welders, come here

[rocco16 at sbcglobal.net (Larry Fry)]

I was referring to specialized aluminum welding equipment for the MIG 
welder.
Hint: Dan, you'll get much better results when you are TIG welding aluminum 
if you use helium instead of argon....you'll experience noticeably deeper 
penetration.  If you are welding thin alum stock, then you may be better off 
with A2.
  You are right; TIG is the best manual-type welding for low heat input. 
MIG is actually pretty bad; only acetylene/torch is worse.  If I had the 
budget for it, I'd have a nice TIG inverter sitting in my garage. I happen 
to be a certified (D17.1 and AMS-STD-1595) aerospace welder...certified in 
stainless, nickel-based alloys, and titanium...so it's realitively easy to 
take small projects to work and do them there.  Plus it's cheaper. :)
 Still, I envy you having the equipment at home...!

Larry
sandiego16v


I am definitely not the MIG welding god so don't have much input there
other than to say it's probably the easiest form of welding to learn
and it has relatively low heat input so it's appropriate for welding
autobodies where warpage is a big factor.
As far as TIG, it's probably the hardest type of welding to learn and
the most expensive. My setup, which is actually almost bottom of the
line, cost ~$1700. On the other hand I can weld aluminum, stainless or
mild steel and heat input is also low with TIG. I've had some
excellent results welding autobodies with TIG getting minimal
distortion. I'm not sure about any specialized accesories for
aluminum. Different filler rod, different tungsten electrode, same
argon gas and off I go ;^)
Dan

On 11/12/05, Larry Fry <rocco16@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> For all practical purposes, you'll not be welding any aluminum in your 
> shop
> or garage; takes to much in the way of specialized accessories.
>  Also, when Mark says cheap, he means "realatively".  :)  I bought a small
> Miller 110V MIG welder several years ago.  By the time I got it home, the
> bill was way more than I had figured:  The machine was only about
> $599....add a spool of wire, a bottle of steel mix (gas), regulators, new
> shield lens, a coupla spare tips, some anti-spatter, and the total was a
> coupla' bucks over $800.
>
> Just be prepared.
> Larry
> sandiego16v
>


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