Yesterday afternoon I taught myself to mig aluminium.

[hovasacc]

Yesterday afternoon I taught myself to mig aluminium. The key was finding the right volts, wire feed, stick out, speed and watching the heat build up, that had me stumped for a bit, wondered why each successive run was worse than the last - heat build up!. Stick out was a bit excessive when starting as you can see, but not too bad considering. Oh, a steady hand also helps, but that's beyond this old codger now, hence the wobbly runs. As a test, after welding an external edge joint, I ground it down flat then belted the hell out of it trying to separate the joint, distorted the hell out of the metal before it split. Not too bad for an hour or so practice. A whole new world of aluminium fabricating has opened up now, should have taught myself to weld aluminium year's ago. Talk about messy though, splatter everywhere and plenty of black soot, higher gas pressure me thinks. And I burnt the crap out of my arm from flash, the flash is 10 times brighter than when welding steel.

[filetobeef]

are those crocks osha approved?

[hovasacc]

Yep! Safety crocks.

[Yofish]

Congratulations, you now know NOTHING other than the effects of UV radiation. keep wearing those shoes. Soon, a big ol' berry will make you discover a new dance move. Maybe of a youboob M. Jackson quality. You may have a heretofore undiscovered talent.

[Mike_L]

Congratulations, you now know NOTHING other than the effects of UV radiation. keep wearing those shoes. Soon, a big ol' berry will make you discover a new dance move. Maybe of a youboob M. Jackson quality. You may have a heretofore undiscovered talent.

In high school shop class our instructor was an old codger who had zero tolerance for shenanigans or failing to adhere to clearly defined safety gear and dress. One day this guy shows up in shorts and sandals, so what does teach do? Puts the guy on the cutting torch burning out blanks for one of our projects. Guy had boots, jeans and a denim shirt on every day for the rest of the year.

They’d fire and jail the teacher these days.

[hovasacc]

When I started work in a metal fabrication business in the mid 60s, there was no PPE: no glasses, no gloves, we all wore shorts and short sleeve shirts, about the only nod to safety was boots, not steel caps either as I don't think they were even available then. And we only wore boots because they lasted longer than tennis shoes. Wrap yourselves up in cotton wool all you like, I'll keep going as I have for the last 55 years.

When I served in the RAAF as a police dog handler, I had half my left tit ripped off, 15 stitches worth, still have the scar 45 years on. I had a 50c size chunk ripped out of my arm, and later on spent two weeks wrapped in bandages from shoulder to finger tip on both arms after being mauled. We didn't have PPE then either, no ear protection on the range, no full padded suit when being attacked, just a padded arm protector and some fancy arm and foot work, and you know what, I still went to work, still trained dogs, still got bitten and still have all my fingers toes and skin. And most importantly, in my 70th year I have no regrets!

Pussies!

[Munkul]

Not bad looking beads it looks like you're still getting some spatter, perhaps turn the voltage up a bit more.

[hovasacc]

Yeah, it's all a matter of trial and error.

This is the dog that put me in bandages for two weeks, still wear the scars 45 years on. RIP PD576 Dante. No PPE back then!

[ttoks]

When I started work in a metal fabrication business in the mid 60s, there was no PPE: no glasses, no gloves, we all wore shorts and short sleeve shirts, about the only nod to safety was boots, not steel caps either as I don't think they were even available then. And we only wore boots because they lasted longer than tennis shoes. Wrap yourselves up in cotton wool all you like, I'll keep going as I have for the last 55 years.

When I served in the RAAF as a police dog handler, I had half my left tit ripped off, 15 stitches worth, still have the scar 45 years on. I had a 50c size chunk ripped out of my arm, and later on spent two weeks wrapped in bandages from shoulder to finger tip on both arms after being mauled. We didn't have PPE then either, no ear protection on the range, no full padded suit when being attacked, just a padded arm protector and some fancy arm and foot work, and you know what, I still went to work, still trained dogs, still got bitten and still have all my fingers toes and skin. And most importantly, in my 70th year I have no regrets!

Pussies!

I know many blokes like you with 9 fingers or 1 eye, and know of many more that are dead.

[Louie1961]

are you pulling or pushing those beads? Looks to me like maybe you are pulling. You will get much better results if you push the bead (keeping the argon gas pointed out in front of the puddle). Are you using pure argon? There shouldn't be that much spatter.

[Oscar]

To add to that, it looks like you need a larger nozzle and more gas flow. 40-50 CFM with a 3/4" nozzle is not out of the question. Makes a HUGE difference in the cleanliness. But perhaps you are using 5356? It is definitely sootier than 4043 due to magnesium.

[motolife313]

Congratulations, you now know NOTHING other than the effects of UV radiation. keep wearing those shoes. Soon, a big ol' berry will make you discover a new dance move. Maybe of a youboob M. Jackson quality. You may have a heretofore undiscovered talent.

