Have had a play with the MIG on ali in preparation to building my canoe. Keep getting black soot around the weld i think this is probably due to the pants mini bottle and reg. . Any comments greatly appreciated.
Hi MK
I alway got problems with ali welding i was given some acetone, now i wipe everything down with this first (and dispose of the rag for obvious reasons)
so much better very little oxidation now
As has already been mentioned, not a bad result if using diy toy mig welder. Ali can be really fickle stuff to mig weld even using industrial plant. Cleaning a must, watch your gas flow, too much will coz probs, as will too little, tilt angles are more or less the same for mig welding steel. Make sure you have adequate ventilation, fume is bloody awful!!!
I forgot to mention, watch your arc length, too long will cause contamination because of lack of shielding gas. As for pointers, usual torch tilt angles, then go like Billy Whizz
Mig al/al is like Tig al/al, different beast to weld compared to carbon steel using both processes, tall order for anyone with little experience, case of pressing on till you get decent results, practice come to mind, not impossible, good luck
Just get the metal as clean as you can,and remove the outer layers of oxides.
If you try to weld al through an anodized coating, it it truly hopeless.
A stainless steel wire brush on a drill works well, but you have to keep it just for al.
Your welds look good,you've almost got it.
Robert
Had another play today. Ran a few beads fine and carrying out the REG modification to get more than a little hiss of gas. Has a problem after a little while it wouldn't spark the wire was just hitting the material and bending! Is this due to duty cycle and the machine getting to hot?
Has a problem after a little while it wouldn't spark the wire was just hitting the material and bending! Is this due to duty cycle and the machine getting to hot?