt and blend correctly instead of coming out weak or inconsistent.
The collet body is part of the TIG torch that grips the tungsten tip and helps route the protective gas. If it’s not put in right, the gas protection can fail and the weld can get dirty.
The “black film” is the dark, dirty-looking coating that shows up when the weld isn’t protected well by the gas. It usually means the weld got contaminated by air or dirty gas flow.
Before welding aluminum, you need to clean it so the weld can stick. A wire brush helps remove the tough surface layer and dirt that would otherwise cause weak welds.
An inverter is the electronics inside a modern welder that controls the power going to the arc. That can change how the arc feels compared to older welders.
DC negative is a wiring/polarity choice for TIG welding. It changes how the arc behaves and how the surface gets cleaned during welding.
Term
lancinated
This sounds like a specific type of tungsten electrode blend. The speaker is saying they use a small percentage of that additive and it seems to weld well.
Term
DC
DC means the welder is using a steady flow of electricity. That steady power changes how the welding arc acts, which can make welding easier or harder depending on the metal.
Term
Tri-Mix
“Tri-Mix” is a type of TIG welding electrode. It’s designed to work well on more than one metal, so you may not need separate electrodes for steel versus aluminum.
The Cadillac Fleetwood is a very large, luxury car made by Cadillac. People talk about it because it’s known for being long and comfortable, like a “big cruiser.” If it comes up in a story, it’s usually because the car stands out due to its size and style.
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It is the two guys garage podcast. He's Kevin Byrd. I'm Willie B. And today we're talking. Well, what are our favorite topics? But it's a weird sort of offshoot of her. We love welding, right? But welding aluminum is something just a little different today. We're cracking that that sort of, you know, the tidbits of knowledge, fragments of a man who's got so much wisdom when it comes to alloys, metals and welding.
He probably has more experience in his pinky than most of us do all of our years of welding. Mark, it's great. Kevin, how did you first meet Mark, Mark Proser and attend one of his classes courses? How did you guys first come across one another to drag him into this podcast, you know, that we do on occasion and make him be partner up with us?
Man, it's probably got to be 15 years or more through Fuller.
Yeah.
Fuller had a big bike project. Was it the Indian, Mark?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. I mean, just the most beautiful bike you could imagine. Really flowy, big fender skirts, front and rear. The thing was awesome. He was building it, let's say, in conjunction with, I forget the school that you were at at the time. It wasn't wild tech.
It was Virginia College technical. So it was a private college. It was a, you know, it was kind of like, in fact, the dudes that started it used to run wild tech. So they got some investors. They moved down to Alabama and started Virginia College's technical. And that's how I ended up there.
Is that how you met Fuller through that? Or did you guys know each other previous?
No, that, so the school was brand new. They spent a load of money, build a beautiful school, very similar to a wild tech. And they asked Brian, Brian moved from LA to Atlanta. The same month I moved from Wyoming to Birmingham.
So they knew him, you know, the guys from wild tech, they knew him and they asked him to be a spokesperson for the school. And he told him, I don't want to be a spokesperson. Let's build a project. So it was that big blue Indian.
Oh, cool.
That thing was so awesome. But yeah, Brian and I went over to the school to either pick it up or check on progress or whatever. Got to meet Mark and, you know, dude, dude is righteous. So just immediate, right? We're going to be bros.
Wow.
As a wealth of knowledge, as you kind of mentioned, so we're going to pick his brain today on one of my favorites. I love TIG welding aluminum, but I realized that for a lot of folks, it's challenging. So we're going to try to break that down a little bit, some easy bites, some easy steps and hopefully some big tips to make it easy.
I just want to point out to our ordinary listeners out there how he said, quote, challenging. It's a mother, if you don't know what to do or how to approach it, if you don't do it right. It's like when it says miss calls as opposed to avoided calls. Yeah, man. Same thing. Yeah, challenging. That's a nice way of saying this sucks. So you better listen, learn, take some notes because we're hitting you with knowledge next. It's the two guys garage podcast.
Kevin Byrd will be we're back after break.
It is two guys rock podcast. Kevin Byrd will be yes. Indeed. Today we're talking what everybody just loves in Kevin's eyes. TIG welding, not just TIG welding, but TIG welding aluminum and those that have battled it. You know it. Well, you got to move a little faster.
