mig welding aluminium

[car.crash]

right i have a clarke 151en mig welder, a roll of aluminium wire 0.8mm and off to get a bottle of pure argon.
any tips on how welding aluminium is differant to welding steel? and info would be great please.

 

[malcolm]

Have a read through the pages in the tutorial about welding aluminium.

It's possible, requires very careful set up, and anything under about 3mm is really horrible to do with a MIG. Above 3mm is less horrible.

 

[car.crash]

thanks malcolm, that was a good read
these are what i want to weld together
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/51mm-2-Alumin...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item439bee209d

 

[hotrodder]

Sorry to sound so negative but if you haven't already bought some argon i would give that job a wide swerve. Actually even if you've already bought the argon i'd still not bother unless you've plenty of free scrap tube to practice with (to convice yourself it's a hiding to nowhere). As Malcolm said thin aluminium and MIG isn't fun and is even less fun with DIY type MIG sets. Thin wall small diameter tube is about eleventy billion times more difficult, more so if you've never welded Al before and you need air tight welds.

My advice would be to post up a location to if there's any members local to you that'd be up for welding the pipework for a drink. Easy enough to cut and fit everything (using witness lines and some tape) ready, the welding is the quick bit

 

[runnach]

I concur with HR, not a simple task for diy machine and, diy-er with little or no skill of mig welding even thick-ish al/al. While we applaud your enthusiasm, this is one job for a TIG expert.

Cheers...........

 

[car.crash]

I appreciate your honest advice. I will give it a miss.