Welding aluminum ?

What`s a good welder to weld aluminum ?Can you weld aluminum with a stick welder ?

It depends on the aluminum. If it is pop can thin, tig is the way to go. For 1/4" plus mig is my preference. They do make a stick rod but you seem to have less control over what you are doing. I never cared for them. What ever you use make sure your aluminum is clean. Even new aluminum will need wire brushed. It also requires more heat than what you would think.

thin stuff tig is definitely better -- mig is better on thicker stuff --- never had a great deal of luck with the stick rod, but one guy in our shop got decent at it with some practice. Basically what JT said and yes cleanliness is very important. By the way you can actually weld two beer cans together after quite a bit of practice.

I didn't watch that video, but the bird sheet on the left looks like someone can't keep. the electrode (tig) out of the puddle and the one on the right is not a mig weld, that is a de cent tig weld. Everything on the internet is dishonest, it seems!

Thanks for the videos and info guys.Thinking about getting a mig welder.

If you are going the MIG route. Get yourself a spool gun capable machine as welding ALU with a normal setup gets frustrating pretty quick and a 8 roller machine that will work with a cable and sleeve is pretty pricey. And you will need argon as a shielding gas or things will get sparkly fast.

How many beers to drink to come up with that idea?

NOT all aluminum alloys can be welded to each other. One that I remember well is rivets and boat hulls. It is NOT like welding steel. The longer the run the more heat that builds up and the wider the bead gets and the faster one needs to travel. It can be welded with Oxy/Act too.

Thats what the foot pedal is for. Let off a little once you got the heat in there

I have a Lincoln 200 Square wave tig/stick welder.

Absolutely love it, minus the post flow that’s programmed per amperage and you can’t control it.

Someone musta stole the peddle on the MIG and Stick welders.

Tig does beautiful welds and can weld really thin material if you are good at it. Tig is also really slow. For aluminum you'll need an AC tig machine which adds quite a bit to the cost of the welder.

Stick welding is possible on thick stuff - maybe 1/8" thick and more. Stick welding aluminum is ugly. Weld will be porous, will have black burns, and a rough finish. If it's non structural and not for display it can do the job but I wouldn't buy a stick welder if welding aluminum was the plan. If you've got a stick welder and weld aluminum once or twice a year, it will work.

Mig can do a really nice weld, runs faster than tig, is easier than tig, and welds much nicer than stick. You'll need a shielding gas and your adjustments will need to be pretty close to perfect but once you have everything set up, the welds will be nice. Mig can only weld down to maybe 14 gauge metal. Might be able to stretch that to 16 gauge but I'd probably burn through. Maybe somebody better than me can weld something thinner. I can't. If you need to weld thin stuff, Tig is the way to go.

Give us what your welding up for a better concise answer. There are many ways to weld Aluminum, they have been mentioned above.

Were me and you have no background, Mig is the way to go, you can turn it down and almost do as thin as a Tig can once you are practiced enough !

If your good enough with a Mig most cannot tell the difference between a Mig and a Tig weld unless they have good back ground in welding.

Mig is much better for structure work as well, but Tig really shines on pipe work and thin materials for getting it done nicely and appearance wise if needed.

Mig you will need a Wheel gun as Alum is a bugger to push thru most any other type of feeder, it's to soft to go very far with out being fussy and snagging.

What would do the best job attaching float pods to the back of a john boat??

Knowing him it's to keep his boat afloat!!! He probably hits a lot of rocks!!! Just guessing!!!

Tig would do the best job and is probably the right choice. Jon boats are thin metal and tig is best on thin metal. You don't want water getting into any tiny holes in the weld and sitting between the pods and transom - another reason to choose tig. Mig would work too if that's what you have but the thin metal and the need for no holes in the weld makes it not as good a choice.

clean surface and no wind are the best for the job.
Tig is a pretty weld.....

What is a float pod asking for a friend

Sticky outy bits on the blunt end of a boat that help keeping it up

I dont know if thats the right term. The aluminum boxes you attach to the rear of the boat to make it sit higher in the water. I have a 1548 with a jet and id like it to level out a little better when im in it alone. Its a tiller so i sit in the back and im not a small guy. With the jet its all about gettin on plane quickly. Those pods should help in shallow water.

Mig works great for welding on the floatation pods. The easiest route is to buy the pods ready made from Beavertail and have a welding shop weld them on. Make sure they have the instructions so they put them on at the right pitch. I have done a bunch of these and normally charge $100-150 labor if they buy the pods.

I`m looking at some rod holders for the boat and man are they costly. I mig welded for a living for eight years and I have a stick welder but I have never welded aluminum.I can already see I`m going to get more into it than I want to.I think I`m going to take some stimulus money and just buy the rod holders.

order wonder rods off the net, they melt at 728 degrees ya use a propane torch, they work pretty well on aluminum alloys

I've played with the aluminum brazing rods (probably the same thing) and they do work pretty good if the aluminum is really, really clean. I've even brazed two pieces of 1/8" aluminum flat stock together and then tore it apart with pliers, hammers, chisels, and a vice. The base metal failed before the braze did.

But, I also tried to use it to braze a small pin hole in my little jon boat. Aluminum doesn't turn colors like steel to let you know how hot it is. When it reaches the melting point, it just melts. And that's what happened. Brazing was going well and all the sudden, a quarter sized chunk of boat fell onto the ground. I had gotten the aluminum too hot and melted a big hole in my boat. The stuff works but be careful.

Thanks for the info.May give that a try,I did see a video on that.I would be working with all new material if I try it.

Here is a tip for those brazing flat pieces for patching and worrying about temps and the hole getting larger from over heating.

Get another piece of Alum, the same size as your working with and place it under the hole and hold it there with some sort of force like a wedge or sawhorse , wood brace, no tape LOL won't work.

When your brazing the top will braze before the bottom piece gets hot enough to give out, if it does your using way to much heat, , wire wheel the area if you can for all brazing, best way to clean it short of a stainless wire brush.

Braze a bit, then lift the torch, let cool braze some more, let cool, easy once you get the hang of it, don't try to do the whole hole all at once, the metal is to thin to take all that heat.

And it transfers the heat very quickly --- grit guy has it right --- even use those tricks on really thin metal with the tig torch. Most of the stuff I weld is .053 -- .094

Tried that magic rod and had same results trying to do rivets in a jon boat. I even used a stainless wire brush before hand.