alum. welding settings ...

[tdwinklr]

welding up some 1 1/2" square aluminum tubing and its thin, 1/8" and less.

Using a MillerMatic 252 with spoolgun, can't get the settings dialed in without blowing through everything.

Help !

[Pushbutton2]

welding up some 1 1/2" square aluminum tubing and its thin, 1/8" and less.



Using a MillerMatic 252 with spoolgun, can't get the settings dialed in without blowing through everything.



Help !

I'm no expert.
The wire flux core?
Do you have the correct gas?


When I weld aluminum it's with a stick and I SUCK at it.
2 things I try to not suck so bad.

1) weld faster, not the spool gun but your hand
2) make sure it's clean.

Hope this helps

[Johnson]

I've always used 4043 .035 wire. Set your wire speed on 5-6. Depending on what you have your spoolgun tied into on the amps or temp. 1 1/2" x 1/8" tubbing is going to heat up fast you might have to spot weld it. Make sure you are using straight argon. If you have any other questions PM me.

[tdwinklr]

I've always used 4043 .035 wire. Set your wire speed on 5-6. Depending on what you have your spoolgun tied into on the amps or temp. 1 1/2" x 1/8" tubbing is going to heat up fast you might have to spot weld it. Make sure you are using straight argon. If you have any other questions PM me.

Using the same wire and straight Argon. I've used it successfully in a little thicker stuff, 1/8" + . Will send PM.
thx

[tdwinklr]

I'm no expert.
The wire flux core?
Do you have the correct gas?


When I weld aluminum it's with a stick and I SUCK at it.
2 things I try to not suck so bad.

1) weld faster, not the spool gun but your hand
2) make sure it's clean.

Hope this helps

yes, it is clean and its straight alum. wire. 4043, .035. 100% Argon

[dclifton]

Haul azz. And stainless steel brush it. Even if it looks clean still brush every weld.

[Pushbutton2]

yes, it is clean and its straight alum. wire. 4043, .035. 100% Argon

[emoji1303][emoji1303]

[T-REX]

You have to run with it really fast.

[spidermonkey]

Weld on lots of aluminum... but only once with a spool gun. 99% of my aluminum welding is with my tig. Outside of the fact that welding aluminum period is kinda tricky at times, doing it with a spool gun is at least “somewhat” similar to regular mig welding. And I use the term somewhat very loosely. As some have mentioned, wire speed/amps are key. And yeah, you can’t jack around on your hand speed. I will say this though, you should be able to slow down the wire feed speed, and turn the amperage down low enough to weld way thinner than what you’re trying to weld, so it’s definitely doable. The only time I ever used one was on my jon boat rebuild, and i know at least the hull was quite abit thinner than what you’re welding. And also as somebody mentioned, if you can’t seem to overcome your problem with settings on the welder, you can do lots of single tacks overlapping that’ll look just as good as if you stayed on the trigger. PM me as well if ya got any additional questions. I bet we can get it figured out. Good Huntin, and God Bless, Rusty

[tdwinklr]

Weld on lots of aluminum... but only once with a spool gun. 99% of my aluminum welding is with my tig. Outside of the fact that welding aluminum period is kinda tricky at times, doing it with a spool gun is at least “somewhat” similar to regular mig welding. And I use the term somewhat very loosely. As some have mentioned, wire speed/amps are key. And yeah, you can’t jack around on your hand speed. I will say this though, you should be able to slow down the wire feed speed, and turn the amperage down low enough to weld way thinner than what you’re trying to weld, so it’s definitely doable. The only time I ever used one was on my jon boat rebuild, and i know at least the hull was quite abit thinner than what you’re welding. And also as somebody mentioned, if you can’t seem to overcome your problem with settings on the welder, you can do lots of single tacks overlapping that’ll look just as good as if you stayed on the trigger. PM me as well if ya got any additional questions. I bet we can get it figured out. Good Huntin, and God Bless, Rusty

yeah, talked to Johnson(Steve) on here earlier and he recommended spot welding it because of the heat. I believe the problem is the .035 wire, I just don't have any .030 on hand so for now the spot welding is working with the .035 but don't like the looks of it yet. Oh well, maybe the grinder will level it out enough. lol

[spidermonkey]

Yep. The .035 takes “X” amount of amps to melt/flow good, while your tubing wall thickness takes “X” amount to do the same. So sometimes it’s a matter of figuring out what you can do to make a good/strong weld with what you have. I really would think you could get your mig setup to weld that tubing with .035 wire, but I ain’t there experiencing it, so could very well be wrong. Like last night I welded (tig) up a cracked boat prop for a friend, but I was out of the filler I needed that would have worked perfect for the thickness of aluminum on the prop blade, but I made do with the 1/8” filler I had. There’s ways to get around stuff sometimes. Not always, but every now and then. Good luck, and holler if ya need any help. Good Huntin, and God Bless, Rusty

[Texas Grown]

welding up some 1 1/2" square aluminum tubing and its thin, 1/8" and less.

Using a MillerMatic 252 with spoolgun, can't get the settings dialed in without blowing through everything.

Help !

Which spoolgun do you have? Maybe I can walk you through it.

[Texas Grown]

First thing I ever learned to weld back in 1976 was 1"x1"x 1/16" aluminum squaretubing using helium mix and a spoolgun.
I'm still weld-n aluminum today. Only it's tig-n mostly. And have learned to run all kinds of metals working in the aircraft industries for the last 20 years. Also all kinds of other industries like structural, oil&gas, automotive, EPA, all kinds of stuff. I've been a job hopper most of my life. And got a fairly good hands on welding layout, fit up, and weld out education.

I have the same M 252 here at the house. And a 225 Precision Tig. Both just for fooling around and special projects. I was going to start building custom bicycle frames about 15 years ago out of 6/4al ti and Ultra Faco, when I had a USAC coach's license. But got of the health and fitness industry I had as a part time. Plus carbon and plastic bike frames have swallowed up the market.

The fish are biting, and there's hogs to be kill-t. Gotta go!

[Texas Grown]

Just realized it's past my bed time. Gotta get up at 4:10. Send me a PM and we'll talk tomorrow when I get off work.

[Draco]

My 252 is set to 18 volts and 280 on wire speed to weld that kind of tubing.