mig v tig welding - a simple question

Really? I don't think so. Try .062 wire on constant current! They say it can't be done but don't you believe it. Been there, done that....... phil k.

half or 5/8" thick aluminum plate with 062 wire?????

Imagine full penn tee and butt joints up to an inch and a half on five foot diameter aluminum winch drums. The root passes were run with smaller wires but the CC guns would completely consume the root pass resulting in really nice clean welds! ;>)}

How heavy? Our head weldor has done some pretty substantial aluminum using a TIG at 360 Amps and about .125 filler rod, which he fed at about a foot a second.

How substantial? Maybe 2" plate, with about a 1/2" ~ 1" deep groove weld, plus about 1/4" fillet.

Cheers! Rich

Tig on something that heavy would pretty well DEMAND pre-heating. no??? Same with Mig.

Even with stick it would be a big help, but I'd think stick would be the only way to do it without significant pre-heat???

Aluminum stick welding is a waste of time when you have a King Cobra water cooled gun hooked up to a Cobramatic feeder powered by a Lincoln DC-600! Preheat enough to dry the base metal, that's it. Nice to have 350 amps with continuous wire feed. Pull the trigger and run till the spool is empty! No stick or TIG will beat that.......... phil k.

Now that you mention it, they _did_ preheat, and in a big way - one of those "weed burner" propane torches, that threw about a 3' flame. ;-)

Cheers! Rich

The two things to remember about welding: you need heat, and you need metal to make the joining. And don't breath downwind of the fumes. That's three ... "the three things to remember ..."