Welding aluminium

[stew]

First of all hi, this is my first post.

Thought id share my progress today with welding aluminium. At my work we do a lot of mild steel fabrication and sometimes stainless steel, but often struggle with aluminium repair jobs. I got a ali roller off ebay a while back for my murex tradesmig 260-1 mig, but havent had the time to try it out till today. I usually use a 5m MB25 torch for steel work, but ive got a dedicated 3m MB25 torch setup for aluminium. Anyway the roller made a huge difference, much smoother wire feed, no birds nests, and a very smooth weld pool which was easy to work with. Id deffinately recommend to anyone doing ali welding with a mig, and for the price (£8), great value for money. Below should be a pic of how i got on.

Its a multipass fillet on 6mm ali chequer plate, prob about 160amps or thereabouts. 1.0mm wire.

 

[stew]

any comments or opinions?

160 views, and no posts, either its of no interest or im doing something wrong maybe?

ive only being doing ali for about 2 years, and not very often at all, so any comments, or tips etc would be appreciated.

any comments about spool guns?

cheers,

 

[Paul.]

Doesn't look bad, but difficult to tell from a photo, the profile looks as if its a bit offset to the lower plate, the start also looks a bit cold, quite common with ally though, all in all though looking ok.
I used to have a SAF synergic pulsed mig that would produce welds that resembled TIG, but for an ordinary transformer set that is a fairly typical bead appearance. feeding wire is the biggest issue with ally, spool guns properly set up will eliminate most of the problems, and are particularly good for work off the bench, commercial body builders love em.

 

[Wozzaaah]

Don't get too concerned about the number of views, most will be by guests who can't reply.
Having said that, I'm surprised your post was missed as there's a fair few on here who've expressed an interest in mig welding alu.
Alu mig is notoriously difficult but you've done a pretty good job there though as Paul says, it does look a bit biased towards the lower plate.
Well done though.

 

[aametalmaster]

any comments or opinions?

any comments about spool guns?

Sure if you can afford one buy it. I have had one for 40 years. Now i have two of them. I weld lots of parts that customers bring in weekly. A few samples...Bob

 

[aametalmaster]

Here is a car engine i welded in the car. Removal would have been hundreds of dollars...Bob

 

[backpurge]

Your photo isn't that clear but as said the weld is biased towards the bottom leg
You said it's a multi pass fillet, this should consist of 3 runs, your photo looks as if you have either only done 2, if you have done 3 your last run is in the wrong place.
Apart from that it looks quite tidy

 

[julieanncharters]

any comments or opinions?

160 views, and no posts, either its of no interest or im doing something wrong maybe?

ive only being doing ali for about 2 years, and not very often at all, so any comments, or tips etc would be appreciated.

any comments about spool guns?

cheers,

looking at yer bead looks a bit shy on fusion on the lower plate and it looks a little tall.
if both yer ali plate's are 6mm , i'd be looking at 200 - 210 amps on a tranny mig for that weld .
i use a couple of old murex's on a daily basis
as for wire feed i tend to use 5 series wire for marine plate so is fairly stiff in 1.2 so no probs on single U profile rollers
and 4m torch.
played with smaller 4 series wire which is softer and a real pain in the **** with basic mig feeder so usually use the tig.
price of them little spools put me off buying a seperate gun.

 

[stew]

thanks for the comments.

yeah i said multi pass but it is only actually 2 runs. my bad.

i did one run, felt it would be good to do more, but after i did another i realised it didnt really need it, so didnt bother putting another one in.

i did the welding with no pre-heat, which afterwards looks like it would help a lot. does it?

i also tried more voltage and wire feed, maybe around 190 amps, but it seemed too hot, and after a few seconds welding, the puddle would sag right down and want to almost drop thru the plate. i reckoned it would want to undercut easily on a fillet weld. ideas? more travel speed?

is it better to put a fair weave on the run, or keep it straight and smooth?

my welding was pushing (RHS to LHS), and seemed to produce no black soot, but i have tried pulling and it seems like there is a lack of gas coverage. is this normal? for steel i know it doesnt bother.

cheers,

 

[aametalmaster]

Yes try some preheat even with a small propane torch i use one on every job. Also push the weld with the gun about 10 degrees off of a 90 and more than that and the gas will suck in oxygen like a vortex...Bob
http://www.thefabricator.com/article/aluminumwelding/how-to-recognize-minimize-weld-smut

 

[julieanncharters]

thanks for the comments.

yeah i said multi pass but it is only actually 2 runs. my bad.

i did one run, felt it would be good to do more, but after i did another i realised it didnt really need it, so didnt bother putting another one in.

i did the welding with no pre-heat, which afterwards looks like it would help a lot. does it?

i also tried more voltage and wire feed, maybe around 190 amps, but it seemed too hot, and after a few seconds welding, the puddle would sag right down and want to almost drop thru the plate. i reckoned it would want to undercut easily on a fillet weld. ideas? more travel speed?

is it better to put a fair weave on the run, or keep it straight and smooth?

my welding was pushing (RHS to LHS), and seemed to produce no black soot, but i have tried pulling and it seems like there is a lack of gas coverage. is this normal? for steel i know it doesnt bother.

cheers,

as has been said push only on this stuff or ya get dirty welds.
i was always taught hot and fast with ali so maybe yer travel speed is a bit slow.
deffo tiny bit of a weave in my experience, helds with fusion/cleaning on edge of the weld on fillet.

 

[hoss4570]

Old topic but I'm new here, also new to al welding, couple of days ago. Have a Lincoln 255 Mig with a Lincoln magnum spool gun and most of what I've learned has been by trial and error. Hot and fast, is what I've learned. My problem has been with crappy looking welds (compared to my mig welds which are real purty). I have found by running .035 4043 al wire in a corner weld, my first pass looks sloppy but I can cover it up with a second pass and it looks great, jusy too "big", if you know what I mean. Wish I knew how to post pics so you can see what I'm talking about.

 

[aametalmaster]

I have found by running .035 4043 al wire in a corner weld, my first pass looks sloppy but I can cover it up with a second pass and it looks great, jusy too "big", if you know what I mean. Wish I knew how to post pics so you can see what I'm talking about.

Try some .030 4043 just for kicks. I like it alot...Bob

 

[hoss4570]

Yessir I did and you are correct, I like it but what I found most interesting was heating up the metal before welding.THAT solved my problem. Thanks.