Hi guys, new to this forum, i am not a pro welder by any means. But i can do pretty well with a Stick, mig and gas welding on steel. I have not been able to master a tig yet but I've only tried a few times with no success. Now I'm trying to mig weld aluminum. I switched over to 100% Argon gas and .030 aluminum wire. I started welding in short bursts, but the wire gets stuck to the end of the torch tip. Then the wire gets all wadded up at the feeder. I have increased the wire speed and heat, that reduced the splattering mostly. Welding with a miller 300, heat 3 and wire speed at 50. Any thoughts as to why the wire is sticking to the tip?
- Thread starter Scott S
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Tangledfeet
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GraemeVW
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I did some aluminium mig with my clarke 150en.
Teflon liner, size bigger tip than wire iirc, but might not have. Power right up, wire feed to whatever it took (fast! There was one spot where the process worked, outside of that it just straight up didn't work).
I got it to work but only just. Not brilliant, but the broken fins on my bikes head that I build up are still attached and help up to grinding and filing to shape.
Interestingly I had no wire feed issues at all.
I didn't expect the set up to work, thought it would be a complete failure, but it went ok.
I'd maybe even say it was easy!
I may have found it easy as I was prepared to accept a low quality result, as long as it stuck, I was happy. I imagine if you want a proper result, it may be quite tricky.
One day I'll try it again on clean aluminium and properly test the results.
Teflon liner, size bigger tip than wire iirc, but might not have. Power right up, wire feed to whatever it took (fast! There was one spot where the process worked, outside of that it just straight up didn't work).
I got it to work but only just. Not brilliant, but the broken fins on my bikes head that I build up are still attached and help up to grinding and filing to shape.
Interestingly I had no wire feed issues at all.
I didn't expect the set up to work, thought it would be a complete failure, but it went ok.
I'd maybe even say it was easy!
I may have found it easy as I was prepared to accept a low quality result, as long as it stuck, I was happy. I imagine if you want a proper result, it may be quite tricky.
One day I'll try it again on clean aluminium and properly test the results.
Hood
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I would be going minimum 1mm (0.04" ? ) wire.
As mentioned a teflon liner is required, preferably a short torch of 3m (10ft) and also U groove rollers and you need to go up one size in contact tip or get one suitable for Aluminium.
You need to be in spray transfer for a sound weld in my opinion so that means anything less than 3mm thickness can be hard to do.
As mentioned a teflon liner is required, preferably a short torch of 3m (10ft) and also U groove rollers and you need to go up one size in contact tip or get one suitable for Aluminium.
You need to be in spray transfer for a sound weld in my opinion so that means anything less than 3mm thickness can be hard to do.
Hood
I am obsessed.
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- Carnoustie, Scotland
Spool gun will make life a lot easier, not so far to push the wire so little chance of a birds nest.
