anyone have any real experience MIG welding aluminum? I did this the other day,



tell me about your setup.

Mine is a Lincoln PRO-MIG 180 out of the box with a spool of AL wire. I had expected problems with birdnesting, I plan to get a Nylon liner for the whip and give it another try.

 

I'm interested in how your liner works out. I've only read about spool guns and have not tried one or just MIGing without one. Hobart 140 here.

 

You definitely need a spool gun with you mig and different gas to weld aluminum the wire is to soft to run threw the normal way,
The welds look OK so far but I would suggest that you grind the area you are welding to get better penetration , kind of like a V where the crack is.

 

you need a spool gun. Aluminum is too soft to travel the distance from the welder to the gun, it will bend kink and bind and will not travel correctly.

As well as a spool gun you need 100% argon to weld aluminum

 

agreed, it doesnt look like you are getting much penetration and you need a pull type gun

 

That's the best way to MIG aluminum. I've never even tried with my MIG machine. If I need any aluminum welded, I take it into work and use a spool gun. Steel mix, Argon/CO2, will work but isn't recommended for aluminum.

TIG is the best way to weld aluminum but so few people own a TIG machine.

 

yeah push pull gun is the way to go, spool gun works but is comber sum to get into areas with, i would try switching the rollers if that doesnt work a spool will probably be your cheapest route

 

also everytime ive mig'd aluminum i push the gun rather than dragging it, always seems to work best imo

 

I've been told pushing is the only way to MIG aluminum. I'm going to get a Nylon/teflon liner and give it another go.

 

We had a Spool gun we used on aluminum on my first job . I didnt care much for it. keep it clean. That Lincon does have a spool gun accessory, if your using the standard set up, a new liner isnt going to help. Use Argon, or a Argon+ helium mix 50/50 for best puddle control , Al welds shrinkage up to 6%, a v-grove could increase distortion. A 2 pass butt joint would be best. I would grind down the weld were you started the hump before the crater, and in that corner theres some lack of penetration. weld across the tops not bad,

Work with some nice GTAW "tig" machines at work Miller Dynastys, and squarewave with pulse. I got a harborfreight tig rig at the house. going to get a bobcat or ranger after taxes, maybe. not a bad machine you got.

ASME Sect. IX "Stainless + Hastalloy-X" 6g certs,
AWS CWI D1.1 flunky.
no aluminum certs.

 

we drug it down hill with the spool, cant tig AL with my rig, it dosent have AC current. i got a good deal on mine like $150, its not a miller but it works.

 

When I was welding aluminum sign boxes, we used a standard MIG with a pusher spool & never had any problems at all. Never have used a spool gun.
And i must be fine since what I was welding commonly hangs over walkways & driveways. Nothing ever broke or fell on anyone, so the pusher spool must be perfectly fine, no spool gun needed.

 

I wasn't asking for a debate on spoolgun VS no spoolgun, I did the welding in the picture in the first thread without a spoolgun, and a steel liner, it jammed frequently, but it did work, and I imagine if I had lowered the tension on the drive wheel, it would have jammed less frequently, and that if I had a Teflon liner, I bet I could be productive.

What I meant by this wasn't that I don't want to hear how things worked for you, or about your setup with/without a spoolgun, but that I would rather not hear people post up on how you can't weld AL without a spoolgun.

 

well to be honest you asked for opinions mig welding aluminum and the spool gun/ non, you asked what others run and we have told you what runs best, yours looks fine but prep the joint some, bevel each side and run multiple passes if you have to

 

it was in reference to the comments that pretty much said you can't weld without one, not the people who said they had used them.

 

But you asked.....
So I responded. Sorry if you forgot what your question was.

 

again, that comment was in reference to the earlier comments that essentially said you can't weld aluminum without one. I would love to hear peoples tips, tricks, and experiences with both, but not people just repeating things they have heard, and not tried.

 

your lead is short, thats probably the only reason its working at all with out birdnesting. Ive only welded carbon steel once in the last 4yrs, an havent touched a mig rig in longer than that. I dont miss it at all,tigin stainless and exotic alloys and no I havent welded alot of aluminum. A little here an there over the years. enough to know its no where close to any thing else. So info that I told you comes from information I took the time to look up. Just trying to contribute to this forum in a area where I can. If you bevel the joint, and if you dont have it in a fixture its going to move.

get some 50/50 argon + helium if you can.

clean it up, be aware that a grinding rock with aluminum coating has a tendancy to explode. I had a flap disk come apart on me once, it will leave a nasty mark. Good luck, and on the debate on a spool gun vs no spool gun.. No spool gun wins everytime with a tig rig. Ive heard about new process Tig AL with a sharp tungsten not a ball/ current?, and theirs a new purple coated tungsten, cant remember the details but I hear it's "money".

 

Not sure what you are speaking of. This was about spool gun or no spool gun on MIG. There is no such thing as a TIG spool gun, so I am not sure what you are referencing. Pretty sure everyone here already knows TIG is superior to MIG when welding aluminum as well as other metals like chromoly, and stainless ect...

Use wax on your flap wheels, grinding disks..., they will cut faster and last twice as long.

 

Not sure I understand this, TIG welders use filler rod, not spools of wire like a MIG, thus no need for a spoolgun. am I missing something?

 

up beat me to it...

 

I though we weren't trying to turn this into a "spool gun" vs no "spool gun" debate. Acutualy your 100% right there is no such thing as a "Tig spool gun", AWS A3.0:2010 refers to "mig" and "tig" as informal slang. There are Welding Procedures using GTAW that use spool feeds for filler applications, mostly semi automated.

Im referencing Standards and Codes, in welding they are Law. If you were manufacturing anything that had quality standards, and used a set up where the "feed rate" wasn't constant. You would not be able to have a WPS or a WPQR "Welding Procedure Qualification Record"

Its all Filler material, kinda like the quotes on what I said.

I don't blame someone for doing what they got to do to get "it" done.

Don't sweat it, your not the first person to not understand what I'm telling them, but just because you dont understand dosen't mean that I dont know what Im talking about. As far as using wax on discs, Im curious where your getting your information?I cant see why would you Load/Glaze a grinding wheel, so it wouldnt cut as well.

If your going to do a lot of aluminum grinding or osha is stopping in, get a Silicon carbide disk, there green.

The only thing GMAW has over GTAW is speed. but that is debatable

Ill probably try out your wax idea.