I have a very nice welding machine (miller 304) has every conceieveable attachement known to man that came with it. This thing will shampoo your dog, while feeding a baby But like everything else , you need to know how to use it, and develop the skills necessary to do the job right. I know I need a different shielding gas...(100% argon? is that correct) and filler rod to melt into the void or seam. Im working with a limited knowledge of doing this with aluminum..what can you tell me or show me , things to look for, ways to know the welds are right..etc.. And any neat tricks lay it on me Thanks Ya'll
Good luck is all I can offer. I can tig, mig, arc weld and braze. Didn't get enough time to practice on aluminum and the only way I was able to weld it was with a feed gun. Will you be tig welding or mig welding?
Gotta have AC with high frequency or a square wave to tig weld aluminum.As far as rod a good all around alloy is a 4043.It flows nice and is user friendly.As far as gas Argon is the gas choice.You can weld stainless,carbon,& aluminum with it with out a problem.It will work with mig welding aluminum also.Good luck
I think the answer is the same as the one the musician got when he was in NewYork and asked how to get to Carnegie Hall. The reply was, "Practice man Practice".
I just picked up a tig and asked the guys what the trick was to welding aluminum and they told me just practice.
TIG. Rod choice depends on the alloy you're welding. A good rule of thumb is to use a rod closest to your alloy. Next use a dedicated STAINLESS STEEL wire brush to clean your aluminum. Keep in mind aluminum has a high coefficient of heat transfer - meaning it likes to suck up and distribute the heat as opposed being localized - THIS is one of the main reasons it is so "different" than welding steel where the heat "stays" where you put it. What all that ends up meaning is that at first you gotta "put the heat to it" - watch it carefully things happen kinda fast - once it starts to look "shiney" you are ready for some filler - keep your filler rod close and dab it quick. Taper off your heat at the end of a weld to prevent craters. Practice practice practice!!!! Depending on the material thickness you can skip the "balling" of the tungsten - I usually don't bother on any aluminum under 1/8" thick - won't hurt if you do or don't at those thicknesses. I recommend you start on thicker stuff - at least 1/8" or a little thicker - but don't go crazy thick - not at first anyways.
You can head up here any tme you like and get some hands on practice. FWIW, I took to it pretty quick and it made me a better tig weldor overall. It's fast by comparison to other metals. Yes, lifting away some heat as you progress is one of the elements of making the art form it seems to be. Like getting to Carnagie Hall, practice...
A dig difference between welding steel and aluminum is the way the puddle looks. When welding aluminum you are not looking for a color change like the red puddle when welding steel, you are looking for a shiny puddle. Most important thing is everything has to be perfectly clean. That means if you touch the tungsten to the work during a weld you have to stop and clean it up before continuing.
Agree with the Stainless brush ! Get it CLEAN. I mean literally clean enough to eat off of, and then clean it some more if possible. I've had good luck with wheel and grille cleaner in the past. If possible start on new, clean metal. If working on older stuff, especially a casting, the heat will bring contamination (such as oil) into the puddle and make it difficult for you. Sometimes you just have to play with the settings on the welder and see the effects it has...sometimes you like it and sometimes not. 5356 is a pretty good all-around rod to have on hand. Good Luck
It may shampoo your dog and feed babies and other things like tell your horoscope predict lottery numbers and other things but welding aluminum in the tig mode won't be possible as it is a dc machine only in tig mode not ac..Yes you could do aluminum in dc mode as there are requirements to do so.but really not the ideal setup for you needs.Plain old stacks of dimes you see all the time aren't what you will achieve on small projects.D/C welds on heavy material can be done and very well,but you will also require helium gas not a cheap item at all.That is the reason a/c square wave machines and others like the Miller Dynasty series own the aluminum market.That being said that is a very reliable machine and mig can be done on amum in a heart beat with a spool gun.Its tig mode in d/c is also a great machine very reliable as it is an inverter machine.All in all a very good bullet proof welder. My2¢ Tig
I wasnt familiar with the model number...I just took for granted from the glowing description that it was capable of AC high-frequency . I feel like such a dummy now. Thanks for pointing this out.
Also if you are TIG welding aluminum it prefers a blund rounded tungsten. I used to use a copper plate and hold my tungsten perpendiulrar to the plat and throw the meat to ut, it will shape a nice little round ball right on the end of the tungsten. When I am MIG welding aluminum I prefer the gun mounted wire spool, I have worked it both ways and while the gun mounted spool is harder on the wrist it seems to work better for me. TigMaster, I was not aware that the macine in question is a DC machine. You are correct you need an AC machine to weld aluminum.
www.weldingtipsandtricks.com Check out the practice piece with multiple passes. Over and over and over and over.....
Thanks Bro, I'll have to take you up on that, I havent played with it for this application as of yet. I mostly use it for Carbon steel work, but it has other capabilities so I would like to try it out someday I practiced like a mug on Guitar for many many years and never made it to Carnagie...decided to make my money in the constuction buisness ..so for what thats worth its been paying the bills and I dont have a huge drug adiction, or have to deal with pissy big headded musicians
If you can do it with spool gun you can learn some of the trick with that and do some nice welding. Not TIG quality but it will weld it up.
yes and very very well when pulse welding. i have an xmt304 pulsing aluminum with an xr push-pull feeder and alumapro gun. welds very clean with minimal smut. not that bad either non pulse. just more smut( black sooty looking stuff common with aluminum). the pulse looks more tig like and the non pulse looks alot flater of a bead.
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