I tried welding aluminum today. Oh My!

I finally got the CobraMig 260, that I bought from the thrift store, out to play with.

This thing.

I was building a generator mount, and wanted to use some aluminum angle I had in stock, for the base. I blasted some scrap together and then tried the real thing.

Holy ugly welds Batman. I've blown crap out of my nose that looked better when it hit a flat surface.

I'd splatter some, then tweak the machine, then splatter some more, and tweak the machine. Finally, out of desperation, I flipped the low voltage/high voltage switch to high voltage, and magic happened. It went from splotchy, goobery, nasty, to wonderful, beautiful, and awesome. It sounded like a laser, like a heavenly electronic hiss; and aluminum flowed like paint out of an airbrush.

These are far from perfect, but considering I'd been welding aluminum for all of 15 minutes, I was amazed at how good they look.

I'm in love. I need to build more things out of aluminum. I have had some of the crack, called aluminum welding, and it is wonderful. I must have more.

Worse, I crave a TIG machine.

Here's the mount for those that are interested.

Nice job!

Looks like you got the learning curve down.

Rog

Got a spool gun on that thing?

I haven't tried aluminum yet but I heard (you know how that goes) that most machines can't push the aluminum wire through the hose.

In reply to A 401 CJ:

This uses a push/pull system. The wire is in the machine, and a motor pushes it from there. There is also a set of rollers and motor in the gun to keep the wire from kinking. It works very well, but the gun is pretty heavy compared to my Hobart. Even the cables leading to the gun are heavy, I ended up throwing them over my shoulder so my wrist wouldn't have to hold up the weight.

I tried a spool gun once, it was pretty nice. I was shocked at how hot and fast aluminum was.

lots better than me after 15 min!!!!!

After only 15 minutes with the TIG welder and some aluminum I was considering that maybe I had mistakenly purchased a device designed to make holes. After quite a bit of practice I still can't use it worth a damn.

In reply to Huckleberry:

I don't have great hand-eye coordination. Hand-eye-foot...yeah as much as I'd love to take time/classes/practice/whatever, I don't expect I could ever get proficient at TIG.

I've welded aluminum with my Hobart. The only way it works is to keep the gun liner as straight as possible. Even then, it rat nests frequently. I also found that it took higher voltage setting and a different gun technique than welding steel. The results were just fair, not as good as yours.

In reply to Huckleberry:

Yeah, that's pretty much been my experience welding aluminum. Get it hot enough for any kind of decent penetration and I blow right through, cool it down just a touch and the heat just spreads. Only ever tried TIG, maybe with MIG it's easier to move quickly enough?

Neat! The very first thing I welded with my MIG was intake manifold stubs for the 2002; I situated the work so that the cable was almost completely straight from the welder to the gun, and it fed fine. Actually, the very first thing I welded was a replacement cap/hub/peak for the E-Z-up I pulled out of the trash at PIR, but all my first welding was aluminum.

It was also all pretty ugly, but held up fine.

I've just started playing with my new Eastwood TIG, and I love it, but have only done steel so far.

TIG is on my list of things to try. I could see where the hand, eye, foot, coordination could be a issue.

MIGing aluminum was much easier than I thought it would be, once the machine was close to setup. I'll admit I watched quite a few videos about it in advance.

The speed you have to move is also surprising. It is literally almost like painting. The wire never touches the metal. It melts above the base metal and sprays on the joint. It's really a beautiful thing.

You guys need to enroll in a welding course at your nearest community college. I did a few years ago and it covered everything from gas welding, through stick, MIG and TIG. We practiced on steel, stainless and aluminum. With good equipment it was all surprisingly easy, but if you don't use it afterwards (and I haven't much) you'll lose the touch. If I were going to buy a welder right now it would be a decent TIG outfit.

Huckleberry wrote: After only 15 minutes with the TIG welder and some aluminum I was considering that maybe I had mistakenly purchased a device designed to make holes. After quite a bit of practice I still can't use it worth a damn.

Is it a high-frequency machine, and are you welding AC instead of D.C.?

In reply to DeadSkunk:

I took night classes at the local Votech and it made a huge difference in my welding.