Re: Welding Advice
 

I see that from Miller it is not included, but from CyberWeld it is. Weird.

Re: Welding Advice
 

You must use a stainless steel brush to clean aluminum, any carbon steel brush will leave impurites.:D This is what I was told by TIG welders and also from my own experience.

Re: Welding Advice
 

It cannot be over-emphasized: ANY (any!) steel dust or even molecules will cause an Aluminum weld to be weak. ONLY Stainless steel brushes may be used, and these must never be used for any other metal. Get a small angle grinder as well.

Cleanliness is difficult but essential for welding aluminum. It oxidizes in a few seconds. Weld an inch or two, stop & clean, repeat.

Welding generates a lot of heat, and your metal will crack from thermal stress if you try to weld a long bead as one might attempt in steel. An inch at a time.

Acetone makes a suitable solvent, but of course it is dangerous and flammable.

Practice, practice, practice.

Re: Welding Advice
 

I am kinda the head mechanical mentor for team 1098. That is exactly the welder I bought personally and let the team use it. I have taught about 8 students how to use it. They have been training new students each year. I supervise this process but that welder is quite forgiving and works very well. Our students do 100% of our design, fabrication, programming, machining as well as the welding. Our expierenced welders do not use auto helmets, they as well as I hate them, but they are good teaching tool.

As a welder I think there is lots of good info here.

Re: Welding Advice
 

when you get a auto-darken hood, try to get a multi-setting one, because you will likely be using the hood for multiple welders that have different required darkness

Re: Welding Advice
 

My son uses both fixed-shade and auto-dark helmets. He says if you're running a lot of long beads that the fixed-shade is nice and more clear. If you have a lot of short welds and tacks, an auto-dark is convenient. He also likes the fixed shade helmets with the flip-down lens. Less neck strain.

Re: Welding Advice
 

Thank you all for the incredibly well thought out and thorough responses and advice. I think the best advice has been to reach out to an experienced welder locally. I'm currently hunting down a few leads with area colleges and pros, but if you have suggestions for someone from the Chicago area I'd be grateful. Again thanks for the huge response, its been really very valuable.

Re: Welding Advice
 

For the biggest bang for your buck take a look at pop rivet technology. Joining two pieces of metal with pop rivets is fast and economical and in most cases can substitute for welding. As a mentor for the team I encourage the team to try to make use of fastener technology like pem nuts, nuts and bolts, and pop rivets before resorting to welding to join metal.


Roy

Re: Welding Advice
 

In some cases, Team 975 used 10-32 cap screws to assemble a frame. Very strong and surprisingly cheap for a box of 100. Nyloc nuts were inexpensive as well. We got them at MSC.

Re: Welding Advice
 

Get a MIG. Miller has a lot of good options. It will weld aluminum much easer than TIG. Have someone help with the set up and you will have nice welds with little practice.
We have 2 mig wielders one for aluminum and one for steel. We also have a TIG but only two people can use it at all.