3800 Welding question

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imported_Ron Vogel

Guest
OK, my little mig welder is great for exhaust and general fabrication on mild steel and stainless. My big obsticle has always been aluminum. I run a .035 wire with CO2/argon mix and my steel welds come out nice. I purged my tank, and used straight argon now with .030 aliminum wire and I have to tun the heat up higher? and the wire feed is maxed to get enough filler to the weld. Do I need a much thicker wire for the alimunum or do they even make it thick enough. I have a bunch of crap that needs to be made out of aluminum and need to solve this, any help is appreciated.
 
I

imported_GraFFix

Guest
Well they do make a thicker wire...and we carry most of it here at my place.

Im not a good welder at all..I just ship the crap out..lol but I do know that aluminum is alot harder with a Mig..most everyone uses TIG for aluminum...then you get a nice bead from it. but thats not what your asking. :p


I have the following wire sizes here...

.030 (0.8mm)
.035 (0.9mm)
3/64 (1.2mm)
1/16 (1.6mm)

I dont know which aluminum wire your using. be it 4043, 5356 or some other odd one but most likely we have it here in stock.

let me know if you need something..i might be able to help you out.
 
I

imported_Ron Vogel

Guest
Well, I'm a newbie to aluminum welding, not even sure what grade I have. Whatever it is, I need whatever is ggod for general purpose welding. The 3/64th is as big as would probably fit, I'll have to check the welder's manual. BTW, the .030 that I'm using will work, but the feeder constantly jams at the high spool speed.
 

rob

TCG Elite Member
Dec 28, 2008
1,237
0
Yea, the push feeds due that because the wire is softer and its harder to push.
If you have a good liner larger wire may help grab....Play with the tension on the wire runners(pulleys) a little and straighten out your feed cable when your welding..this should help. Also check you wire-if its flattening out their is to much tension on your runner. This will cause it to jam....You heat should be lower for aluminum..

The only other alternative is a spool feed type..
 
I

imported_Ron Vogel

Guest
Originally posted by GraFFix@Feb 23 2004, 02:52 PM
Well they do make a thicker wire...and we carry most of it here at my place.

Im not a good welder at all..I just ship the crap out..lol but I do know that aluminum is alot harder with a Mig..most everyone uses TIG for aluminum...then you get a nice bead from it. but thats not what your asking. :p


I have the following wire sizes here...

.030 (0.8mm)
.035 (0.9mm)
3/64 (1.2mm)
1/16 (1.6mm)

I dont know which aluminum wire your using. be it 4043, 5356 or some other odd one but most likely we have it here in stock.

let me know if you need something..i might be able to help you out.
OK, I'm a dumbass - they make a kit for my welder just for this. I have a Lincoln electric weldpak 100. I already got the gas kit from them last year, but they have an aluminum kit with a teflon liner, new tips, drive roll, and weld wire. Lincoln part number : k664-2. Do you guys carry this?
 
I

imported_Ron Vogel

Guest
Got the kit for my welder, and it works great. Spent about an hour with it and ran out of argon, damnit. At least it's working, I was getting it to work witout the kit, but it jammed on me constantly, with the kit it doesn't jamb at all.
 
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