Hi Guys,

I just bought a new (read unused) Miller Aerowave hybrid welder and Coolpack watercooler on auction.
Since it's going to be a good couple of weeks before i get the machines i was wondering if anyone here know these machines?
I weld mostly aluminum frames and my Hobart Cybertig is getting a bit long in the tooth.
Your input much apreciated.
Pieter

thats alot of machine. ive had one since i was 16. it can still offer some surprises. parts are way expensive if you can find them at all. and they require alot of set up knowledge. let me know what your process is and what level of weld you need and i can probably get you in the ballpark. be careful with her thats a classic machine. the 69 bigblock vette of welders. and if you ever want to get rid of it let me know.

Hi VP,

I do mostly frames for sports wheelchairs, so it's a lot of Ali tubing and plate welding. Thicknesses from .8mm - 6mm.
You mention that the parts are way expensive. Do they require parts often and Does Miller still make parts for them?

My Hobart Cybertig is way old, but it is such a big and heavy machine that it might be around forever. It is just not that good when going onto the very thin stuff.

What do you weld?

Pieter

You'll go through parts main board is kinda finicky. Miller doesn't make them anymore so parts are hard to find. There are alot of parts in there. It's not sealed real good so dust will get inside. That is where problems start. Mine sits in it's own air conditioned filtered air room. You might look at the precision tig from Lincoln or the dynasty from miller. I weld anything from .020 to 5/8 aluminum in pretty much any composition. I do own a process for 7 series aluminum. I also do Crome moly and titanium. The only time I use the aerowave is super critical aluminum. Everything else is done with a precision tig 275 from Lincoln. Get the advanced control board and it will do really well on thin stuff down to 5 amps. I just did some exhaust stack for a pt6 turbine out of .020 inconel with the Lincoln. It worked just fine that low. The aerowave is a great aluminum machine but requires a very skilled operator. You might want something simpler for what your doing

Afterthought. That machine sold new for over 15000 dollars. Now you can pick them up off eBay for 1500. Should tell you what is going on with them.

Hi VP,

Thanks for the info. You really messed up my day now. I have 4K$ invested in this machine so far. (watercooler included) unless i trade it for something more robust this is just what i would have to live with. I would just have to treat it like a real baby and hope for the best.
When did miller start/ stop making them?

PS. Machine should come out of customs on the 10th of Feb :o

The first aerowaves went to boeing in the 1960s they stoped making them about 8 years ago. The modern inverters are every bit as good and more reliable. If they built a twin inverter again with today's reliability I'd buy one in a second. You just can't beat the dual inverter for high end aluminum.

It will live a long happy life if you treat it like your welds surgicaly clean. I even wax mine once a month. But I'm kinda anal that way. You can do surgery on my tig table. Dirt is the enemy.

Hi VP,

What is your main line of business?
I've heard that miller develloped the Aerowave for boeing. Any truth in this?
did they do anything to the design to improve reliability during the 30+ years it was in production or was the last one exactly the same as the first one?
What makes the dual inverter better for Ali? You would imagine that it would be quite simple to throw 2 inverters together with today's tech. Why doesn't anybody do it?

Pieter

Boeing basicly handed miller electric a design and had them start production. The twin inverter design lets you shape your waveform any way you want. When yours gets there set up a 60 40 split at 400 hz to see what it will do. I do aircraft prototyping and repair. Mostly for Viking and eclipse.

Most new machines use waveforms developed on the aerowave are used today in programed form on the new machines. Pulse technology came about in mig welding from aerowave pulse tig setups. Boeing wanted a machine to weld skins. It didn't work so we got a cool high tech welder to play with. These days you can program your waveform on a laptop and load it to your machine.

Does the Aerowave use the standard miller remote amp controll?
Do you use remote amp control? Hand or foot?
I always use the foot control with my Cybertig when on Ali. I would have to get a remote for the Miller and was briefly considering hand control but i can not see it ever giving me the control i get with foot control.

Were these machines also used on welding robots?

I use a foot control. Never liked the thumb wheel. I never heard of anybody using an aerowave in robotics the interface would be tough. These machines were built for craftsman who demanded perfection. Before computers to program waveform they had all the dials and switches you see on your machine. A precision tig with advanced control panel and a PDA replaces all the dials. I've got software for mine to draw a graph of the waveform and it will program it. It really comes down to the fact that technology had surpased the aerowave. But for one off prototypes that have to be perfect it's still pretty good. Just dial in and go. You'll learn what happens when you change setups. Experiment with the different controls change only one thing at a time and small changes to see what works best for you. Just off the top of my head you'll probably start off with A amps 95 B amps 130 upslope at 40 pulse to 50 on time at 40 peak to 90 and downslope at 50 cycle at 175. Should be a decent starting point. With the precision tig you would plug it in and set balance to 40 clean and go.

