TIG welder recommendation for 0.025" 6061 aluminum? Eastwood TIG 200 AC/DC?

[Broccoli1]

I would take the Eastwood machine with you so you learn on your machine.

[OliverR]

I'm super excited about welding again: I had today my 1.5 hour training session with the welding instructor!
While my welds are certainly far from perfect, I am already pretty happy with the results and feel that further improvement is mainly a question of additional practice.

First we ran beads on 0.125" 6061-T6. The red arrow is pointing at by last bead:


Once we were done with the beads, I also gave an inside corner joint a try, same material:


I'm fairly optimistic that I will be able to achieve similar results with my Eastwood welder, I'll practice with it this weekend!
I feel that I should have started with 0.125" material in the first place, instead of the much thinner 6061-T6 I actually used.

Oliver

[motolife313]

Not that far off. It needs more amps tho

[OliverR]

Not that far off. It needs more amps tho

I was also thinking that a higher ac balance for better cleaning action might not hurt.
Anyways, I'm pretty stoked since these are finally my first successful welds on aluminum. Can't wait to practice more!

Oliver

[bentwings]

I weld this type of stuff of this thickness with my Lincoln 175 square wave. It doesn’t have any bells or whistles. Mostly for racers who are trying save the last ounce.
I turn the power way down almost to 0. On some edges like your edge weld I clamp a strip of copper along it and move as required. I let the copper stick out the start end about half an inch. I light the torch off on this to get rid of the slightly higher start current. Then move on to the weld. I use the pedal for more of less current? At this level you need really good hand support. Even a slight movement out of line and the weld fails or looks terrible. This is a tricky weld on a good day.
I use both 5356 and 4043. 5356 would be my choice first. The hard...expensive part is getting rod or wire. Most of the time I just use MiG wire I think we still have some .023 and .030. You should experiment with .o35 too. You can’t even read the size on the rods. It’s a bit tricky to get this small MiG wire straight. I use bent brake line to straighten it. Then cut it into about 18” pieces. The fillet weld looks easier but you can burn a hole in it so easy. Just a wiggle the wrong way and.....scrapo

I stopped building these thin wall tanks for the racers years ago. The small amount of weight saved wasn’t worth the loss of round money of the race money. Some tanks now are .090. They are bullet proof. Rarely if ever crack and can withstand rough handling.

I also repair model airplane mufflers out of this thin stuff. The problem is that where it is formed the metal is stretched even thinner. Then it’s hard to clean both sides. It’s very tough to weld these. Usually not cost effective for me or customer. The same goes for the stainless steel ones even more so.

[OliverR]

@bentwings: Very interesting. Thank you for the detailed description!

Oliver