Hi,
I'm new to this forum and thought I'd introduce myself before asking a question. I'm from Jersey in the UK and I own a Davrian kit car which is mostly made of fibreglass and I'd like to fabricate several parts for it from Aluminium.
I've got a Clarke 160TE Mig welder which is currently setup with a teflon liner, 100% argon gas, 1mm tip & 0.8mm alu 4043 wire. I'm currently trying to weld together bits of alu strip from B&Q with not much success. Basically I get some decent weld (about 40%) and blow holes and accumulate slag (about 60%), so if I try and run a lap weld on 1.5mm alu for 1 inch, I get a bit at the beginning with slag, good weld then a dirty great hole.
I've tried pre-heating and turning the voltage and speed down but this doesn't seem to produce any more consistent results. I've had a look at some of the excellent help pages on this site and my results seem a million miles away! Basically I think I should be doing a couple of extra things:
I'm not zigzagging along the joint because the metal disappears too fast, if I use a brass heat sink will this be possible or is it not a good technique for alu?
Maybe the alu from B&Q is tough to weld? So I've ordered some alu sheet in the 5xxx series and I'm going to attempt to weld it with 5356 wire (I'm currently using 4043)
Any tips on alu welding will be greatfully received!
Cheers
Dave
I'm new to this forum and thought I'd introduce myself before asking a question. I'm from Jersey in the UK and I own a Davrian kit car which is mostly made of fibreglass and I'd like to fabricate several parts for it from Aluminium.
I've got a Clarke 160TE Mig welder which is currently setup with a teflon liner, 100% argon gas, 1mm tip & 0.8mm alu 4043 wire. I'm currently trying to weld together bits of alu strip from B&Q with not much success. Basically I get some decent weld (about 40%) and blow holes and accumulate slag (about 60%), so if I try and run a lap weld on 1.5mm alu for 1 inch, I get a bit at the beginning with slag, good weld then a dirty great hole.
I've tried pre-heating and turning the voltage and speed down but this doesn't seem to produce any more consistent results. I've had a look at some of the excellent help pages on this site and my results seem a million miles away! Basically I think I should be doing a couple of extra things:
I'm not zigzagging along the joint because the metal disappears too fast, if I use a brass heat sink will this be possible or is it not a good technique for alu?
Maybe the alu from B&Q is tough to weld? So I've ordered some alu sheet in the 5xxx series and I'm going to attempt to weld it with 5356 wire (I'm currently using 4043)
Any tips on alu welding will be greatfully received!
Cheers
Dave