Things happen a little quicker. Things are crazy when you first get an aluminum. What is all that black stuff? Why is it, you know, burning through so many holes? What's going on? Well, here to answer all those questions and more, we have the master.
Mark, man, welcome to the podcast. Cool to pick your brain. Talk some of this, you know, shop because for so many people, me included, I, you know, I'm still not mastered aluminum. It's just one of those things I just don't spend enough time doing. I love TIG welding.
Love just welding, especially, you know, in the last couple of years. But yeah, man, it is, it's crazy cool art and it's wild. When you get it down, man, you were, you were a man in demand. You are a man in demand because everybody needs something aluminum welded.
Well, thanks for having me, fellas, for sure. It's always good to get with you guys. And, you know, hey, I'm still learning just like you, Willie. It's just an ongoing deal, right? It's always an ongoing deal.
Yeah, right. Well, you know, what are some of the things that people struggle with, right? And I'm sure everybody's a little bit different. But I think on aluminum, Willie, you kind of pointed out, I think, is, is he clean surfaces?
Well, yeah, cleanliness is burning through things and how fast you got to move. Yeah, it's a lot. Cleanliness is everything. And I think maybe some folks missed that. But let's say you will talk about the cleanliness factor. But I think in general, I think a lot of people struggle with heat, right?
You got to move quick. And when you're not good, moving quick is extra hard. So that's kind of where some of that barrier in my mind is, I think, for some people. Where do you find yourself, I don't know, frustrated when you're when you're TIG welding?
Well, me, it was that speed thing when I do it, because because me, it's so much faster than than what I'm normally TIG welding. So me, it's just go, you know, and and I'll get mine with that phase in. So I got a little bit of a help and that pulse in.
But it's, it's, dude, you got to move fast. You know, and that sound is different than what you're used to hearing with steel. And so you just got to get the seat time for me. If I get, you know, 40 minutes before my project, you know, is coming at me and I got to put some plates together, then, you know, I'll warm up to it and it won't look near as bad.
When I dive into it, I, I just got got to remember muscle memory, how fast you got to move. And the sound is so different. You know, and so there's a couple things that I kind of queue up on, but I'm not like, like, Mark, Mark, I'm sure he doesn't sweat anything. He doesn't need any warm up time with any alloy.
He can look at it, spit on it, say exactly what it is, what heat range, how quick you're going to move it. You know, he sniffs it and he knows where it was, you know, where his forks out of the ground, you know, he's the man.
It's like those jewelers that bite on the jewelry like, oh, that's 24 carat.
That's 53, 56.
That's 18 carat.
Why don't we start with the fundamentals because I think cleanliness probably bites us, especially anybody that's been around stick welding. That's a little more dirt friendly, you know, out in the field friendly.
Like once you get on aluminum, you know, it's a different animal, man. It will throw a bunch of black, sooty, crap in boogers like in a heartbeat.
And what a lot of people don't realize is how much more you have to get after it to clean it than steel. Still, you know, you can knock that off fairly easy with aluminum.
You can't just scuff and be ready to rock and roll. You have to really get after the break that especially if you're like me and don't weld aluminum a lot.
So it's been sitting there for a minute. There's got this oxidation on it to scar through that oxidation is key.
Mark, you can probably tell us more about that. Why is that? Why? Because, you know, I got to clean it a lot more aggressively aluminum.
I have to clean a lot more aggressively than I do steel to get that, you know, that cleanliness to happen.
Man, I just, I really need to sit down with both you guys for about four or five hours in the shop with some aluminum because I change it off for you.
Everything you said is exactly correct. So most people that have trouble welding aluminum is, you know, you're welding a material that melts at half the temperature of steel.
So when you take weld steel with that nice little puddle and you have all this time to come across there and control that puddle and dip that filler in there.
So nice markets.
You got to, you got to do that 50% faster with aluminum most of the time. Right.
I mean, aluminum likes getting welded a little bit warmer and a little bit faster because it dissipates heat real fast in comparison to steel.
So you get that stuff hot and you move. A lot of people have a hard time when they first start because they're limbo timid on the pedal.
When you do that, you're pumping that whole panel full of heat and that's why all of a sudden it starts melting and sinks and drops on the floor.
Yeah. And it's running faster than you. Yeah. Cause it conducts so well.
