Yeah I said it, and it fuckin works, you can weld so must faster, BUT! you have to use helium for shielding and you gotta clean off the oxides before you weld, don't use a regualr grinding wheel, the fibers will get stuck in the aluminum and it will be a bitch to weld. i use a flap disc, then i wire brush the hell out of the piece. I swear on all that is holly this can be done. The welds don't look as nice as a/c tig, but if you welding gussets on catamarans, no bodys gunna see that shit, and plus u get 6 hours of work done in about half the time. it takes practice to get good at it tho. Yeah I said it, and it fuckin works, you can weld so must faster, BUT! you have to use helium for shielding and you gotta clean off the oxides before you weld, don't use a regualr grinding wheel, the fibers will get stuck in the aluminum and it will be a bitch to weld. i use a flap disc, then i wire brush the hell out of the piece. I swear on all that is holly this can be done. The welds don't look as nice as a/c tig, but if you welding gussets on catamarans, no bodys gunna see that shit, and plus u get 6 hours of work done in about half the time. it takes practice to get good at it tho.
This is my first post and I was wondering whether to buy a new(cheapie) AC/DC TIG or get a bottle of helium and try it out. I have this little Harbor freight 130 TIG that works well enuff for SS tubing and was wondering if it would work for aluminum with helium.
Whadaya think?
Whadaya think?
Charlie
If I was you I would get the helium and save your self alot of money. I think your little tig would work fine. As long as your not trying to fire up on a 1" piece of aluminum, you should be fine. Just remember to clean,clean,clean and one more thing, make sure you get a stainless steel brush, just for tig welding aluminum. When it comes to contamination, thats people biggest problem, using a carbon steel wire brush that they use for arc welding. When I tig weld aluminum i don't even wear a glove on my filler rod hand. Gloves get dirty, dirty glove+aluminum filler rod = no good. If it gets to hot, buy a good pair of tig gloves, get them about a size to small so you can feel the rod. Good luck with this man, it takes practice to get it down, mostly because your welding alot faster.