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mig welding aluminum


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Mix will contaminate the weld. It will have black deposits in an around the weld and generally be a poor quality weld. Basing this off memory of about 5+ years ago, so if anybody wants to confirm or deny this.... :)

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It will have black deposits either way you go, but you are right Dodge. It will contaminate the weld if there is any CO2 in the gas. So, use pure argon.... If I remember right, I think you can use argon mixed with Helium. As long as it's an INERT environment you'll be good. I just did aluminum MIG today, but I used 100% argon.

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I had to qualify some alumn. weld procedures sevral reays back and we found that a tri-mix gas was the best...92%argon, 6% helium, and 2% sorry I can't remember. But Hillbilly is correct also with a argon/helium mix, and argon is the most accepted shield gas. When welding thick alum., especially 3/8" and up, preheat by first using a flame with little or no oxy., then adjust flame correctly and heat until all the black is gone. Once at this heat you will find the welding is easier and faster.

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We always used pure Argon. Switching the liner in the mig gun line from a coiled liner to a teflon liner sure makes the fragile aluminum wire feed easier. Not nessasary but nice. I much prefer that to a spool gun for aluminum. I use to work for a company that made Aluminum Coal truck beds. "Coal Buckets" as we call them here in Ky..

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Another thing we found was using a gun that had rollers to pull the wire thru rather than the machines rollers pushing the wire thru helped. Not with contamination of course, but with overall weld quality and preventing malfunctions. Expensive, but we had less jamming at the rollers. Aluminum wire, being softer than steel wire, has a tendency to "catch" inside the liner, especially if there is a sharp or tight bend in the liner. We would try to keep the liner stretched out and as straight as possible to prevent any binding.

That'll cost ya another 4 cents ;)

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  • 5 months later...

I also bought an Aluminum spool gun for my mig. Let me tell you this.... It's all thumbs up for this one. I have no problems with my wire feeding and weilds are smooth. I'm currently here in Canada (BC) and had to pay $268 and some change for the kit. If I was back in Texas or my other home in Wash. St. I would have payed a lot less. The kit came with a wiring harness (took about 15 min to install), gun, roll of Al wire, 5 tips and a manual in a nice plastic case. Worth EVERY CENT. Made some Al repair welds yesterday with it... NICE!

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Howdy from East TEXAS!! and welcome to IFI! Glad you found us. Where in Washington are you located? Where in TEXAS? and Canada? Shoot, moss can't grow on you! The spool gn to fit my wire machine costs $1100-1200. That's Texas money! :( My best friend has one at his shop and he is only about 3 miles from me... And I just bought a Miller Syncrowave 200 so there's my alum. welding machine. Once again, welcome. If ever in East TEXAS give me a holler, my shop is always open.

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10+ years ago I was put to welding some AL dry bulk semi trailers that had cracks in them. They gave me a mig with no gas and fluxcore wire which seemed to do the trick just fine. The welds were still holding 2 years later when I moved on. These trailers are the big 4 pod trailers used to hall dry powders and to load and unload using vacuum and pressure. the walls were about 1/4'' thick. IANWbT (I am not a welder by trade) so your mileage may vary.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hey Thomas,
I'm from Dallas... actually Oak Cliff (if you know Dallas) But I've lived all over Texas. Just sold my place in Washington last week (Point Roberts) and I'm currently finishing up loose ends here in BC Canada then it's back to Texas for me. Were gonna buy some property in Corpus and move my Company down there. Always nice to here from the lone star state!:D
Oh, the Spool gun is for my Lincoln 180 (exclusively). Seen some at a KMS store for a Miller and they wanted about $200 but looked cheap to me...came in a plastic bag (he he he). Now dont get me wrong... this aint for HEAVY DUTY USE... but for what I need it for it's OK and rated for Medium duty

Edited by stixman55
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