“I didn’t come here to learn how to weld aluminum, I came here to kick butt and chew bubble gum! And I am all out of bubble gum!”
That’s what the hot shot welder said when he entered the test shop. The test supervisor had seen his kind before and promptly gave him 2 pieces of aluminum.Â
“OK Hot Shot. Take these 2 pieces of aluminum, Go into that welding booth and set the machine controls, hook up the right gas, hook up the right mig gun and filler wire and lay me down a 1/4″ fillet weld…and come get me when your done”. said the weld test supervisor.
Mr. Hot shot welder stayed in the booth a really long time. A lot longer than the 10 minutes it should have taken to lay down a fillet weld. When he did emerge from the welding booth he was drenched in sweat and he held 2 pieces of barely recognizable aluminum in his hand… still not welded together.
Humbled, he asked the weld test supervisor “Can you teach me how to weld aluminum? Its a lot harder than I thought.”
Mig Welding Aluminum is a lot harder than mig welding steel. Why? Because aluminum tends to exaggerate all the little things that can go wrong when welding steel. The wire is much harder to feed. The shielding gas must be pure argon and even the shielding gas flow rate makes a big difference in how the weld goes. Voltage and wire feed speed settings are much less forgiving than when mig welding steel too. Gun angle matters a lot more too.
Remember these 5 tips when mig welding aluminum and things will go much better for you.
- use a spool gun… trying to set up a teflon liner and special short torch cable might work ok but a spool gun will work much better.
- push dont pull…pushing the puddle works better and allows the metal to be cleaned by the arc action
- use argon or a helium argon mix…do not even try using a co2 mix like used on steel. It will not work.
- use a longer stickout…mig welding aluminum uses what is known as spray transfer. A longer stickout will prevent burning up tips and will let the spray transfer do its thing.
- start with a wire feed speed that on the high side…and thank me later for all the tips you will save.
See a short video on Mig Welding Aluminum or just read a pantload of Down and Dirty welding tips and welding answers at http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/
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