Mig Welding Aluminimium

[bru21]

I'm just bought a mogomag 260. I have welded aluminimium with my unimig, but never light gauge.

I have messed around for 20 mins today and got welds the welding god himself would be proud of on 8mm plate, - perfect penetration, weld radius, smoothness etc. Trouble is when I weld stuff in the 2mm range I am finding it hard to find a balance between blowing through and sitting ontop. I have tried several tricks to no real avail. I can weld it strong enough, penetrated etc just looks a bit average ie. sinks then sits on top, not bird shit just not even. I have tried pulling, pushing, pulsing, high heat short duration, low heat and long passes, tip angle, etc

Is it even possible with 1.2mm wire, 18lpm argon or does the wire diameter need to be reduced. All the gear is fine eg correct rollers, teflon sleeve etc.

I have tigged thin sheet perfectly before, so i may have to tig this light gauge stuff. which is a pain as my tig is being stored at work and is over 100kg

I want to build an airbox, so i might just use 3mm sheet

any help would be appreciated

cheers bru

[ssfabricator]

yeah mate id be runnin 0.9 wire u can get smaller but is a pain in the ass for kinkin and straight argon is gunna be pretty hot as well if ya get ya gas from boc try alushield light its argon\helium dunno what its called in linde gas and pulse is definitly the go

[bru21]

ok, sweet I'll get a roll tomorrow. I can't swap the gas till its empty as I have got 4 e size cylinders out for personal use already (2x argoshield universal, stainshield, argon- if any of thes are any good - i think not), and work will get the shits!

edit: can I use my steel rollers for the .9 as I CBF getting more rollers from briz tommorrow

cheers mate

[matthewK]

why not tig weld it it would be alot easier with thin stuff like that

[ssfabricator]

yeah do u have 2 rollers or 4 and r u runnin a nylon liner?
4 rollers are best for alloy

[bru21]

2 rollers. nylon / teflon liner

[ISUZUROVER]

If possible, clamp a piece of brass underneath where you are welding. Makes it a lot harder to blow holes.

I have done all my aluminium mig welding with a Kemppi 280 running 1.2mm wire (2 roller), with a teflon liner and pure argon. The teflon liner needs to be changed rebularly. But I have never been too fussed about how the welds looked, as long as they were strong enough.

[zagan]

ok, sweet I'll get a roll tomorrow. I can't swap the gas till its empty as I have got 4 e size cylinders out for personal use already (2x argoshield universal, stainshield, argon- if any of thes are any good - i think not), and work will get the shits!

edit: can I use my steel rollers for the .9 as I CBF getting more rollers from briz tommorrow

cheers mate

Ask for the proper gas sheilding gas it can't have Co2 in it otherwise you'll put carbon into the metal and the weld itself and this will rust out.

No to the steel wheels as it won't pull the wire through properly, it'll slip etc as will aluminimium wheel will slip on steel wire.

Have a welder with aluminimium wheels and it can't pull standard 1mm mig wire through at all.

Steel wheel are U shaped
Aluminimium wheel are V shaped

Had a liquiarc guy come and explain this as we don't know this as brand new welders were meant to be setup for mid steel/gal welding.

aluminimium sheild gas is a mix and there's different types of mixes, I don't know much about the mixes myself, so can't help you much.

Stainless wire doesn't need a wheel change, aluminimium requires everything to be changed over then you'll need to change back if you want to do steel again.

[awill4x4]

[quote="zagan"]
Ask for the proper gas sheilding gas it can't have Co2 in it otherwise you'll put carbon into the metal and the weld itself and this will rust out.
Carbon doesn't rust, steel or iron rusts.

No to the steel wheels as it won't pull the wire through properly, it'll slip etc as will aluminimium wheel will slip on steel wire.
You "can" use either drive rollers it is just better to use the correct drive rolls particularly on Aluminium to avoid crushing and shaving the wire.

Have a welder with aluminimium wheels and it can't pull standard 1mm mig wire through at all.

Steel wheel are U shaped
Aluminimium wheel are V shaped
Exactly the opposite, the steel wheels are vee shaped but when using Aluminum with these drive rollers the wire "shaves" on the sharp vee edge. The U shaped rollers support the Aluminium wire with less distortion.

Had a liquiarc guy come and explain this as we don't know this as brand new welders were meant to be setup for mid steel/gal welding.

aluminimium sheild gas is a mix and there's different types of mixes, I don't know much about the mixes myself, so can't help you much.
Aluminium shield gas is straight welding grade Argon, no mixes.

Stainless wire doesn't need a wheel change, aluminimium requires everything to be changed over then you'll need to change back if you want to do steel again.