Need Aluminum welding Capabitities

JR49 said:
Ironken trading the CO2 tank for an AR. tank is a no go, but I'm still thinking, and hope you and others " in the know" will keep me on the straight and narrow. How about if I swap the 75/25 tank for an Argon tank, keep 2 tanks---The CO2 for the majority of mig welding steel, and the Argon tank to use for spool gun aluminum, and when I have thin sheetmetal to weld. Assuming straight Argon is OK on thin steel. By now you must be thinking that I am an extreme cheapskate, and your probably right but it's more because I'm trying to add the ability to weld aluminum, bearing in mind that I may sometimes go 6 months or more without welding anything at all, which is why I avoiding buying a full Tig machine.
In the post above the only problem you cited about using CO2 with mig welding is burning holes in thin metal. Please anyone If you have others issues with using CO2, let me know before I do this ! Thanks for your time, JR49
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Pure Ar is a no go on carbon steel. I have never tried it but, understand that Co2 stops sputtering and stabilizes the arc. I think weld.com has a vid on this very subject on Yootoob.

I don't think you are cheap....just making the most of what you got. I was too cheap to buy an extra cylinder of pure Ar for back purging so I bought a Smith dual flowmeter. I get it.
 
I've had a Miller 212 with dual guns and dual bottles for a number of years now. As an occasional welder I have found I can do a passable job with 5052/5356 or 6061/4043 from 1/8 to 1/4. Above 1/4 I have to preheat, and while I have actually made welds in stock as thin as .063 below about .1/.08 its beyond my amateur skill level to do reliably without blowing through. Even using appropriate tack and stitch fill techniques to reduce heat build up. I suspect I just get in to much of a hurry. If I was to invest in aluminum welding as a business venture I'd probably go with a pulse TIG set up instead of my regular old MIG setup. I've got a farmer buddy who welds larger diameter thin wall aluminum sprinkler pipe all the time with his pulse tig and he says he picked it up from watching one of their welders in about a day. I watched him lay down some repairs, and it looked almost like torch welding. It seemed to go pretty quick and easy. One of the things I found that helped a lot with my MIG was to ask on the Miller forums about a particular weld. Often the speed of the gun to make the weld was incredible. If it was important to get it right the first time I'd clamp up some scrap in the same alloy and thickness and do some practice welds first.

I used to also ask on the sci.engr.joining.welding Usenet group, but since Ernie Leimkuhler got tired of all the political posts and quit posting there the amount of quality expertise sort of dwindled away.
 
I have tried pure argon on mild steel with a mig welder... it results in thin, tall, rope-like beads with poor penetration... I have never tried it on thin sheet metal, but I would expect the same result.

Pure argon is the way to go with aluminum, though...

-Bear
 
I use pure argon for aluminum and trimix for steel. I actually don't care for trimix for most things and will probably get a more suitable dual gas when I refill that bottle. Might be a while because often my little flux core is more handy for steel welding.
 
I have a spoolmate gun for my miller 210. It works but don't really care for it. Much rather tig aluminum.
 
NCjeeper said:
I have a spoolmate gun for my miller 210. It works but don't really care for it. Much rather tig aluminum.
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That's kinda my position.....they work but, its like welding with a football. If I ever start doing aluminum in volume, I'll get a push-pull gun for my machine.
 
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