Thread: MIG welding Aluminium

yes you can, you just need to change the rollers, use a teflon liner and run straight argon as the gas.

I probably wouldn't recommend using a small cheap mig though, just asking for trouble. A Cigweld Transmig 200 would be my recommendation.

What sort of thickness aluminium do you think you will be working with?

Garfield,
Handy man type machines aren't really suited to do this well. There is a lot not said in the advertising blurb when you are told, it can weld aluminium. Aluminium is not a metal to learn mig welding on.

As a general rule, small capacity machines run small diameter wire. Small diameter aluminium wire on a standard mig has to be pushed through the liner up to a couple of meters. The handpiece torch is not best suited to the task.

Given the slightest provocation the wire will kink through
* Cable not straight
* Contact tip too small -need to be bigger the wire diameter
* Contact tip not in good condition - wire sticks in it
* Drive rolls not correct type
* Aluminium wire type too soft

And thats just some of the Zhit that happens.

Don't use just any wire, 5356 will work to a degree if you insist on a small diameter, as it is stiffer.
Aluminium on a mig operates in the spray range which is about 22 volts or better and 180 ammps or better.Most small rigs don't have this sort of grunt needed.

Do lots of checking and research.

cheers
Grahame

Gidday

I certainly agree with Grahame N the best advise I can give is that theres no real cheap way of Welding aluminum particularly with a MIG. I wouldnt go near it without access to 3 phase power n a rig able to pump out 250+ AMps...........(Just my Opinion)

At the end of the day the bottom line is that to produce good consistent welding in Ali your gonna have to spend a buck

If your dead set on welding Ali consider a AC/DC Tig/Stick inverter theres pleanty a cheaper Chinese units presently on the market BUT investing in these comes with a sting of associated risks (eg: parts availability, service, warranty etc etc etc)your likely to be looking @ spending 2-2.5k good luck below this kinda price range!

Theres some good posts on traveling down this road on the forum...................

Regards Lou

i agree with most things said above however if a second hand machine in good nick was to come along and it is a known brand with spares etc available it could be worth considering depending on your budget and requirements.I know that an old ruralpack 195 cig/boc/cigweld with reverseable polarity may cost you a few hundred dollars or a little more,and it will weld ally all day,especially if its still fitted with the standard 350 amp tweco they came with.Only good for up to 10mm thick section tho.cheers,danny

Thanks for the replies guys.

The Al I was thinking of welding is 2.5mm thick.

I do own a CIG 130 inverter Tig/Stick welder... kind'a wish I brought a mig now either way

Originally Posted by garfield

Thanks for the replies guys.

The Al I was thinking of welding is 2.5mm thick.

I do own a CIG 130 inverter Tig/Stick welder... kind'a wish I brought a mig now either way

At least it give you a good excuse to get more arsinal for your shed MIG set up costs a bit but opens up a few more options.

Im still practicing on steel before i attempt any ali work plus i dont like the sound of hiring yet another gas bottle!

Originally Posted by garfield

Thanks for the replies guys.

I do own a CIG 130 inverter Tig/Stick welder... kind'a wish I brought a mig now either way

No AC?.........................

Originally Posted by garfield

Hi all,Just wondering if you can weld aluminium with a MIG? I was thinking of buying a small not too expensive MIG (if possible) as I'm still a bit of a noob and only wanna do small jobs here and there.ThanksGeoff

Hi Geoff,
About 15 years ago I had a CIG 110 amp Due mig and welded aluminum with it, so it can be done just not easy or the best joint. I had experience welding steel for about 15 years before that, but was new to welding aluminum. I found like said above that keeping the line strait, going one size up in the tip and keeping minimal pressure on the drive rolls helped but it was still hard not to get a birds nest when I got burn back at the tip even though the wire speed was on full. Being a small mig I had trouble getting penetration and after talking to the local aluminum welding place he suggested grinding the join out to get better penetration and it did work but was not the greatest.
Around that time I picked up a CIG Transmig and the difference is night and day, even though you still have to keep the line strait etc, I was able to use a teflon liner (as the Due mig one couldn't be replaced) which made things better as well. Also I can run the wire speed around half and still have plenty to play with.
The local aluminum place has push pull guns on theirs, where they have an extra motor on the hand piece to pull the wire through. Their is also spool guns around that are a hand piece with a small motor and spool on it instead of trying to push the wire though the liner. The price of these guns are out of reach for the home shop with prices around $1000-$2000 for a system.

If your thinking of doing aluminum a lot you might be better off with Tig, even though it is a lot slower it allows you to heat the joint before adding wire and doesn't have the wire feed problems like above.

Dave

Just on the subject of joining aluminium has anyone used an Australian product called Ultra Bond?

