Aluminium MIG

[doubleboost]

Hi
I am having problems with "black soot" on aluminium welds
The base metal is clean (wire brush then acitone wipe)
6mm plate "T" joint 1mm wire Teflon liner
I am using high purity argon with a good flow
The black soot cleans off easily
The welds have good penetration & look tidy

 

[hotrodder]

More correctly pedantically known as 'weld smut'. Good article about it here... http://www.thefabricator.com/article/aluminumwelding/how-to-recognize-minimize-weld-smut

 

[GB75]

Hi
I am having problems with "black soot" on aluminium welds
The base metal is clean (wire brush then acitone wipe)
6mm plate "T" joint 1mm wire Teflon liner
I am using high purity argon with a good flow
The black soot cleans off easily
The welds have good penetration & look tidy

Are you pulling or pushing your runs? having only recently put my smaller machine on to ali for a special job I found I got sooty deposits on top of the weld only when I pulled runs which I couldn't push due to inaccessibility in one or two awkward places on the work. this was also on 6mm ali plate using 1mm wire and pure argon. pushing the runs produces perfect clean results with no sooty traces.

 

[Jim Davey]

As a rule you tend to get grey/black sooty deposits either side but a clean weld if settings are good, if the weld itself looks sooty then you have a problem.
Aluminium/silicon wires give a more milky deposit when used on a conventional mig, with most pulse sets silicon wires leaving almost no deposit at all but with ally/magnesium wires you always seem to get some deposits no matter what you try.

 

[pedrobedro]

Pull welding usually gives sooty marking because there is insufficient gas cover on the weld pool.

 

[doubleboost]

I have been pushing the welds
The weld bead is clean just the metal ether side is "sooty"
After a look on you tube this seems normal
It is amazing how much metal you can deposit lol

 

[BrokenBiker]

is that with the r-tech? The welds in your Sunday night vid looked good

 

[doubleboost]

is that with the r-tech? The welds in your Sunday night vid looked good

Yes that was with the R Tech MIG
I think I was expecting more of a "TIG" like weld
Plenty strong mind lol

 

[BrokenBiker]

Yes that was with the R Tech MIG
I think I was expecting more of a "TIG" like weld
Plenty strong mind lol

i saw the clip of you beating on them with a hammer and they took a lot of abuse and the welds held up, cant say fairer than that