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I Finally Welded Aluminum!

M

Major Ramifications

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River Ridge, Louisiana
No big deal to many of you, but I finally welded some aluminum for the first time last night. I got a free bottle of argon from a pawn shop (bought the welder/cart/bottle and sold it without the bottle for what I paid for all of it) scraped up enough money for a spool gun and a roll of wire, and an American made stainless steel wire brush.
I did a couple of test beads on some 1/8" stock I had laying around, and then welded another peice to it. I broke the new piece off, and the weld stayed, but it work-hardened higher up and finally broke off. Sweet.

It was not as difficult as I thought it would be, and I liked the spray arc method of welding. Now I just need to figure out something I can build out of aluminum to test my mettle.

Is it normal to have black residue on each side of the weld? It cleaned off easily.
 
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NASTYZEN

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Congratulations on your new skill.:thumbup:
Try to push rather than pull is what others on here have suggested before, as well as proper gas flow.Also make sure the base metal is really clean, with a s/s wire brush is best.
Oh and don't breath the pretty blue smoke that comes of of the arc! Work in a well vented area.
Enjoy!
:beer:
 
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Frank The Plumber

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B

Buckgnarly

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Frank The Plumber said:
I know it can be done, I've done it lots of hours on my TIG in the shop :). Welded a bit of copper with some copper wire as well, SS too.

I'm saying no picture of "his" weld, it didn't happen.

Can't just run out and say you did it without a picture can you?:thumbup:
Click to expand...

So where's your pics of the copper.......:bounce:
 
C

cnc-me

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Major,welcome to the world of non-ferrous welding. :)
Have welded a small amount of copper myself with the TIG.
You set the machine, like you were going to weld steel except for
much higher amperage. Mine come out looking quite nice, used a
piece of 1/4" thick electrical grade copper and some 12 gauge romex
ground wire for the filler rod. Unfortunately, this was just a test piece
that I did not save, it went into the scrap barrel.
Like to try some magnesium next. I know a guy that can put down beautiful
welds on mag.
 
C

charle10

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Commerce, Mi
I did a little aluminum welding for the first time a few weeks ago as well. It sure is different than steel. It didn't look pretty, and had to grind out some areas a few times, but it has held up so far. It's one of the 2 brackets holding up the deck on my dad's ski boat.

Frank The Plumber said:
No pictures, no weld. Just sayin.
Click to expand...

Come on the guy welded a piece of aluminum. Saying he didn't do it unless you see a picture is pretty lame. If you wanted to see pictures to help him improve that is something completely different.

I can see how that kind of comment might be suitable for someone claiming they bought something for pennies on the dollar, but still, are we to the point of not being able to believe anybody without visual evidence?
 
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Frank The Plumber

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charle10 said:
I did a little aluminum welding for the first time a few weeks ago as well. It sure is different than steel. It didn't look pretty, and had to grind out some areas a few times, but it has held up so far. It's one of the 2 brackets holding up the deck on my dad's ski boat.



Come on the guy welded a piece of aluminum. Saying he didn't do it unless you see a picture is pretty lame. If you wanted to see pictures to help him improve that is something completely different.

I can see how that kind of comment might be suitable for someone claiming they bought something for pennies on the dollar, but still, are we to the point of not being able to believe anybody without visual evidence?
Click to expand...

Yup paragraph 2 there, messing with him and would like to see his results so we can give him pointers.
Honestly, be honest now, is it really a successful weld if you are not willing to show it to the world?...............no.
Show us the boat part weld, hey, if it looks good great, if it don't we'll tell you, politely. Might save you some grief too ya know.
oh and I did post my pictures when I got called out, fair is fair.:)
just sayin.....
 
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M

Major Ramifications

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I knew someone would want pictures. It's a lot of trouble to post pictures, so I didn't do it since I wasn't looking for a critique of my very first welds. For the record, they aren't textbook pretty but plenty strong. And I admit that I am one of the ones who asks others for pictures on this board. (Did Tatra ever post the pictures of the pickup he just got?)
If I work on an aluminum project and have some trouble with the welds, you'd better believe I will post some pics.

The spoolgun came with good instructions, and I used a push technique with plenty of gas flow. I also cleaned the material scrupulously and used a new, for aluminum only, stainless steel wire brush to clean the area with right before.

Thanks for the support guys!
 
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ishiboo

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05CarbonDRZ said:
How old are we??
Click to expand...

It's a joke.

My first time welding TIG was great fun. I had done some MIG before, but nothing serious. I took a class, and everyone before me dropped at least a functional bead.

I could not get a consistent bead down. It was so frustrating with everyone watching. I didn't understand what was wrong, I thought my technique was fine!

My last weld, I successfully stuck the coupon to the other coupon. Feeling bad, the instructor picked it up to congratulate me, and immediately noticed the coupons she handed me were wrong. One was steel, and the other was aluminum. Masks on, with the aluminum sitting on the table, we couldn't tell the difference!

Given two pieces of steel, I ended up welding the best bead in the class :D
 
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Buckgnarly

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I can't wait to get a TIG....that copper looks like a lot of fun, and some cool possibilities for projects!
Now I gotta go water the money tree......:lol_hitti
 
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charle10

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Sorry no pictures of the boat piece I did. It's underwater, and won't be seen until later this fall. And I already know the quality is questionable on part of it, plus I had to file the welds flat, so even in I did take pictures, it wouldn't be very helpful.

I do have one question though. I wasn't using a spool gun, on a miller 135, and it seemed like I was either too slow on my wire feed (stick out burned up quick, and arced to the tip), or my feed speed was too fast (tall skinny beads with no penetration). I tried a bunch of different settings and was able to get a solid connection on a **** joint with both sides 45ed off, but couldn't get a decent weld on any of the 90deg. Any suggestions?
 
OP
M

Major Ramifications

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Location
River Ridge, Louisiana
ishiboo said:
It's a joke.

My first time welding TIG was great fun. I had done some MIG before, but nothing serious. I took a class, and everyone before me dropped at least a functional bead.

I could not get a consistent bead down. It was so frustrating with everyone watching. I didn't understand what was wrong, I thought my technique was fine!

My last weld, I successfully stuck the coupon to the other coupon. Feeling bad, the instructor picked it up to congratulate me, and immediately noticed the coupons she handed me were wrong. One was steel, and the other was aluminum. Masks on, with the aluminum sitting on the table, we couldn't tell the difference!

Given two pieces of steel, I ended up welding the best bead in the class :D
Click to expand...

Now that's funny!
 
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pirana

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Wild Peach, Texas
Here was my first time to weld alum. Used my Miller 211 & Spoolmate 100.
aluminumwelds011.jpg
 
N

NASTYZEN

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Pirana, those turned out nice.:thumbup:I have to drag out my spool gun and practice a little. I was getting the black last time I used it.
99.999 % of my Alu. welding is done with TIG
 
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