MIG aluminium - burn back to tip on start up

[Keith_]

Hi all,

The title pretty much says it all. I've set my Clarke255 up with a teflon liner and am pushing 1mm ali wire through a 3m MB15 torch. When the arc starts I get good results but am getting a lot of burn backs to the tip upon first contact.. which is a real pain. Have tried using a short and long stick out to start as well as increasing the wire feed speed but am still getting a lot of burn backs .

Does anyone have any advice on how to strike up without this problem?

Thanks,

Keith

 

[the snooper]

I found when welding aluminium with mig the wire speed had to be up high

 

[aametalmaster]

Does anyone have any advice on how to strike up without this problem?

If you have lots of aluminum to do you might invest in a spoolgun. Try clipping your wire ends to remove the ball before each start...Bob

 

[Jim Davey]

I employ a drag-back method to help avoid this problem. What I do is I position the torch about one inch forward of where I wish to start then as I press the trigger I drag the torch backwards along the joint in the opposite direction I intend to travel in (very much like striking a stick arc) I find this particularly helpful when trying to start welds with basic machines with no wire creep, or host start functions. It's largely unnecessary on a push pull equipped machine, but plenty of spool gun setups need careful handling on start up to avoid burning back to the tip.

All the usual rules apply for getting good reliable starts too, snipping the ball off the wire end at 45 degrees, a really secure clean earth, and a decent ally specific tip (higher grade copper and more clearance) that's actually nipped up not left loose will help massively.