21-01-2008 22:10

DarkFlame145

Re: pic: All light originates from the welders arc.

Is that MIG alum? If it is, your lucky im stuck with a really old TIG welder hehe, but i still love it.

21-01-2008 22:21

King Duke

Re: pic: All light originates from the welders arc.

ya it's a MIG aluminum welder

it's pretty tough using it, we only got 2 good beads out of it. everything else pretty much oxidizes on the spot and pops.

21-01-2008 23:03

DarkFlame145

Re: pic: All light originates from the welders arc.

I love MIG welding, TIG welding is slow. But it makes great welds if you can do it well.

21-01-2008 23:39

M4 Sherman

Re: pic: All light originates from the welders arc.

I've never heard about aluminum MIG welders working that well. Just go TIG.

21-01-2008 23:43

DarkFlame145

Re: pic: All light originates from the welders arc.

I took a welding class at school last year and we where tought how to MIG alum weld. It was a good Miller Welder and I loved it. It was quick and easy to learn once i got MIG steel down.

21-01-2008 23:49

M4 Sherman

Re: pic: All light originates from the welders arc.

Its the over all penetration for aluminum MIG welding kinda poor?

(Then again Im only familiar with Hobart Handlers)

22-01-2008 00:05

King Duke

Re: pic: All light originates from the welders arc.

the penetration is up to 1/8th an inch with the 110v system that we have. It gets the job done.

22-01-2008 01:16

Kat Kononov

Re: pic: All light originates from the welders arc.

i'm an amateur photographer, and i think this is a beautiful photo.

22-01-2008 01:59

mbeardsworth

Re: pic: All light originates from the welders arc.

Unfortunately our MIG is only set up for steel. It makes me sad.
Oh how I wish we could weld our chassis, instead of those ugly bolts.

22-01-2008 10:01

DarkFlame145

Re: pic: All light originates from the welders arc.

when i was welding 3/16 plate alum i had good penetration.

22-01-2008 15:48

Martino

Re: pic: All light originates from the welders arc.

MIG alum's are nice... i have done a bit of work with one... not on a bot tho... we don't a welder at all!!! i wish we did... maybe next year...

22-01-2008 16:12

spazdemon548

Re: pic: All light originates from the welders arc.

Is there no spool gun is it just out of the picture. I had always thought with aluminum wire, you had to use a remote spool because the weak wire can not push through the line.

22-01-2008 23:45

King Duke

Re: pic: All light originates from the welders arc.

Thank you, I'm amateur photographer as well. Always looking for hints and tips to make it better though.

hmmmm interesting point.

We've had problems with the wire breaking off inside of the line, though most of the time it seems to be alright.

30-01-2008 23:12

Nick02

Re: pic: All light originates from the welders arc.

i'am the welder
I used .030 aluminum wire in the stock lincon electric 120v welder.
I was able to get a couple beads but the wire does not want to feed and it splashes.
lincon sells a kit to make it spool perfectly, it includes aluminum wire rollers and aluminum wire line sheath to go inside the gun cable to prevent the soft Al wire from binding.
you will also need 100% argon gas to weld Al

31-01-2008 01:20

spinmunky

Re: pic: All light originates from the welders arc.

watch out! I hear if you use a digital camera to take pictures of welding or the sun you can fry the CCD or lens.

31-01-2008 01:28

Blue_Mist

Re: pic: All light originates from the welders arc.

We used to MIG weld our aluminum at home in the shop. We now send two people to the TechShop to TIG weld. I love welding so much I just had to write this:

"Short-Circuit Magic"
A blaze of light behind the welding screen
A cry of "Welding!" and sparks flare up green
Flying shreds abound
Metal powder all around
A wire brush reveals the aluminum sheen.

I miss our temperamental MIG. It now spends its days sleeping in The Closet where we store all our tools. I hope it will soon be revived...

31-01-2008 01:37

Mike Hendricks

Re: pic: All light originates from the welders arc.

We use a Lincoln MIG with a spool gun. I don't know the wire size off the top of my head though. We bought the spool gun in 2005, after trying to weld aluminum without it. The smallest wire we could get was just too large to work with, and we kept having problems with the feed. 100% Argon in the tank.

The spool gun is much easier to work with, and much easier to learn than a TIG. The welds aren't as clean, but with enough practice, they work just fine. TIGs are great, but take a lot of skill and practice to do correctly. All of 1388's robots have been MIG welded on site at our school. Here's an example of our MIG'd 2008 frame.

31-01-2008 01:40

=Martin=Taylor=

Re: pic: All light originates from the welders arc.

We've always used a MIG spool gun. We have a TIG too, but its kinda annoying and difficult to use. A good MIG weld is about as good as a TIG weld. Some say it is weaker, but we've never broken any MIGs (We have broken 1 TIG )

Glad to hear someone else is working at the Tech Shop. Did you know they're going national?

31-01-2008 01:55

Blue_Mist

Re: pic: All light originates from the welders arc.

Yea! We heard that you guys were working there, but they wouldn't tell us what you made...