MIG welder suitable for a beginner to weld Aluminium

[10ungr]

Hi,

I am a complete beginner to MIG welding, however I have an upcoming project which would require me to weld aluminium. I understand that TIG welders are generally the go to for aluminium welding, however due to a limited budget I am not able to purchase one of these. As a result, I have settled on MIG welding.

Having done some preliminary research, I have stumbled upon the Clarke MIG 145, which is around my price range, however I am unsure as to whether this would be suitable for aluminium welding. In terms of thickness, I would have to weld around 5mm thick aluminium.

I would be so grateful if someone could give me some suggestions as to whether the MIG 145 is suitable, or potentially other methods of joining aluminium.

Thanks

 

[Mr Roo]

Honestly, for aluminium you’d be better paying someone else to do the job.

aluminium isn’t for mucking about with and is really easy to get wrong! Not to mention the added expense of a spool gun (because your wee clarke welder isn’t going to have the necessary wire feed) and other gubbins...

 

[gt6s]

Must agree with Mr Roo

 

[Munkul]

No, unfortunately.

1. Aluminium sucks a LOT of heat out of the weld, meaning you have to overpower it with amps to get proper fusion. 5mm aluminium fillet welds will want 170 amps + (and that's true power, not estimated top-end power)

2. You also need to weld in spray transfer, which needs 24 volts+ for aluminium. Generally, sub-150amp MIG sets don't have the grunt to supply this voltage at full chat.

3. Leading on from this, you'll need an overpowered gun to handle the heat. I've only ever done alloy MIG on a MB36 gun, it's a big gun but still gets very hot pretty quickly!

4. Feeding aluminium wires through a regular MIG gun ranges from straightforward, down to extremely frustrating. Minimum requirement would be a nylon/teflon torch liner. 5356 wire feeds pretty easily, but you need a high quality feeder for 4043 wire and even higher quality 4 roll feed for 1050. It's straight forward, but its the little details that make the difference between usable and unusable.
OR, you set a spool gun up... more cost again.

For your project you need at a minimum a good quality 200 amp set, and either a 4 roll wire feeder with U rolls, or a spool gun.

 

[keeny]

To be honest, you said you a beginner of mig welding, well before you start thinking of doing ally stuff, get some experience first, like what been said as well on here get it done by expert see then for your self ask questions watch how it's done do night classes for it..

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

@10ungr

All that and more.
The welder you are looking at is good for steel work. Even then have you taken into account the price of the gas, the regulator, the mask and all the other small items needed to start up?

You need a different gas to weld Alloy than what you would be needing for steel.

You said that you are beginning into the world of welding? It is a good thing to do, but what looks like to be a easy start can lead to a lot of money.

Best advice I can give is learn to weld steel, then move on.

I suspect there is a lot of place near you that will be able to take on your job.

What are you planning on welding?


A simple task can open a lot of questions.

Don't get put off from what may appear to be putting you off, most of the members here will try and help and give good advice.

Come back with some more details and the Hive mind here will help, I am sure.

 

[10ungr]

Hi all, thanks for the replies.

I understand the difficulties of welding aluminium and I think that it may have been a bit of a stretch for me to start with aluminium as a complete beginner. In response to hiring someone to complete the welds for me, I understand why that may be the best option for my project, however I know that I will be embarking on multple projects in the future that may require welding so I would like for this to be my introduction to welding and something that I can take up as a hobby.

I have been offered £160 for a Widmann Mig 300 welder and was wondering if anyone knew any information about this welder?

In light of the information above, I have reverted back to steel as the primary material for my current project, however I am just wondering whether the Widmann would be suitable for a beginner welder with steel and whether it would allow me to weld aluminium later on in the future should I need it.

My current project is an electric scooter (so not too big of a project) and it would be great to hear your opinions on this welder. Any other suggestions for a suitable steel welder (and potentially aluminium in the future) would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

[Munkul]

https://widmann-germany.net/product/widmann-welding-semi-automatic-inverter-mig-300/

If it's this machine, I'd stay away, I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole. It doesn't even look like a true inverter.

For your project, you could get away with MIG for steel - even a clarke 145 - wouldn't be great, but would probably do the job. But if you go aluminium, then the cold starts of a basic MIG will be a nightmare on fiddly welds like a scooter chassis.

It would be AC TIG for aluminium, or nothing.

 

[Wozzaaah]

That’s just a generic Chinese welder. It’s name would suggest it was 300A but it’s maximum output is 160A so still nowhere near enough to weld alu.

 

[Mr Roo]

AC Tig is your bare minimum. You’re going to struggle to get a MIG that can do what you’re needing, and tbh - anything under 3mm NEEDS TIG rather than MIG when it comes to aluminium.

for reference, we used Fronius MIG/MAG Synergic welders when I did aluminium MIG. They were amazing bits of kit... but we still used TIG for thinner stuff because the heat required pretty much obliterates the thinner sheet!

for your price range you’ll struggle to find most AC/DC Tig welders - Parweld might perhaps be a shout?

 

[Kram]

I dont do much welding, couple years since Ive turned mine on. Aluminium will need heat treating after, if it is used for anything structural, like a scooter, even with tig. If you must use aluminium, better to design your parts with bolted joints instead.

I have a cheap 130a mig and had good results with a miller clone spool gun which I think was 20 quid off ebay. Unless your under a car and need the space, I will always use it. I make no claims that my welds were any good buy I found aluminium easier than steel.

 

[Munkul]

Aluminium will need heat treating after, if it is used for anything structural, like a scooter, even with tig

Not necessarily... depends how you've designed it, if you've used the non-heat treated stress values and went with bigger section accordingly.