Yeah. Well, you got to first build the skill to, to, you know, all those things you guys, we all do that the travel speeds, the torch angles, the arc length, and then that aluminum just get on it and start running that filler in there.
Remember that that aluminum puddle will take a whole lot more filler than than steel will.
So you can really put that aluminum into that puddle until you're watching those beads come up.
But it's the oxide on aluminum that gives people a lot of trouble too. And that's, that's the inherent nature of aluminum.
It just, it naturally oxides. You run a weld bead across a piece of material and it's blowing that oxide off by the time the weld cools, it's already growing that oxide again.
It's just the inherent nature of aluminum and that's, and if you don't get the oxide, like you said, Willie, if you don't get the oxide clean, you know, that's where the black suit and you can't get your filler metal in the puddle and it turns into a big blob.
It's where a lot of those problems come from.
Yeah. And, and the puddle is already high maintenance. It's like a chick with all the extra, you know, super hot, but wild, crazy big time drama, you know, all the, it's, it's like that.
That puddle, especially when it has some of that oxide in it, it doesn't want to cooperate with you.
It wants to do everything to fight you in the direction you want to go and pull and it jumps around sporadically like an old, like a jumping bean.
It's like, where are you going puddle? Come here.
Well, you know, it's, it's funny you say that because to me, you know, we've talked about in the past, stainless seems more watery and just a little bit of motion on your torch or whatever.
And it, and it splashes kind of in a way, but like to me, aluminum is very fargic, you know, like once you have a bead there, it's like, okay, I'm here.
You know, it's like a blob and it doesn't splash around. Like, so if you drop it, you know, if you put a filler rod in there and you get that bead to drop where you want, it'll stay there as you're moving your hand.
You know, so I think once you get the rhythm and once you get some of that speed that you need, I think you'll find that like it's so friendly to drop these beads and they, they kind of have a more surface tension to them and hold their, their shape.
I was referencing with that oxide in it. If you don't clean it right, that oxide makes that puddle just act crazy. Act like a drunk woman having bars out at 130.
It does the wildest and weirdest things. If you don't clean it up when you're fighting all the black stuff, you're like, what's going on?
Because he was referencing that oxide. Yeah, that's about all I fought a few, well, I fought several times before I figured out what was going on, you know, and how to attack it.
I think that's a big problem. Because they'll fight that. They'll really not know. They'll think they're cleaning it. They clean it about as heavy dude as they clean their steel, not really getting through that oxide.
And then they got to deal with it in the puddle and what it makes the puddle do. A lot of times I fought that before somebody told me and taught me what I was missing. So it does wreak havoc.
That oxide layer is what makes aluminum great as far as you throw it in the yard. It'll last forever. It doesn't rust. It's because it is rusted. It's made with oxygen and made an aluminum oxide layer that protects it.
Well, it also protects it from good welding. So just like you said, once you've got the dirt and the grease off, then you need to get something like a stainless steel brush, and you need to scrape, right, essentially scrape that hard layer off.
I mean, it's not that hard, but I mean, like, you just, and you can see it get, you know, like that brushed look.
Yeah, that little sheen and you know that you scraped it off and clean everything real nice. And then you're in a good position to get rolling.
I fought that for a year before somebody told me, amen, you're terrible at cleaning the stuff.
Well, you're in a better position at that point, fellas, that stainless steel helps to remove that oxide. But what really removes the oxide is the welding polarity that you're using. That's why it sounds different, Willie.
Because when you're in AC, that's what removes the oxide. You're just touching that oxide with that stainless steel wire brush. It's like the first step of cleaning and it's a good step.
But when you're running that weld across there and you're watching that arc and that that narrow burned area on the edges of those welds, that's the oxide being removed by the welding current.
That's why you need that AC versus just DC.
Yeah, you can't weld aluminum with DC current. I shouldn't say you can't do it, but most of us don't. It's possible. We're talking about what's common, what's possible, right?
You weld it in AC because you need both sides of that DC positive DC negative both sides of that sine wave.
The DC positive side removes the oxide than DC negative side gives you penetration into the base metal and that switches back and forth, you know, a couple hundred times a second.
So, so, Mark, second, I think cleaning and getting it right, knowing what to look for when you're cleaning the material in your space and getting all the oils off of it.
That's paradigm in making a clean, nice looking weld. Second biggest mistake, common mistake that most of us make. What do you think that is?