I’m pretty sure he learned a few things about welding also but your to arrogant and negative to talk about the welding part. You just wanna belittle him to cover up the problems you have to make yourself feel better

[motolife313]

I think it looks pretty good. Try a very straight gun angle towards Your weld joint and that should help with the black. I used to have almost no black when running the spool gun we had and the lines and gun had big leaks

[albrightree]

What welder do you have ?
Spoolgun or liner, volts and wirespeed, type and dia. wire, gas and flow, type and thickness of plate. The guy in this other thread is probably dying to know.

https://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthrea...luminum-tubing

Last week I was mig welding some heavy aluminum, and lit the paper towels someone had dropped under the bench on fire. Lifted my hood, and saw more smoke than I should have. Those little aluminum balls make such a mess too.

Cheers.

[hovasacc]

And yet I have 10 fingers, 10 toes, two eyes, all my skin and, I'm still alive at 70. No cotton wool overalls in my shop, I just do the job.

[hovasacc]

I have a Unimig 180, no spool gun, tossed the teflon liner in favour of the standard steel one. I'm using .8mmm 5356 wire with nozzle drilled to 1mm. I've had the gas set on everything from 10 - 25. Don't know the volts or wire feed off hand, I'll have a look after my morning coffee.

Pushing rather than pulling and I have a tapered nozzle of around 10-12mm, I'll try a larger nozzle, that sounds reasonable, although fillets might be a problem with a larger nozzle.

I welded some 1.5mm ally plate with out any problems and yet I've read 3mm is the thinnest recommended???

The project: Welded the seat pan together, tail light bracket, exhaust pipes and bracketry and header clamps and some tabs on the frame. Currently making a polished aluminium battery box and rear guard, hence the ally welding. Also fabricated the headlight brackets, upper and lower engine brackets, pipes, pipe brackets and clamps. Not too much has been left standard. paint job came up well too.

[farmersammm]

"Yesterday afternoon, I taught myself to MIG weld Aluminum" is gonna draw some ire.............especially if the stuff yer doin' isn't pristine. Learn to be sorta humble, and it goes a long way.

I mean........it looks ok (I don't do luminum), but I've seen better. And, if it was steel...........I'd scream FOUL.

Caveat...............I'm slowly going blind in my left eye, so I can't really say that my crap is gonna be up to par from this point on. So, I can't really cast stones too much.

[hovasacc]

Only from fools. Where did I say my aluminium welding was excellent, didn't even say it was good, only that I'd taught myself how to weld aluminium. That means, I read up on it and practiced until I could run a bead. I didn't even say the bead was excellent or good, only that I'd taught myself how to weld aluminium. Over the years I've also taught myself how to paint, how to polish aluminium, how to fabricate metals, how to fix engines, how to sail, how to abseil, how to do lots of things, is that going to draw some ire as well. You people aren't just a lot of pussies, you're also foolishly egotistical and pretentious. Funnily enough you only get this sort of nonsense on American sites.

For someone who can't really cast stones too much, you're doing an excellent job!

[Munkul]

Only from fools. Where did I say my aluminium welding was excellent, didn't even say it was good, only that I'd taught myself how to weld aluminium. That means, I read up on it and practiced until I could run a bead. I didn't even say the bead was excellent or good, only that I'd taught myself how to weld aluminium. Over the years I've also taught myself how to paint, how to polish aluminium, how to fabricate metals, how to fix engines, how to sail, how to abseil, how to do lots of things, is that going to draw some ire as well. You people aren't just a lot of pussies, you're also foolishly egotistical and pretentious. Funnily enough you only get this sort of nonsense on American sites.

For someone who can't really cast stones too much, you're doing an excellent job!

You could wind your neck in a bit... we're all friends here, but you have to learn to take criticism in a positive light

And yet I have 10 fingers, 10 toes, two eyes, all my skin and, I'm still alive at 70. No cotton wool overalls in my shop, I just do the job.

That doesn't make you big or clever, does it? It just makes you lucky.

There's a few professionals on here, and THEY didn't make it to this point in their lives by being lucky. They made it by starting humble, learning how to do a job whilst balancing safety/speed/quality, and wearing the sensible equipment when required.

[John T]

Only from fools. Over the years I've also taught myself how to paint, how to polish aluminium, how to fabricate metals, how to fix engines, how to sail, how to abseil, how to do lots of things !

Wow
Can you post show & tell pics of All your achievements in life?

We are all waiting on the edge of our seats.

[John T]

Only from fools.

You people aren't just a lot of pussies, you're also foolishly egotistical and pretentious!

That’s not a very nice thing to say.

[Kelvin]

Wow
Can you post show & tell pics of All your achievements in life?

We are all waiting on the edge of our seats.

I think we should compare scars! GRRRRRRR WOOOF!

[bplayer405]

Gotta love social media, in whatever platform.

[MinnesotaDave]

Are you welding in spray or short circuit? Spray transfer is what you want for aluminum mig.

Also as mentioned above, push, not pull.

[hovasacc]

5356 wire leaves a black soot due to magnesium content and spray transfer requires at least 25 volts and is only good for thick material. My welder tops out at 25 volts and the material I was welding was 1.5mm and 3mm thick. It appears you all missed those two little facts. So much for all the expert opinions.

Perhaps you should all consider different vocations, welding is just not your thing apparently. Then again, you are Americans, the people who voted in a lunatic and then ransacked your own capitol building.