Gas Welding aluminum

Reply to
David Billington
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Tried it using both polarities and scrubbing like no tomorrow

DCEN It hold an arc but staunchly refuses to flow liberal application of filler can bind them but there is no strength (Logical reason being the aluminum is encased in aluminum oxide which is forming a solid shell

DCEP Black coating forms on the base metal arc wont strike

that COULD be me under scrubbing it (with the decicated AL only SS brush mentioend in other posts which i already DO have)

But if so then i'm buying a few ss brushes for the dremel and using it to prep my welds if i need to DC weld on AL again

I'm fine on Steel and stainless TIG AL tig i was in the process of learning then bought a DC welder and stopped

I dont thing i'm ready for an AWS test yet on steel or stainless (I grind way too much tungsten for now)

but i can produce decent welds when i'm patient (they might be good welds but i'm my stiffest critic and i dont think so

Reply to
Brent Philion

I seem to remember that DC welding of aluminium required the use of Helium as shielding gas; which do you use?

Peter, The Netherlands.

Reply to
peter_dingemans

Argon

Reply to
Brent Philion

Gas welding AL is pretty tricky, and if you only need to weld AL infrequently it might be better to hire a TIG set.

k
Reply to
Ken

Quite similar, as long as you can see the puddle. I see other posters saying they don' need no fancy goggles. It's true, it can be done. I and countless others were gas-welding aluminum before the fancy TM2000 filter was invented. A mentor of mine could gas-weld TV dinner trays and peel-off milk bottle caps ( some milk still came in glass bottles then) together in the '60's with no eyewear at all.

I can do much better work with eyewear that blocks flux flare without otherwise impairing visibility. YMMV.

As another poster noted, you control heat by backing off with the flame, moving the flame and adjusting the flame. Matter of fact, breaking that "back off" habit was the hardest part of learning to TIG weld for me. Keep the tung in close, use the footpedal to manage the heat. Man, that was a learning curve! Took me months to break gas habits when using TIG. You may have the opposite learning curve: learn to control heat with torch position because there ain't no footpedal. I suspect that won't take you long to learn if you can weld aluminum with TIG. You already know what an aluminum puddle looks like (if you can see it) and you know how to manage a puddle. A lot of what you learned with TIG will be applicable if you can see the puddle. Some guys can weld without being able to see the puddle. I've seen it done: some guys in Colorado could TIG up traffic controller cabinets (the outhouses you see on intersection corners) by scoping the shot, closing their eyes and going for it. The welds they made were pretty damned good! These were guys whose declared address turned out to be a KOA Kampground or a Colorado address that computed to somewhere in Argentina. Worked by the day, paid cash by the day, footloose and fancy free.

Most of us pedestrians can weld better if we can see the puddle.

If we were located conveniently, I bet I'd have you welding aluminum well with gas in 30 minutes if you already can do it with AC TIG.

Reply to
Don Foreman

You might want to try out the special lenses. They make a night and day difference if you are Al welding (I couldn't imagine doing .025-.035 well without them). I don't find it as necessary brazing Al.

Reply to
cl

Run a helium mix with a small amount of argon to ease arc starting. You can also try scratch starting it (with hf on though) Once you see the skin just pop the skin with the filler.

Sounds like your filler needs to be cleaned too based on the DCEN problems.

Reply to
cl

What the purpose of this?

Reply to
cl

I gas welded aluminium long before I got a Tig. Mind you, the Tig is easier to learn, but then again I learned it after I was gas welding.

For me the trick is very low gas pressures, as low as about 1 pound of Acetelyne and 2 pounds of oxygen. Then, heat control. Take the torch back if you start thinking you are too hot. I used flux cored rod, but some say separate flux is better as the rods have too much. Finally, don't try to get a puddle started in the work, start it with some filler rod. Melt a little blob and let it start to puddle and flow with the work, not the other way round (same with Tig, actually, and the "ah-ha" moment for my personal welding journey). then start to work your bead using filler rod to freeze the pool and move on to the next quarter inch of bead. Kind of a series of blob-melts until you get the hang of running a continuous bead. And always heat control - don't get too hot. Think tiny, actually - tiny flame, tiny bead, tiny movements, tiny heat. 1/16" filler rod, which is also kind of tiny. If you try for tiny at the start, you'll stand a better chance of getting normal, which with gas welding is a lot bigger than Tig beads can be.

It works. I found 1/8" thick sheet the best to learn on. .050" is doable, thinner than that takes real skill.

Brian

Reply to
Brian

So from what i Gather from what everyone has said the only differences and things needed to OA weld Aluminum on top of what i currently have are

  1. ALuminum welding flux
  2. Upgraded Eye protection to protect against Sodium Metal flares.
  3. Possibly a better means of cleaning the AL before welding (acetone?)
  4. Better ventilation/fume extraction because some of the stuff coming off the weld will be really toxic stuff (or at least stuff best left outside of my lungs) And stuff more Caustic than say a plain old Cigarette

For question 2 will an autodarkening Welding helmet in the OFF position (Shade 5) cut it for getting rid of sodium flare? (I have a Miller Xli helmet already and if it will work i'll be happy)

Otherwise my eyes and ears have served my great for my 26 years so far and i'd like to at least have them in decent shape for 3 times the 26 theyve done. I'll accept slowly starting to fall apart at age 78 but i'd just as soon be nice to my eyes and ears and such before then

Safety equipment to me is not a cost its an investment in the quality of my work and in the preservation of my keester to weld again another day.

As for doing it its not that much harder than TIG and the added difficulty does not seem to be enough to justify my running out and buying an AC tig Capable machine to replace my XMT. the technique IS different but its close enough that I should have minimal adjustment pains compared to say the jump form Stick to TIG

Am i basically on the right path with the Synopsis i've came up with here?

By the way Thanks to everybody for all the info

Brent Philion Ottawa Canada

Reply to
Brent Philion

Not nearly as well. A shade 5 pretty much darkens everything. The idea here is to block the flare without otherwise reducing visibility much.

Sodium flare has a very narrow spectrum or band of colors around yellow-orange, a small percentage of the total visible spectrum. If a filter blocks those colors much more strongly than others, then your visibility of the work and puddle is greatly improved. The TM2000 is about a shade 5, but it completely blocks the sodium flare. Totally, as in gone. Your first clue that you are near welding temp is when the flux melts -- and you can clearly see it melt and turn clear. The TM2000 can also be (and is) used for gas welding steel including 4130, and cast iron.

I don't sell these things or get a kickback, I'm just thoroughly impressed with how well they work. Professionals like Ron Fournier and Kent White (the tin man) use them routinely.

Reply to
Don Foreman

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