Welding aluminium bar stock

[Dcal]

I bought a nice job lot of bar-ends from @pressbrake1 a while ago.
I want to try and run a couple of beads of weld around one end of some 64mm dia bar to increase the diameter at one end by a few mm.

Any idea what grade this might be?
Also what filler wire should I try and settings?
If / when I make a mess of it, it's no big deal.

I've 220 Lorch AC amps at my disposal but no fancy gas mixes, just straight argon.
I also have a 250A Rtec mig and spool gun I got from @Hood so it must have welded lots of alloy.

Thanks

 

[Hood]

You could try and file a bit off then drop the filings through a flame and see if you get bright burnoffs. If you do then it has magnesium content and may be something like 6082 so a 5356 filler would work.
I would probably just go with 5356 filler if I was unsure of the grade anyway

Mig will do it easily but it won't be pretty, tig will make a nicer job.
With Tig I would probably try at 180-200Amps and use a 3.2 filler rod.

If Mig then probably about 23-24v

 

[Seadog]

You could always ask Pressbrake

 

[Hood]

...
I also have a 250A Rtec mig and spool gun I got from @Hood so it must have welded lots of alloy.

That was all it was used for

 

[pressbrake1]

6082

 

[Dcal]

Thanks lads, I'll give it a go and report back.

It's going to be turned back down to size so pretty isn't a problem. If it was I'd have to get someone else to do it.

 

[Dcal]

@Hood thanks, your settings worked great, only had 2.4 filler but it worked fine.



I wasn't kidding about the pretty, but it should be OK for what it's for.