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AC Aluminum Welding Question

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Fabien

04-03-2003 17:00:38




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In the "Articles" section, I was reading that an AC welder could be used for welding aluminum. I own an old Lincoln 180 amp AC welder. Can it be used to weld aluminum, and if so, what rod is suitable? Thanks in advance for the feedback. Fabien




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T_Bone

04-04-2003 05:34:08




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 Re: AC Aluminum Welding Question in reply to Fabien, 04-03-2003 17:00:38  
Hi Fabien,

AC AL eletrodes are going to be hard to find. You can however gas weld AL with great results. I've copied a post that I have previous answered on AL welding on the ytmag tool forum. It also covers Tig welding AL, but contains some good general welding info:

You can use oxy/act to gas weld AL. You can use AL stick rod with the flux left on or use a scrap piece of AL with a flux made from borax with alcolhol added to make a paste and just dip the filler rod into the flux when needed. If you keep your filler rod with-in the gas flame zone then a flux is not needed. Be sure to remove all flux when done welding as AL will continue to oxidize if the flux is left on.

There is a couple tricks to Gas or Tig welding Al. As your heating the base metal you will notice the weld puddle will start swrilling and that is the correct time to add filler rod and move backwards/forwards. I like moving away from my weld puddle as you can see how much filler rod needs to be added. A split second latter wrinkles appear with-in the weld puddle and if you don't quickly remove the heat or move forawrd then your weld puddle will end up on the floor.

If you Tig weld SS you will also notice this swrilling action of the weld puddle. On SS that means you have just achived 100% penetration of the base metal and if your heat(amps) are set correct then you can hold this weld puddle and let it develope to the maxmium width wanted (1.25 times the thickness the base metal equals the weld puddle width your wanting) until your weld puddle drops to the inside then adding filler rod and moving forward at the same time thus achiving and inside weld puddle the same width as the outside weld puddle. The inside weld bead material is from the base metal dropping thru and you add the filler rod for the build-up of the outside weld bead. Thats how you achieve a weld that looks the same on the inside as it does on the out side.
So if you don't want 100% base metal penetration so it "sugars" the inside, don't let your weld puddle swrill.
Sugar means the inside weld bead oxidizes without using a purge gas usually argon at about 5cuft/min. I explained this process as it can be applied to any weld puddle control therory of any type of base metal and is the best example a welder will have to "see" the "controlled" process in "slow" motion.

You can also use a chill bar clamped to the backside of your weld joint base meterial.
A chill bar is a thick piece of metal, usually 1/2" x 2" wide copper, used to draw the heat thru the base metal but hold the weld puddle from dropping thru and the weld puddle will not stick to the chill bar base metal. On welding AL you can use a piece of "clean" steel, no scalling, SS or CU. On welding Copper a SS chill bar works best. On welding carbon steel a CU, AL or SS chill bar will work.

While welding AL you will notice a black oxide scale appear on the surface and the weld puddle becomes very difficult to control. Stop and remove this black oxide with a new SS wire brush or new grinding wheel. It's very important to use new wheels as if the wheels had beem used on Cu or Fe you can't get rid of the black oxides.

I also like using tri-mix cover gas of 75%helium/24%argon/1%Co2 for my small 115v Mig welder as it allows me to weld a thicker base material for a given Amp setting. I use this tri-mix on every type of welding process Tig, Mig and as a purge gas. I use a Tee after the flow meter with a needle valve to control pruge gas flow. I only need one flow meter and one type of gas that way.

Filler rods also need precleaned with emery paper to remove oxides exspecially while Tig welding. On Fe filler rod, clean filler rod too bear metal as well as clean base metal 1" on either side of the weld joint or it will cause prosisity in the weld.

Pure argon can be used for a cover or purge gas but is very expensive when welding Fe comparred to Co2. On 316 SS a tri-mix needs to be used.

T_Bone

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Jim in NS.

04-04-2003 03:38:48




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 Re: AC Aluminum Welding Question in reply to Fabien, 04-03-2003 17:00:38  
There are "stick" rods available for aluminum. I dont know the name or number of them, but I bought a few a couple years ago to weld an aluminum step for a truck. I got them from either Liquid air or Praxair. They worked good.



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j

05-20-2003 17:50:53




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 Re: Re: AC Aluminum Welding Question in reply to Jim in NS., 04-04-2003 03:38:48  
how r the stick rods for filling holes/gaps in aluminum?



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j

05-20-2003 17:50:44




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 Re: Re: AC Aluminum Welding Question in reply to Jim in NS., 04-04-2003 03:38:48  
how r the stick rods for filling holes/gaps in aluminum?



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Bill 52 8n

04-03-2003 21:16:36




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 Re: AC Aluminum Welding Question in reply to Fabien, 04-03-2003 17:00:38  
What CM said and....

Aluminum can be welding using AC, but you need a TIG setup. Assuming your welder is pretty old, i doubt is has remote hook ups and high frequency settings needed to weld aluminum. Everything you need can be bought, but unless you are gonna be weldin a lot, your prolly bettter off taking it somewhere. You can arc weld aluminum, but you need to use DC reverse polarity. As far as rod alloy, I think i have ER4043 in my MIG welder for aluminum, its a good general purpose alloy for aluminum.

Bill

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Central Minnesota

04-03-2003 17:14:57




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 Re: AC Aluminum Welding Question in reply to Fabien, 04-03-2003 17:00:38  
The answer is yes and no. You can weld aluminum with the buzz box, (I've done it for years) but you'll need some accessories. First, solar makes a high frequency unit attachment that produces a high voltage to ionize the Argon shielding gas. Then you need a Tig torch and the correct size Tungston electrode. Last but not least is the aluminum filler rod. If you need more info. you can email me direct or talk to your local welding supplier.

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