Gas Welding aluminum

Brent Philion · 2006-01-22T07:08:53+00:00

With the lack of an AC tig machine and an AC inverter appearing to not be in the cards in the near future i"m looking at using Oxy/Acetylene to do the al Welding due to the availability of an OA rig. Mainly i used it for cuttingbut thats not to say its impractical for welding. If i remember right OA has been used for Al welding for a long time specifically in the aviation industry.Compared to TIG how hard is OA welding of aluminum and are there any special types of requirements for doing it? The only OA welding i would be doing would be on Al and the rest of the time it would be used for heat/cuttingI already have an OA torch (Cheap Harris style kit) but stumbled across a real Victor 100 Handle Might i be better off getting a fresh welding tip for the victor 100? than the giant beast of this harris one?I will likely never weld larger than 1/4" with most work being smaller than that (1/8" to 1/16")the Victor 100 seems to be the most like the tig torch i'n used to compared to the big beast of the current torch. If thats the case than has anyone used gas quick connect fittings to swap torches and are those reliable or am i looking to blow myself upBLowing myself or the shop/house up is EXTREMELY LOW on my list of priorities

Jan 22, 2006 20 Replies

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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

ALuminum welding flux
Upgraded Eye protection to protect against Sodium Metal flares.
Possibly a better means of cleaning the AL before welding (acetone?)
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