Aluminum welding tips?

[JAKE-THE-TOOL-MAN]

I would love to hear some tips or techniques for TIG welding aluminum. I need to learn aluminum for work so I can add filler to broken boat props. I have a Syncrowave 300 in my garage with a miller foot pedal, tweco cooler, weldcraft wp-20 torch, and a full weld table. I have steel down well I'm just really struggling with Aluminum. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

-Jake

 

[Regnar]

You might want to check out Miller on Youtube. If I remember correctly they had a lot of good videos on set up. But in the end I think its all about the practice and finding what works for you.

 

[Regnar]

Found it http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBD262CA0C539FA80&feature=plcp

 

[JC23]

You will need to reduce yer heat as you move on down the weld as the base material heats up easily.

 

[dkGoodrich dot com]

Weldingtipsandtricks.com

 

[spoolgarage]

Exactly what are you having problems with? What tungsten / Settings are you using?

 

[rockwithjason]

aluminum has to be clean, clean, clean. use a stainless steel wire brush and clean it until the bright oxidation is gone. once you contaminate the tungsten you have to fix it before moving on. snap off the contaminated section in a vise and re prep it.

 

[jrlp]

I do 0 tungsten prep for al. Cut it flat, turn balance to 40% and ball it on a copper block, then balance back to 65% and go.
This is of course on an inverter... for 99% of repairs, that's what works. If the al is real dirty and you can't clean it.. I set the balance to 20-30% on the next size up tungsten and walk over the joint a few times. Then adjust balance to suit, sometimes as low as 20%... but keep in mind once you go lower than 50% on balance, your welding current goes down by that percentage. For instance...
100A at 50% = 50A cleaning and heating tungsten 50A welding current.

100A at 35% = 65A cleaning 35A welding.

Since a lot of heat goes to the tungsten while cleaning you need a larger tungsten to handle the current/heat. You can run around 140A on 1/16 tungsten at 65% or about 100A at 30% before it balls, melts back, and splits / spits a ball of molten tungsten into your puddle. Your mileage may very, as this is just what I've experienced...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[Mike9940]

My shop does about 80% of work in aluminum. One technique the fellows use is to clean the surface of small parts and heat them to about 1200 deg. before welding. This heating stops the heat from draining off and increases the penetration of the weld. We make gantry and davit cranes and have never had a weld break in over 10 years of making equipment. We know our stuff is tough because many of our units are owned by industrial and general rental stores and to date have never had a broken part.