I think it's, I think that you, you don't feed enough filler into the puddle and you haven't, it takes time to develop.
If you've never welded aluminum and you just welded steel, it takes a minute to develop those attributes to be able to move faster.
I mean, when you're take welding, you got to think about what's happening here. So your eye is seeing that puddle and seeing the torch and the rod and it's, you know, coming back to your brain.
Your brain is processing it and then your brain sends a signal to each hand arc length, angle, travel speed, dip, foot. It's a lot to ask to do.
It doesn't just happen overnight. You got to develop that. So once you get better at that, you can increase the tempo of everything you do.
You know, you're not losing that weld bead on one piece and then, oh, here it is and you tip it. Oh, there it is. There it is.
You're anticipating that before it even happens. I mean, I equate it to surfing or snowboarding or dirt bike riding or anything.
You're, you're, you're going to, you already know what's going to happen right before it does, but your brain can react fast enough and that takes time to develop.
Yeah, my, my suggestion is don't try to do a joint at first. Just get a piece of flat plate, put it on a nice, you know, fix whatever, thick top, get yourself a little, you know, eighth inch plate or something like that, maybe a little thinner and
yeah, just practice running stringers. Don't try to join two joints together because that's another tough one is the way aluminum has, I would think of it as surface tension.
It wants to form a bigger bead. And so when you start to melt an edge as it melts, it wants to form a bigger blob and it'll form it way off to the side and create a bigger gap than you already had.
And so that's, I think another one is people have a hard time getting that first start if there's any kind of gap between the two panels. So just start on a flat plate, right?
And just run those beads and get faster. And you'll also learn a little bit more about, let's say backing off the pedal as you're welding because the heat's running ahead of you, right?
Cause typically you'll start with a big blob of high cold weld and then by the end it'll be all flat, you know, so you'll, you'll get not only the speed and the drop of the filler and how much to stick in there.
You'll also get a little bit of that pedal to adjust your heat as you're looking at it. You can go, ooh, I need to back off or I need to really dig into that thing when I start the weld.
So you'll just run these stringers until they all look uniform, front to back. You got your spacing of your stack of dimes looking sweet.
You know, when you're welding at the table, like a lot of you guys do, like just sitting there practicing, the other thing you want to do is get something underneath that aluminum.
Take two other pieces of aluminum and set that aluminum you're going to weld on the other pieces. Cause when that aluminum sitting flat on a steel table, man, it just sucks the heat right out of that aluminum.
So it makes it a lot more difficult to control the temperature of that puddle when it's sitting right on a steel table. Just get a little air gap underneath it. That'll help y'all a lot too.
All right. Cause I'm thinking of it the other way where most guys are running too slow and they want to get the heat out.
Yeah. You want something to suck a little bit out on the beginning. So ride it compensates for how slow you're going.
But if you think an air gap is a better way, I would think that would be step two, but you teach, you train a whole lot more than I do, right?
Yeah. Bad training move. Get it off the table. You're making it way harder than it needs to be. And you're not, when you're sitting on that table, obviously you said it, it's a big heat sink.
It pulls heat right out of it. So it makes it a little easier. So you're kind of getting this sense of what it's like to weld aluminum, but you're kind of also, you know, you got, you got full roll cage around you too.
So get that thing off the table, just a little air gap underneath it. So it's not sitting right on. Remember that aluminum dissipates heat like seven times faster than steel.
So when it's sitting on steel, it is just getting rid of the heat.
Yeah. Well, I'll let everybody try because in the one sense, I think it's a good tip. But when you got a small little plate and you're running super slow, I guarantee you, man, you're just saturating that thing.
Right. And you might need several little pieces of plates so you can weld a bead on one, stick it over to the side, let it cool, then get another one and try it.
Sure.
I know how to solve this debate because we're up against a wall here. Allow me, allow me to be the moderator here. Results may vary.
All right. It's the two guys garage podcast. Ken Bird will be we got a break. We're back with Mark in just a minute. See you in a second.
It is the two guys garage podcast. He's Kevin Bird. I'm Willie B. We have the man, Mark Prosser, who I gotta tell you, man, when it comes to alloy welding, anything, dude, this guy, he's a crusher.