Any good?

ULTRA BOND aluminium repair rods - Robson's Tool King Store

Originally Posted by Sawmaster

Just on the subject of joining aluminium has anyone used an Australian product called Ultra Bond?

Looks like a product I've seen being flogged at field days in the past, with the guy welding up soft drink cans. I've used them a few times with an LPG blow torch - the critical thing is having a clean stainless steel brush - with a bit of practice you can get pretty respectable-looking joins.

Geoff

For $A1200 you should be able to get a Lincoln Power MIG 180C with a Magnum 100SG Spool Gun. Use it with 100% Argon and you should be able to run 0.8 or 0.9 aluminium wire.

Regards
Mav

I realise that this thread is a little old but I've just been through the exercise of setting up a MIG that can do aluminium work for my home workshop.

Firstly I would suggest searching the Lincoln and Miller websites as they each have a number of articles on ally welding and some very useful information.

My own setup that I have been using very successfully is a Lincoln 180c. I didn't want a spool gun due to the bulk of the handpiece and the expense of the smaller spools.

I also found that the drive roller in the Lincoln Spoolgun is the same part (matching part numbers) as the 0.035 (0.9mm) V roller that comes with the 180c mig. I was told that the roller from the spool gun would fit the MIG but I expected it to be a U roller and it wasn't until I checked the part numbers that it was actually a V roller. I was also told by a number of very knowledgeable people experienced in ally that they only use steel liners and not to bother with a teflon liner. 100% Argon set to the right flow rate is a must. I use flux-core wire for my steel so I only have a bottle of 100% Argon for ally work.

In the end, to run ally 0.035 (0.9mm) 5256 (?) ally wire, I have the 180c set up with the 0.035 V roller and a steel liner. I have a second steel liner that I use for carbon steel and simply swap over liners when I change materials to prevent any cross contanination. I also run a 1.0mm tip for 0.9mm ally wire. Given that I've put a fully 8" reel of ally wire through the machine without any feed issues has me convinced I don't need to bother with a spool gun. At most I may end up just buying a second standard handpiece but swapping liners isn't an issue and I try plan my work so that I'm not swapping back and forth between ally and steel.

I haven't had any feed issues but I have the roller pressure set just enough to drive to the point that it slips if the wire sticks at the tip. For the 180c feed tensioner the end of the thread is only just flush or slightly below the top of the nut on the adjuster.

For welding of 3mm 5-series ally plate and hollow section I have the settings at approx 7-8/G-H for current and feed-rate dials to produce a nice fillet weld.

Initially I struggled getting a reasonable weld but I found the suggested feed rate was too low (approx 4). Once I got it dialed in it's not been an issue apart from the odd time that I might forget to turn the gas on, but that an operator error not the machine.

It's not too different to steel once the settings are figured. A bit sensitive to heat and more stick-out required but the basic principles seem to be the same. I'm not an qualified/experienced welder but if you know your way around MIG on carbon steels then it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to learn ally.

I do believe that my choice in going for a Lincoln is a large part of my success. Compared to the cheaper/hobby the feed mechanism is better constructed and guides the wire each side of the rollers. That coupled with the rest of the build quality just makes it a great little welder.

I'm not convinced that cheaper welders ARE that much cheaper. When I started looking and was checking out the options I noticed that some/all of the cheaper options had no gauge/regulator. Given these cheap 160-180Amp MIGs are in the order of AU$600-$700 and I can pick up a Lincoln 180c for around AU$1000 and the 180c comes complete with gauge/reg, a handful of tips, rollers and two small rolls of wire then I couldn't go past the Lincoln. The Lincoln also has three years warranty.

I also notice that there is a reference to 3-phase power supply in a previous post.

The 180c comes with a 15A plug (Aussie 240V, 50Hz spec) but I have it running through a 'modified' 15Amp extension lead so that it plugs in to the standard 10A GPO's in the shed. The breaker for the shed supply is rated at 20A but I was initially worried that I still might be tripping the circuit periodically if I was pushing the welder.

To test the limits I cranked the MIG to max settings and ran a good solid weld on some 1" bar and had no issues with tripping circuits or warm plugs/leads

.

Much has been said about using 10 amp plugs on 15 amp machines. Insurance companies don't like it. Cigweld have just released a single phase 250 amp and 3 phase 350 amp mig machine with optional remote wire feeder. At very reasonable prices for the home user.
New Cigweld Mig Welders for sale - Cigweld WeldSkill 250 MIG, 26547

In my limited ally welding experience, a 250amp machine would be heaps for 10mm ally plate.

Disclaimer;
I work in a shop that specializes in welding equipment. Its not cigweld or the store in the above link