Newb to Aluminium Welding!

[Tosseef Hussain]

Hi everyone, I'm Tosseef, (real name I swear lol) AKA Chief.

Today I decided to join from being a lurker as I've MIG welded my first aluminium parts today and would like some advice on what the hell I've done wrong. I'm modifying my inlet manifold on my Skyline for certain reasons, so here goes.

My machine is a Seigen Power MiniMIG 130. Lovely little yellow thing that's got me through thick and thin (see what I did there?).

The setup:

Aluminium wire .5kg 1.0mm.
Teflon liner.
Pured Argon (disposable).
Shroud pulled forward a touch and 5mm stick out.
Auto darkening mask.
Lowest power setting.
Fast wire speed. (7)

My problem:







Wire brushed final "thing" if you will.



Questions:

Why is there soot?

Why is it porous?

Why isn't it a C type bead?

 

[Fintray]

Welcome to the start of many posts!
Soot - could be not clean enough before starting and lack of gas coverage.
Porous - as above
C type bead - power too low
Just my thoughts but there are plenty of people with masses of experience who will be able to tell you the exact causes.

 

[wyn]

I think there does tend to be a fair bit of soot with aluminium mig. I was doing a bit on sheet aluminium recently and the stops and starts were very sooty.

The porous bit looks like it's because it's just blobs of weld and needs more power and a bit less wire speed.

0.8 wire might work a bit better but could be trickier trying to feed it.

 

[pedrobedro]

We got soot when pulling the gun but not when working away from you with a really expensive synergic welder. You need plenty of wire speed but it still needs to be right for the job and well cleaned. It does look under powered for the job you are doing there, have you got more power in reserve.

 

[langy]

Hi everyone, I'm Tosseef, (real name I swear lol) AKA Chief.

Today I decided to join from being a lurker as I've MIG welded my first aluminium parts today and would like some advice on what the hell I've done wrong. I'm modifying my inlet manifold on my Skyline for certain reasons, so here goes.

My machine is a Seigen Power MiniMIG 130. Lovely little yellow thing that's got me through thick and thin (see what I did there?).

The setup:

Aluminium wire .5kg 1.0mm.
Teflon liner.
Pured Argon (disposable).
Shroud pulled forward a touch and 5mm stick out.
Auto darkening mask.
Lowest power setting.
Fast wire speed. (7)

My problem:







Wire brushed final "thing" if you will.



Questions:

Why is there soot?

Why is it porous?

Why isn't it a C type bead?

130 isn't enough for what your doing.

 

[Drains]

For an idea of the right current (and more) for the job, look here - http://www.millerwelds.com/resources/calculators/mig_solid_amperage_calculator.php

They also have calculators for Tig, stick etc.

 

[chevy2]

Wayyyyyy too cold on the amperage.

 

[Tosseef Hussain]

Yeah, I had my MIG set on the lowest setting. Wire speed was at 7 out of 10. Shall I turn it up to 11?