Oh and a 2 second preflow and 20 sec postflow.

:eek::eek:I would have to come back to your post once i have the machine in front of me and wired.
20 seconds post flow sounds like a lot for ali?
I sure hope you are around when i unpack it as it seems like i would have to call on you again....SOON

Thank you for the info so far.

Pieter

Alot of postflow keeps from forming crater cracks.

YeeHaa!
Got the machine and it looks just great. Brand spanking new and it even smells new when you start it up and the fans start to circulate air through the machine.
Looks like it is a 2004 or newer model (LF serial)
no remote amp control was included, but i have one on order and it should be here by tomorrow morning.
Now to get it set up...
I managed to dial in some settings and got some pretty decent welds right from the start (using lift start). I am having some dificulty decifering the settigs you posted earlier VP, so i would apreciate it if you can give me some settings for each of the following:
Amps +
Amps -
AC frequency
AC Balance (cleaning/Penetration)
Pulser controls:
Fast/slow/off
Backgound Amps (%)
Puses / second
On time (%)
I presume that upslope and downslope would not be used with a foot control.
Pressing the button for A+ and A- while turning sets these values. What are you setting when turning the A+ knob without pressing the button?
Thanks
Pieter

I would also like to find out how the front panel amp settings acts when using the foot controll? Does the front panel setting act as a maximum and the foot controll runs from minimum welding amps to max proportionally to the +A-A settings on the front panel?

Any help in this regard much apreciated.

Best regards

Pieter

Does anyone here have some ideas as to starting values as mentioned in post #18?
What is the standard settings for modern square wave tig machines?

Pieter

sorry got sent to Haiti. good times. heres one right from my cert book. .120 2024t6 aluminum chemically cleaned prep preheat 300 fitup no more than .015 flat at bottom of v notch. 3/32 filler chemically cleaned machine setup is frequency 6 ontime 70% backround 30% downnslope at 1 voltage+ 140 voltage- 115 min voltage 30 pure argon at 25 cfm backshield at 25cfm you should be able to put down butter with that one.
shouldn't be to much different for 5356 on the modern machine like my precision tig you turn it on set it to auto and weld. but on 2024 it wouldnt be a good weld

Hey folks, I'm new to this forum and would like to get some info on this welder from someone familiar with it. I work at a shop that has an Aerowave and the welder at the shop has never used one before. We have a job that requires very precise welding of .09 5052-h32 chassis to a thick bezzel with minimal shrinkage. Right now we're getting about .03 shrinkage over about 17 inches of weld. Some of these chassis were welded at my old shop by a more experienced welder who was able to hold it to about .005 to .01 shrinkage with a very small weld. I am a precision sheet metal machanic and did all the fab but my welding skills are limited so I've been working with our welder trying to figure out what settings we need for this task. If any of you guys who are familiar with this machine can give me some tips on what the settings should be, it would be hugely appreciated, thanks.

Hello:

I work for the City of Los Angeles in the Radio Communications section, we have used an Aerowave Welder for the last 9 or 10 years. It has been very reliable and is the cats meow as far as welding is concerned. It has a complicated control panel giving you the nth degree of control over the welding process. It appears to me that it was too complicated for most welders as they do not understand electronics nor how the weld current wave shape can impact the weld. The newer welding machines preset most of the settings for what most people use.

This welding machine was used to do the most critical welds on many aerospace and defense projects and actually was (or still is) part of a lot of specifications for welding aerospace parts of titanium, and other exotic metals or alloys. I can't imagine a metal that could not be welded with this machine. However, keep in mind that finding that best setting may take a little time. (For example the variable frequency allows you to narrow the bead by increasing the arc frequency towards 400 Hz.)

In a production environment I can see why most shops prefer a simpler welding machine where weld settings can be downloaded into the machine with the person welding having less and less idea of how the machine is set up to do the work. I prefer to use smart welders.

I will send you our most common settings for this machine (in a day or two). Most of what we weld is aluminum, then steel, then stainless steel.

Hope this helps
Peter

Pete, absolutely, thanks. I can use any advise I can get on this mater. The guy doing the welding has been welding for a long time and is certified to weld to most mil spec and aerospace spec but he's not aquainted with this machine at all. We are welding an 1/8" front panel 5052-h32 to an .09 chassis. Panel is 19" by 10" and chassis is continuos welded completely around the panel also another chassis similar size with a machined front bezel made from 3/4" 5058 welded to a similar chassis continuous around the outside edge of the chassis. We are having shinkage due to weld distortion that is causing the parts to shink to an out of tolerance dimmention.

Garman:

Sorry for the delay, my fab guy wants to include some pictures with the settings. I will send it this week.

Peter

Ok Pete, thanks for the update. I'll be waiting for your info.

thanks, that helped me a lot!
regards,
chantal