He's literally written the book on it. And wow, we're talking welding aluminum. Hey, Mark, don't you think that the aura, the intimidation factor of diving into aluminum is, it's a little overhyped because I feel like that holds people back sometimes because, you know, they had a buddy
that tried it or they see some dude with a spool gun and what really messed it up. But yeah, do you think the intimidation of welding aluminum holds people back from trying it sometimes? Because it seems like every machine is pot is capable of doing it now.
You know, what do you think is the biggest thing that holds people back from diving into trying to take out aluminum?
Well, they probably gave it a shot or, you know, I mean, I've heard that a lot. Aluminum was really, really difficult for some people to weld. I think the difficult part is they just, they weren't quite set up properly, or they had some not real clean gas.
So their tungsten wasn't sharp or the machine wasn't set up. But man, once you, once you fiddle with it enough, I personally love welding aluminum. It's probably my favorite material to weld is aluminum. I probably weld aluminum the best.
I worked at a real high end, high production aluminum patio furniture manufacturer when I lived in Florida in a Suncoast aluminum patio furniture. And we did some really crazy killer, you know, high dollar aluminum patio furniture.
But the, but it was, it was aluminum tubing all day long. It was thin walled weird shape aluminum tubing all day long, built in chairs and tables.
I met some dudes that could weld aluminum like I still haven't ever seen again is fast and as good as they could weld because they got paid on production. And some of these dudes were just unbelievable welders.
Yeah, I think it's getting over that first experience. And, you know, it helps when someone's looking over your shoulder and going, Oh, dude, your torch angle. Oh, oh, oh, you're right. And then you change your torch angle.
And you're like, Oh, that's so much easier. You know, or, hey, too much heat back off. Oh, okay. And then you're back off and it does it. Right. It's just like there's a couple little things that you could be doing wrong. And you're not able to see it, right?
Cause you're looking at the weld in the crap that's coming out, but you're not seeing what those little things are that all of a sudden put you in a right space to make things flow like you want.
And I think, I don't know, for me, I'm going way back from when I first started aluminum, but I think one of the challenges too is I think torch angle becomes important because the right, you got your filler rod, you're ready to go in there.
And all of a sudden it falls right off your filler rod before you even get it in the puddle. And you have your torch angled so much that the cup is not shielding the heat from your filler rod, you know, so that's another little one.
It just, hey, use that cup as a shield away from your filler rod a little bit so it's not falling off while you're trying to get it in there.
Yeah, it's, uh, it's funny you say that because what's happening, you're exactly right.
But what's actually happened is that arc coming off from that tungsten, as soon as you start laying it over enough too much torch angle, that arc will start ricocheting off from the metal just like a frisbee in a parking lot.
So yeah, think about your torch angle, use that cup, as long as you're shielding some of that heat, then you can get the rod filler in there when you want it to fill that fill it up and move.
Yep, just fill and move.
Now the other one too, Mark, I was mentioning before, like, start on a flat plate for beginner, right, get yourself some confidence, get your motions, you know, dialed in and practiced.
But sometimes, you know, and I remember I started aluminum welding in college, we're building sort of formula SAE cars and we built the whole chassis brackets, everything out of 6061 aluminum.
And so that's where I was learning first was on aluminum with tubes and thin wall and a bunch of college kids who've never built anything in their life.
So all the tubes that came together coped had the worst gaps in the world.
So I mean, and then you got all these out of positions and hard things to get into.
I'm not telling you that made me get good fast, you know, but trying to start two panels, you know, two edges with a gap in there.
Like I said, once you start to melt, the gap grows because it's filling these two little separate little beads.
So sometimes in there is, you know, can you strike an arc and shove your rod underneath quick enough, you know, it's not necessarily you'd like to make a puddle and then fill it.
But sometimes just getting started is the hard part.
Once it started and you have a place to have a puddle, then then it runs and it's nice that you just keep feeding that.
So sometimes what I what I show people on that right there is in and I do it still today, like in a fillet weld.
I'll get my filler metal down there and I'll actually melt a ball kind of let the end of that filler melt off and I'll just bring the amperage up, bring it up.
And all of a sudden that filler will melt and it'll jump to one side.
I'll try to bring the torch down a little bit.
It's to the other side bridges that gap boom hit it with the filler and you're ready to go.
It's a real easy way to figure out torch angles before you even move.
Yeah, so the one torch angle I mentioned earlier was not aim it at your your tungsten or sorry not aim it at your filler rod.
