alloy welding with a MIG?

subie_1st_timer · Post by **subie_1st_timer** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:16 pm

i have a gas & gasless welder, rated at 120amp (from memory). im away from home atm so for the life of me i cant think of the brand of my welder.... anyway

currently i only use it for metal work using gasless wire but was wondering if id be able to get alloy wire and set the gas up? would my welder do the job with welding aluminium???

when wound right up welding steel it can easily weld 6mm plate so hoping it has the grunt to weld alloy.

advice please! cheers

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:22 pm

Chances are,.. probably not. The best way to weld alloy or aluminium is with a TIG.

A TIG uses a tungsten electrode to form an arc, and filler rod is used to fill the weld puddle.

If you want a good, neat job, i suggest taking whatever you need welded to a engineering workshop or similar

AlpineRaven · Post by **AlpineRaven** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:23 pm

I think you can, I am not experienced with Alloy welding, only metal. I recall you need specific gas for Alloy welding and low amp rating for Alloy with gas. I am not 100% sure.
Cheers
AP

twilightprotege · Post by **twilightprotege** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:42 pm

your welder prob doesnt have enough juice for aluminium mig welding. i've got a cigweld 200amp, and 6mm al is working it hard. i spose you can give it a go (welding aluminium is fun!).

imo the best thing about welding al is it's easy to file back your mistakes! hahahaha. it's very similar to mild/stainless, however it is very important to get the al melting before you move on (unfortunately this usually leaves a large unsightly dag at the start of your weld).

and you'll need 100% argon for the gas too.

here's a quick pick of my blow off valve on my rx that i welded on (and filed back - still not finished)

Subafury · Post by **Subafury** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:09 am

oo nice bov- looks the same as mine except i think yours is a type rs? whats the sound like?- sorry to hijack

twilightprotege · Post by **twilightprotege** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 8:37 am

yeah type rs (a cheapo knockoff). it's pretty quiet actually and i've got it set pretty soft, so i'm happy with that

Phizinza · Post by **Phizinza** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:38 am

My brother done an ok job with his 165A cig. The next time we tried a mate bought the gas and he got argon + co2 not just straight argon and it didn't work well at all lol.

twilightprotege · Post by **twilightprotege** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:34 pm

argon and co2 is for mild. straight argon for al, argon and co2 and o2 for stainless (all as a general rule of thumb)

Battlewagon · Post by **Battlewagon** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 7:35 pm

To help welding ally with mig, preheat the job a little, just to keep that startup dag smaller. Your job must be clean, and I mean MUST, any contaminants will screw up the weld. Pure argon for ally, and be careful not to overheat small jobs with big welds, you'll get no warning when it's about to turn into a puddle of slag. Oh, and if it feels slippery when you pick it up, you've just erased your fingerprints, Men In Black style. Ouch.

subie_1st_timer · Post by **subie_1st_timer** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 4:26 pm

i just looked at my welder, its a unimig 120. So far its been a fantastic welder, lot better than my old gasless welder which only lasted a few months, the unimig is just kick arse!

so to weld an alloy i need 100% argon gas and alloy wire. what kind of pressures do i make the gas at on the reg??

what kind of wire speed do i need, faster or slower than steel? also i presume ill need to wind the amps upto max??

subie_1st_timer · Post by **subie_1st_timer** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 4:30 pm

twilightprotege wrote:your welder prob doesnt have enough juice for aluminium mig welding. i've got a cigweld 200amp, and 6mm al is working it hard. i spose you can give it a go (welding aluminium is fun!).

imo the best thing about welding al is it's easy to file back your mistakes! hahahaha. it's very similar to mild/stainless, however it is very important to get the al melting before you move on (unfortunately this usually leaves a large unsightly dag at the start of your weld).

and you'll need 100% argon for the gas too.

here's a quick pick of my blow off valve on my rx that i welded on (and filed back - still not finished)

just checked the pic... nice one!

twilightprotege · Post by **twilightprotege** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 9:38 pm

imo, once you weld with gas, you'll never go back to gasless.

with the argon, i run slightly more L/min when welding compared to welding with mild or stainless. about 15L/min with mild/stainless, about 18-20L/min with argon. just helps protect the al that bit better.

not sure how your welder works, but with my cigweld i have 2 options. volts and wire speed (essentially amps). for comparison, with mild i usually run with the volts at 4 and the wire speed at 8m/min. with al i run the volts at 2 and the wire speed 10m/min, or 4 and 11m/min. have a look through your instruction manual - most give you a starting point and you go from there.

a thing to note as well with al wire, make sure you keep your welding gun connection as straight as possible (al is soft and kinks/gets blocked easily), and if you're using 1mm wire, use a 1.1mm tip

subie_1st_timer · Post by **subie_1st_timer** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 1:25 pm

my welder has wire speed from 0-10, it then has 3 switches which control the amps (volts) when doing rust repairs i mainly leave it on the 1st setting and when welding the thick stuff i flick all the switchs to max and speed up the wire.

guess ill just get some alloy, wire and some gas and go from there and give it a go. just gotta get the $$$