My Argon bottel came in a lot sooner than I was told it would.
So I am ready to weld Al.
I have a miller sp-135 the lowest setting is 15amps the highest is 135amps and the 2 other settings are some where between those to (cant find them any where in the manual).
The wire is ER5356, no flux. In .030'' dia.
I wanted to start off by welding 3mm al to 3/16'' and 3mm to 3mm thick Al.
How much Ar should I use? (L/min)
There wont be much wind out there to day.
What wire speed should I use? (in or cm/min)
How many amps should I use?
I'm working today and will get the gas after work and with your tips I hope to start welding this evening.
I just dont want to waste a lot of Ar and my 3/16'' Al scraps 4 practicing on are few.

 

Trial and error is the only way your gonna get any welds to look good especially if you don't know what alloy the aluminum is. There are many different wire alloys to match and you likely won't get too nice of a weld if you have a mismatch wire alloy. Look on the label you will probably see 5356 as this is the most common sold. A couple of tips I can tell you is to pull the wire taught out of the gun each time you stop or it birds nests up in the drive roll. Keep the whip as straight as possible too as the wire is soft and it don't take much to birds nest it. Good luck

 

use a bigger tip than you do for steel and a teflon liner. don't think there are many welds that look any nicer than a vertical up weave with aluminum. as for setting your machine you'll find it take a lot more IPM wire and lot less volts than steel. you'll have to play around till you find setting that you like. make sure you mechanically clean the metal before you weld it too.

 

The thicker Al that parts that I want to weld are cast, parts like turbo compressor housing outlets and intake plenums and manifolds.
The 3mm is just cold rolled store bought stock, I don't think it an alloy of any thing. Just mostly pure Al.
I have 5356 wire. That's all I could find.
The aluminium I am going to weld is very clean, I clean up the places where I use the plasma cutter with a die grinder with Al cutter bit. It's like a fresh machined surface.
I have not seen options like a teflon lined tip for my welder and I don't have my dry teflon spary over here .
I could get moly-disulfide spary and coat the inside of the tip with a peace of wire would that be good?
I did not get to weld to night because I had to make an adaptor so the Japinese flow reg would fit the line and fitting that goes inside my welder. They told me the gas bottle wasn't going to be here for another month, so there was no hurry. Untill I got the call today.

 

putting anything in the tip or liner is a very bad idea. look around there should be a teflon liner made for your gun. it'll make life a lot easier for you if you have it. all aluminum you buy is going ot be an alloy. what you have from the hardwear isn't going to be very good metal as far as aluminum goes.

 

:werd:

Purge welded stainless pipe looks pretty sweet too

 

Well I looked into alloys and fillers.
The store bought stuff is most likey a 3xxx ( 3010 or 3004) alloy or may be even 6010-f.
6010 can be welded with 5356 or 4043, 5356 is a stronger filler and 4043 is corrosion resistant because of is Si content.
If it is a 3xxx alloy it should be welded with 4043 becaue 3xxx are some what corrosion proof, it looks like 5356 would tend to draw in more corrosion.
4043 looks more like a do all filler.
All I could find on welding cast Al is that it could be all most any alloy and it's not heat treated most all of the time. Unless its like an engine block or heads.
A lot of castings are 3xxx, some 4xxx, plenty of 5xxx serries and every now and then 1xxx serries casting.
So a piece of cast is a wild card at best.
Now welding one serries of alloy to another is all most a black art from what I could find. Unlike when you weld SS to different SS or steel.
What I could gather is you find out what the alloys are made of and select a filler that will complement the alloy metals and at the same time make up for lacking metals that would best join the 2, so it can cool with out cracking.
I think you have to pay to use that part of the web sit I was on.
I'm going to pick up a roll of 4043 soon and some 309 (incase I have to weld 304 to mild steel) at some point.

