Aluminium welding problems.

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th62

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Just hooked everything up for aluminium welding: Argon pressure set at at 8 lpm, wire is 5356, volts at 18, wire feed at 8.5, base metal cleaned with stainless, aluminium liner installed, earth is negative but weld wire globbing on base metal regardless of voltage, any ideas?
 

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No idea, I've yet to embark on the Al adventure. I have tried the low temp Al rods that are advertised everywhere, with limited success, it would seem that cleanliness is the ultimate goal here too. I ended up taking the job to a shop that specialises in Al and paid a few dollars, it was worth it.
 
My first MIG welder had problems like that. The wire feed power supply ran off the main supply so when the arc was struck, the voltage would drop and the wire feed speed would drop as well. The net effect was that it would feed wire in and the slow appreciably, increasing the arc length. I built a regulated power supply with pulse width modulation for speed control which greatly improved the welds.
 
So I replied in the other forum you posted this question in. There you didn't mention the polarity, but you have it correct (hopefully). Work clamp is negative, MIG gun is positive. I noticed you did not disclose your WFS. Aluminum needs to be in spray transfer which means very high WFS. So tell us, what WFS are you using? And please don't say "all values". Part of the problem with describing welding issues is that they are discrete events; meaning that when you tried ONE weld, you did not try all values at once. There were a specific set of values at that one time. Instead of telling the whole series of independent events all at once, you need to describe them in discrete events, where one event encompasses one set of values for each of the variables which in these case are: V, WFS, Argon flow rate, CTWD, gun angle, metal thickness, joint orientation, travel speed.
 
Yep, I did say wire feed was 8.5 but I have tried other settings.
 
No mention of wire diameter.

So

WFS= 8.5 m/s (336 IPM)
V= 18
Argon flow rate= ?
CTWD= ?
Gun angle= ?
Metal thickness=?
Orientation = Flat(?)

Do you see what I mean by discrete values?

You need more voltage and WFS for that 0.9mm diameter 5356 (that was not mentioned). 8.5 m/min on 5356 is about 95A. You're about 75A short. Try 14.4 m/min and 24.5V. You need a good 12-14mm CTWD for spray transfer BTW.
 
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That's a day I'll never get back, in the absence of any insightful help, I gave up.
 
Why don 't people read the original post before asking questions that were answered in the very first post?????
Have you tried maximum voltage and wires speed your welder is capable of? Aluminium welding is a spray trasnsfer process as was mentioned above. That needs very high (200A+ for 0.040" wire) and very fast wire speed.
What's the capacity of your welder?
 
Well after two days of following 'helpful' advice, I threw it all away and within an hour of messing with settings myself managed to run a bead before running out of wire. Last bead is fourth from the right. Not good I know, but a big improvement from my original post.
 

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Man, I know your getting hit from all directions here, I hope to not add to that..
just start with puddle control...don't even add any rod. keep your torch around 1/16" away from base metal, about 15 degrees tilted the way your moving. Just practice starting, moving your puddle. In you pix, I see a weld that was done too cold and without a good puddle started.
 
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