Aluminum welding with a mig and argon

I have not tried turning up the argon gas pressure and will try that next.

Does anyone have any ideas to help me get a good penetrating weld?

Thanks,

Mark

I feel like I am taking a course on welding.
I am going out this am to try SS brush, low setting, close clamped ground, clean liner, close arc, non fluxed tip aluminum weld.

Mark

I feel like I am taking a course on welding.
I am going out this am to try SS brush, low setting, close clamped ground, clean liner, close arc, non fluxed tip aluminum weld.

Mark

Another thing I will add is do not, I repeat "Do Not", use a tip cleaner or anything else to clean out a contact tip. These tips are slightly curved inside to ensure electrical contact, hence the name contact tip. Install a new tip instead.

Some helpfull hints are, keep your cable as straight as possible, without kinks, curves or coils. Tighten the drive rolls only enough to push the wire and no more. Overtightening the drive rolls result in ovaled wire trying to travel through a round liner. Also with coated steel wire the coating may be damaged and flake off inside the monocoil liner. If this happens you may not be able to pull the wire through with a pair of vise pliers much less push it through with drive rollers. Place your ground directly onto the metal and fairly close to where you are welding. Not onto your welding table and hope it goes though to the metal you wish to weld.

Good Luck!

3.Be sure you don't have any wire slippage.
HTH,
Steve

• Freedom Alloys

You didn't give us much to go on, gun type, machine, AL type.

Try some 75%HE/25%AR gas at 30cfh for heavier pentration welds.

You also will need to keep the base metal clean with a "NEW" SS wire brush on a drill motor works well. If you use a old SS wire bush it will be full of contaminates and contaminate the base metal. Brush clean until you see the metal turn white. If the weld pudle area at any time turns black or black oxides appear or your having difficulty with weld puddle control, it's time to clean again. Cleaning is the key to welding AL.

Could be the liner or the tips being dirty. Clean with tip cleaners if not worn or replace the tip. Make sure you have a good ground.

T_Bone

Thanks,

My machine is a Miller Challenger, 220 volt up to 150 amps. I will check wire type. Can wire type make a difference?

The Al I am welding is brand new tubing and is not contaminated.
I should try the HE with AR but I cannot figure out why my al wire is welding to my tip.
I have used up to 10 new tips as I have attempted different wire speeds and welding temps.
I have a good ground I believe.

You're not gonna like this, but all aluminum is contaminated. This is what makes it so corrosion resitant. It's covered with an oxide that has to be removed before it can be welded. The stainless brush is the only thing I know of that works...

Good luck,
Dave

Thank you,

Mark

Dave is right on. All metal has a film(oxides) on it that must be removed before welding. If your ever having a problem , it don't matter what metal your welding, clean it first and a SS wire brush is generally the best for cleaning. Even SS has a oxide that "should" be removed before welding. Ever wonder why some guys Tig welding looks so nice and smooth? 10 to 1 they prep'd the base metal down to white metal with a wire brush. The SS wire brush starts to grab when you hit "white" metal.

While Tig welding and other weld processes, I like using Tig as examples as Tig allows the orperator to "see" what makes a good weld puddle as the orperator has better control of the weld puddle than other methods. With the base metal clean the weld puddle fills out to the same width every time, with the base metal dirty(contaminated) the weld puddle will flow smooth then shrink in then go wide again and this is the weld puddle trying to adhere to a dirty surface thus changing the heat required to pentrate the base metal thus creating a uneven weld bead.

4330 is probabbly the best all around AL filler wire.

I'm still leaning towards a ground problem. You could also have a dirty liner or a liner that doesn't make good contact at the liner clamp. With AL you usually have a build up of wire skin right at where the wire enters the liner that also can cause the problem. Take some time and tare the gun down from the feed rolls out. Clean everything very well with alcohol. Don't forget to add a foam ear plug on the wire as it enters the liner as this helps keeps the wire clean.

e-mail me if you still have problems then we'll post the final results for everyone to read.

T_Bone

To help better understand the Importance of cleanning, think of it this way the aluminum melts at 1100 degrees and the oxides won't melt until 1800 degrees.