 

5356 is a very good choice for aluminum filler metal for most applications

 

Hmmmm... from what I read it was sounding like 4043 was the :hail: . 5356 was the next best thing.
1 is the slowest wire feed speed 10 is the fastest.
I had the gas @ 15 L/min then moved it to 12 L/min.
I started out with low amps and kept the wire speed to slow like 5 because one of you hinted Al likes a faster feed spd.
That sucked.
I moved up in amps didn't change much else, still was of time, wire, metal stock and Ar
I maxed the Amps and left it there, any thing less didn't stick worth a crap.
I nearly incererated my tip, had to put it on a bench grinder to bring it back to life.
I gave up on the cast Al and started on welding 3mm to 3mm, still sucked.
I turned down the gas a hair, little improvement.
My ESD the hole time was about 1/4'' to 3/8''
I cranked up the wire speed to like 6 and then 7 the ESD was to small, I know that now. It looked a little better, but was still shaty.
I tried pushing the weld, then I draged it and got a little better results.
I was starting to get pisssed and was about to give up but decided there was only one way to learn.
Then I turned the speed up to 8, was draging the weld and it got better, but the eletrode and tip was still geting fried.
I got rid of the ex. cord and pluged the welder directly into the wall, that helped so friggen much, you don't have any idea.
I noticed theat the ark was pulsing real bad and I thought "line drop", son of a !!!!.
Then I backed off the the ESD to a solid 1/2'' and got great (way the heck better than any thing so far) results, while draging.
I started pushing the weld and it went from a blackened mass to a smother bare shiney metal that looks just like it should.
Then it was time to clean up.
That's was I learned in 2 hr including a break, setting up the gas, welder and plasma torch and then tear down, I had to put them all back in my car.
The gas bottle pressure went from 15 MPa to a soild 14 MPa and I did a lot of welding and messing with the wire. It will last a good while.
$100 a fill up of Ar.
The wire I used is some thing else, I went through a lot. I going to order a nother spool with in the next 2 weeks so I don't run out.
So over all the .030'' 5356 wire did good I think.
I can't wait to weld Titanium .

 

Whenever your welding with any type of filler metal that doesnt have a flux covering you should push your weld puddle. If your filler metal has flux you drag. As the saying goes if it has slag you drag.

 

I went back and welded some more.
I can weld 2 3mm flat plates together great, I got down how to weld flat 3mm to cast good but it needs to be great.
But when I do a up side down "T" weld it's all fuged up.
When I try to weld like that it looks like I have never welded any thing before. it don't work at all no matter what I tried.
I can weld the out side of a 90 dregree corner ok, need to work it it more.
My amps dont' ever go below the max setting of 135a, the wire speed I have to use is between 8 and 9 out of 10.
I am maxxing my welder out trying to weld 3mm to 3mm. It shouldn't be that way.
For welding 3mm or thicker I think I need to have .035'' wire.
When I look at steel, .035'' can weld 1/4'' on my welder and .030 can only weld up to .080''.
But .035'' cant touch any thing thiner than 18ga (.050'') with out burning a hole through it.
A huge difference in what they can do.
I think I will save the .030'' for the thiner crap.
I bid on some .035'' 5356 wire on ebay for welding thick 6016 and 3xxx stock.
I think I have the right wire it's just to thin, what do you think?
I think I figured out why they don't make .025'' Al .
I didn't get any 4043 yet becasue it looks like it is good for welding thiner materal because of it's lower melting point.
I will get some 4043 when I see some 4043 I like (one of .030'' and another of .035 and I think one of the 2 will find a nitch in my shop).
I have not tried to weld any thing any thiner then 3mm.
Tonight I got some 2mm and will try it this weekend.
135 amps is destorying the .030'' wire. I think it's just to much.
The welds are nice and bright matalic looking but have black shat around them on the base metal right up to the edge of the weld, is that normal???

 

all the black stuff around the edge of your weld is caused from the heat. It is normal to be like that. Its just a bi product of the chemical reaction taking place when your welding.

 

Not sure what the Miller sp-135 is rated at, but I have a Miller Matic 35 (older version of the 200) and my dad has a Miller Vintage (like the newer 200/250's, but w/o the ecltronic arc controls), anyway, we have a spoolgun for the Vintage, and I can tell you, it takes a LOT of heat to weld Al., i/e figure if your welder can handle 1/4inch steel, most you'll ever get with Al is 1/8th inch...Al dissipates the heat so fast, you really need to crank it up.

I only uswe the spool gun for Al when pops needs a fender repair, etc, and now I only we3ld Al with a TIG, so much easier...albeit I don't weld anything thicker than 16ga anymore.

Guess I'm just trying to say you may not have enough welder to do the job you want? I/e I don't think I could weld 1/4inch Al with our Vintage, unless I veed it out and did a few passes.

 

If your welder does not have the ability to put out the required heat then preheat your base metal. This will enable you to run lower heat settings and still maintain a quality piece in the end.