Welding Aluminum

[harringtondav]

I'm no pro welder like Rick Stephens , but once I get things dialed in I do a decent job. I only weld aluminum once every year or two, so dialing in takes some time, and almost always a burnt back contact tip and a birds nest in the spool gun wire drive.

Yesterday I did my dial in tip burn back, then a second when I ran out of wire. ...at least I was finished for the day, and there was no birds nest. I'm going to tape a note to the heat/feed chart reminding myself to overfeed the wire at start up. Or start buying Miller contact tips by the dozen.

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[Rick Stephens]

I may be a little weird, but I buy 5356 wire instead of 4043 for most applications. 4043 is much more common but a lot softer and tends to nest up a lot easier. Unless the part is needing to resist quite a bit of heat, the harder 5356 goes through the gun better. For use above 150ƒ other alloys are better. But for most boat, trailer and fabbing work you'll like the harder stuff.

 

[jakedaawg]

I may be a little weird, but I buy 5356 wire instead of 4043 for most applications. 4043 is much more common but a lot softer and tends to nest up a lot easier. Unless the part is needing to resist quite a bit of heat, the harder 5356 goes through the gun better. For use above 150ƒ other alloys are better. But for most boat, trailer and fabbing work you'll like the harder stuff.

I use 5356 for most all marine stuff, except I tig. I thought the heat cutoff was continuous cycling over 250f? If 150 then I better bust out the 4043 for the merc y pipe I need to repair this week? Flapper valves wore a hole in it when they fell.

 

[Rick Stephens]

I use 5356 for most all marine stuff, except I tig. I thought the heat cutoff was continuous cycling over 250f? If 150 then I better bust out the 4043 for the merc y pipe I need to repair this week? Flapper valves wore a hole in it when they fell.

Yes, switch to 4340 for exhaust.. Th 5356 has strength issues over 150ƒ,

Doesn’t matter TIG or MIG. Same same.