But the other is like he's saying is side to side.
Right.
So you can kind of do a little pushing and pulling of whatever beads you got going on whatever puddle or whatever beads you got going on.
So yeah, practice a little bit on, you know, maybe I got to start on one side and get a little puddle and then fill it and then it'll connect over to the other side.
You know, there's a little bit of gamesmanship going on to get that nice first puddle going and then I'll tell you from there it gets easier.
That puddle goes where you direct.
Yeah, that puddle that first puddle can be tricky on aluminum sometimes.
All right, Mark, any other tips that you think will will help people, you know, when they step inside become their weekend warrior will help them get through the the TIG welding aluminum easier, better, more efficient.
What do you got?
Yeah, just remember the I mean the big one is keep a put the filler to it that puddle will take a whole lot more aluminum filler than a steel than welding with steel.
And just always having the back of your mind you're working with the material that's fast.
It's a fast you got to react fast.
The faster you react, the better it reacts.
No doubt, man.
It's fun to watch, you know, you'll get this nice little puddle.
And as you start to drag your torch, you'll see it thin out, you know, like, because you're you're leaving it behind, you know, you're dragging some of it with with you on the edges, you know, but as it starts to get a little thin in the middle there.
Right before you've left it, that's when you got to get that rod in that wetness and fill it back up again.
And it's fun to watch it kind of breathe.
You know, you drag that puddle gets gets thin and and and I don't know fragile and then you fill it and it's back.
Yeah, I mean, it's like hair replacement surgery for metal.
Hey question, you mentioned gas earlier.
What are some mistakes you see people making when it comes to the right fuel, the right the right gas combination?
What do you think about that?
They don't make mistakes with the gas.
They have the right gas, but they have like a fitting that's leaking that's contaminating the gas going into the torch or the, you know, the collet body on the end of the torch isn't installed correctly.
So it's leaking a little gas on the end of the torch and it just contaminates that gas enough to where you start getting that black film that little moving around dirt on the puddle because you're because you're gas is getting contaminated somewhere in the system.
Okay, interesting.
Any other setup I things that you could think about at the top of your head that people tend to make mistakes with.
Yeah, well, just always remember drafts drafts do that too, you know, the polarity that you're running on that aluminum wire brush it and just put the filler to it and sit down and don't be afraid of it at all.
You'll fall in love with it once you click with it.
Yeah, man, I like Kevin's idea of just making, making some strikes to just, you know, run lines run stringers, keep that up until you can feel confident what your what your stringers look like and, you know, then attack something in that regard.
That's a that's good advice as well.
Try the heat sink, try the aluminum sink.
Interesting.
I've seen different opinions on that, man, but you can summarize all these notes and all these tricks things by just trying it.
You know, some people it's trial and error, maybe more error than trial.
But if you're trying it, you're winning the game, you're beating the battle.
So the important thing is get out there and get after it, I think.
Yeah, Mark, what do you prefer on your your tungsten?
It depends on what I'm welding, but usually I sharpen I sharpen it and then knock knock the blunt off it.
You know, if you look at tip configurations, how you grind that tip, and I think that's what you're talking about.
The angle of that tip controls the width of the arc.
So if you've got a long, real sharp tapered point on it like an arrow, just look at the arc on the on the arcs actually wider than if you blunt that thing down a little bit.
But the degrees on that tip.
Yeah, where do you like to land?
I like, I usually will sharpen it, you know, I'll sharpen it right to a point and then I'll take it to a grinder and take it straight into the grinder and just blunt that sharp end off that tip.
But with aluminum, it's going to ball up anyway a little bit.
In the old days, your tungsten prep on like an old synchro wave would be kind of different than you would do on a newer inverter, right?
Like would you intentionally do a little process to build that ball up before you go but now on the inverters seems like it's kind of benign.
It doesn't care as much.
Yeah, it was it was more so the change in the electrode that you know when they I mean for years if you weld a DC negative you use thoriated red tungsten if you weld AC you use green pure tungsten.
But nowadays, you know, the green pure tungsten, I keep it in the trash bag, because there's just eight different choices of better electrode than pure tungsten.
It's got the worst current carry carrying capabilities.
It spits tungsten inclusions into the welds.
Nobody uses pure tungsten anymore.
So the old guys do.
Don't talk about Kevin like that.
