Stick welding aluminum.

[exophyusical]

Hi, I've been a welder for a long time but last night was the first time I've ever done any stick welding on aluminum. I'd been told in the past that it doesn't work, shouldn't do it etc. At this point I cant say for sure because it remains to be seen how well the welds hold, but my first impressions were that the results seemed satisfactory.

I had to repair some cracks on fairly thin aluminum so I had to run fast and whip it like 6010 rod to avoid burning through, as usual in such situations pushing the puddle rather than dragging it seemed to help in this regard. Just wondering what the recommended procedure is for using this method under more ideal conditions is. Pretty sure you don't want to push the puddle, kind of curious whether whipping it is recommended as well.

 

[rsanter]

Never heard of it before
What rod did you use?

Bob

 

[exophyusical]

Never heard of it before
What rod did you use?

Bob

Some rod labeled Arctec 440 aluminum that I found on the shelf at the mill I currently work at. Apparently that's how they weld aluminum there, burning that rod felt really "weird" for lack of a better term. It sort of felt like you were always holding a long arc even when you weren't, it was really flexible too which added to the weird feel. Not sure if it is always so, but trying to keep the tempature down it was a real ****** to get started.

BTW: Your wife has never met a tool she didn't like?

 

[zkling]

What were your settings? I've tried it before just out of sheer curiosity w/ my syncrowave 250. DCEP, ~100amps, I don't recall the exact rod I used, still have a few I think. Actually when I ordered them, the guy at the LWS said they don't make stick electrodes for aluminum.

Motion wise it is not much different than your standard ferrous rod. Differences I notices are.
1.) Hard to see the puddle. Lots of smoke and flux covering the area.
2.) It runs fast, very fast.
3.) I could never get the slag to peel off like I could when running a ferrous rod. After chipping the weld looked good and were solid, but the slag took quite a bit to get off.

*Material was ~1/4" thick. As with all aluminum welding. Clean real well first with a stainless steel brush and wipe with acetone for best results.

This along with DC tig aluminum are what separate the men from the boys in welding. Congrats.

 

[NASTYZEN]

Use DC reversed polarity and don't breath the blue smoke!

 

[bad12jr]

Haven't personally tried but watched a couple people try. It wasn't my piece or I would have tried it. But from what I saw it had to burn hot which I know seems off but I got to reading on it. Where the aluminium cools so much quicker you have to apply more heat in to keep up with the cooling of the material.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2

 

[exophyusical]

What were your settings? I've tried it before just out of sheer curiosity w/ my syncrowave 250. DCEN, ~100amps, I don't recall the exact rod I used, still have a few I think. Actually when I ordered them, the guy at the LWS said they don't make stick electrodes for aluminum.

Motion wise it is not much different than your standard ferrous rod. Differences I notices are.
1.) Hard to see the puddle. Lots of smoke and flux covering the area.
2.) It runs fast, very fast.
3.) I could never get the slag to peel off like I could when running a ferrous rod. After chipping the weld looked good and were solid, but the slag took quite a bit to get off.

*Material was ~1/4" thick. As with all aluminum welding. Clean real well first with a stainless steel brush and wipe with acetone for best results.

This along with DC tig aluminum are what separate the men from the boys in welding. Congrats.

The box said 50-70 amps, the welder I was using (some big ESAB machine) has like a mile of cable on it so I was near the upper end of that, on the dial anyways. The aluminum was 1/8" thick and the cracks were on a corner that had worn even thinner than that. It was one of those "use every cheat you know" situations, I'd like to try it under better conditions. But honestly I've had worse results trying to make repairs outdoors with a spool gun (don't ask, I once worked for a guy who thought this was a good idea).

Yes the smoke smelled bad, left a weird taste in the back of my throat.

 

[malibu101]

I had to repair some cracks on fairly thin aluminum so I had to run fast and whip it like 6010 rod to avoid burning through, as usual in such situations pushing the puddle rather than dragging it seemed to help in this regard. Just wondering what the recommended procedure is for using this method under more ideal conditions is. Pretty sure you don't want to push the puddle, kind of curious whether whipping it is recommended as well.

Since this is stick process the rod must have been flux coated. Obviously leaving slag behind to be chipped off.

I am NOT anywhere near a pro welder, but I've always heard and lived by-
"When there is slag you must drag."

Using this process, I don't think pushing the puddle is right either.

But hey, as long as no one will get hurt if breaks, it worked.

 

[exophyusical]

Since this is stick process the rod must have been flux coated. Obviously leaving slag behind to be chipped off.

I am NOT anywhere near a pro welder, but I've always heard and lived by-
"When there is slag you must drag."

Using this process, I don't think pushing the puddle is right either.

But hey, as long as no one will get hurt if breaks, it worked.

I realise this, but the results of me doing things by the book in this situation would have been a grand failure. When you have a gap to fill or otherwise need to control your heat and/ or penetration, pushing your puddle can keep you from blowing through. If its a vital weld I will then grind the weld and burn out the original pass with a properly done one. In this case it wasn't vital.

When your working off the back of the truck with nothing but a stick welder and a cutting torch you some times need to do things that would shock the fab shop boys.

 

[malibu101]

I realise this, but the results of me doing things by the book in this situation would have been a grand failure. When you have a gap to fill or otherwise need to control your heat and/ or penetration, pushing your puddle can keep you from blowing through. If its a vital weld I will then grind the weld and burn out the original pass with a properly done one.
In this case it wasn't vital.

When your working off the back of the truck with nothing but a stick welder and a cutting torch
you some times need to do things that would shock the fab shop boys..

Like I said- You got her done and everything is working again!

 

[jsaw]

My experience with stick welding aluminum has all been good. It is a little different than welding steel, even easier than steel in some ways. For me, the most noticeable thing was that it was more of a quick "Freeze" than aluminum.
Practice is the most helpful thing. get some aluminum rod and some aluminum and experiment a little.

 

[Moose-LandTran]

This along with DC tig aluminum.

How is that done? Turn up the amperage really high?

 

[king nero]

low amps, thick tungsten, DCEP

 

[BigMike782]

How is that done? Turn up the amperage really high?

low amps, thick tungsten, DCEP

Helium

 

[zkling]

Use DC reversed polarity and don't breath the blue smoke!

Oops, good catch. I must have had tig on the brain when I responded eariler.

exophyusical, Nastyzen is correct you want to run DCEP with aluminum stick welding, not DCEN as I previously mentioned. Sorry for the confusion.

How is that done? Turn up the amperage really high?

Big mike and King nailed it, except it is run on DCEN like all other tig, stick is run DCEP (usually). Usually no more than 200amps, highest purity helium that you can afford. I like a gas lense, 3/32 ceriated tung, sharpened to a point. Clean the aluminum real well w/ SS brush and acetone. Thick gloves and good helmet. It is a very hot process. Different than AC tig the puddle is almost hidden I would say.

You get more heat out of the arc, so you don't need more amperage. This is how it was done before TIG really became prevalent. Actually it was all done with helium, then helium got $ + other issues and then TIG was invented. Originally it was call "Heliarc". Some folks have had success with DC and argon on aluminum, but you really need helium for best success in my experience. I only use it for thick 1/4"+ or large chunks that would soak up the heat.

Here is a good action video of the process

 

[OctoMan]

It's just like normal welding. I've done it before, it takes some pratice to get good pennetration. The trick for me was to make a small V in the parts then weld.