Kevin's not that old.
He didn't use pure tungsten anymore.
If you were going to suggest, like I've been using, I think, was it lancinated?
Is that true?
Sure, lancinated.
Yep.
Two percent lancinated.
I've been using that for a long time and it seems like seems to work pretty good.
You got any other favorites there on the red?
Lantinated.
It's gold.
Orangey.
Orangey gold.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, I pretty much buy for a long time now since they, you know, pretty much since they came out.
I buy the Tri-Mix tungstens.
Depending on brand, they're either white or gray or purple.
I don't remember what colors all of them were.
Purple were the first ones that came out, but they seem to weld on DC as good as any of the rest and they seem to do real good on AC too.
So I just, I don't want to keep two different tungstens around for two different things.
Yeah.
So it's pretty good for the steel and aluminum, the Tri-Mix.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The Tri-Mix.
Yeah.
I might have to try that one.
Mark, how do people follow you, get to know what you're doing, man?
How do people find out more of your wealth of knowledge, my friend?
How do people get into it?
You know, I got a brand new TIG welding book coming out that I just finished here.
Well, will be just finished in about another month, should be out in the fall.
You know, that's about access to me right at the moment.
So what's, yeah, what's the name of this one?
We want to get you guys some love, man.
This one is, it's called the Gas, or it's called the Gas Tungsten Arc Welding Handbook and it's published by Goodheart Wilcox.
Yeah, guys, you want to check this out.
Yeah, it's a good one.
You can go with some easier, remember?
Like welding for dummies?
Well, I have those ones too.
We got those books out there too, yeah.
What's the name of it again, man?
It's called the Gas Tungsten Arc Welding Handbook.
All right.
We're getting autographed copies, right?
Yeah.
Heck yeah.
Yeah.
Throw it on.
Yeah.
That's awesome.
All right, man, I hope you would check out that book, man.
You also need to check out our show, Aaron Weekends, on Discovery Turbo.
Check your local listings, also available in Discovery Plus.
Thanks to our producer, senior producer, Justin Carter, executive producer, Bob Becker.
He's Kevin Byrd, I'm Willie B.
And this, my friends, is the Two Guys Garage podcast.
Yeah, don't forget.
Check out our website, TwoGuysGarage.com, our social everywhere at Two Guys Garage.
The Two Guys Garage podcast, it's copyright 2026.
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All rights reserved.
Yeah, Mark, man, we need to come up with another project so we can rub some elbows.
Oh, I think so.
Do some fabricating, do some building, smash on some stuff, get out the fire stick.
A big 20 foot long fleetwood down in Atlanta, my man.
Yeah.
I miss that one, man.
That looked like a good time.
No, I mean the next round, the next round on that one.
Is there going to be?
Is there some plans brewing?
I mean, I wouldn't be surprised.
I'm not, you know, I'm assuming.
I don't think he's going to hang it on the wall of the building or anything, you know?
That was a little big for wall art.
Yeah, that's a little big for a wall hanger.
Well, count me in, man, and hopefully we can catch up and grab some cold ones.
I appreciate you jumping on with us, guys.
Hopefully you learned something, man.
My takeaway to you is just get some seat time, right?
Get some scrap.
Be ready to throw it away because that's what scrap is.
But that's what's going to get you better.
Get you that little edge, man.
Get you moving forward.
So we'll catch you on the next Two Guys Garage Podcast.
Until then, take care.
About this episode
TIG welding aluminum gets real technical real fast—cleanliness, heat, and travel speed all work together to prevent burn-through and a misbehaving puddle. The hosts break down how aluminum’s oxide layer “gives people a lot of trouble,” why AC helps remove it, and how polarity affects oxide removal versus penetration. They also share practical technique and setup tips: manage heat with an air gap, watch torch angle and filler feed, and troubleshoot shielding gas issues. Electrode choice and tungsten prep round it out.
Longtime friend, expert fabricator, and instructor Mark Prosser returns to the podcast to demystify the intimidating world of aluminum TIG welding. Mark breaks down the physics of aluminum, explaining how to manage high-maintenance oxide layers, why modern AC polarity does the heavy lifting, and how to master fast travel speeds. He and the guys also debate the merits of table heat sinks, analyze torch angles, and discuss why old-school pure green tungsten belongs in the trash compared to modern Trimix.
