welding questions

mbalbritton

mbalbritton

#@$%!
Joined
Mar 22, 2005
Location
Lakeland, FL
I have the opportunity to take on a Metal Sculpture project. It's one that could cover the cost of getting a welder. :bounce:

Something that I'm trying to account for is the use of mixed media in this project. There will be some steel and some Aluminum. NO I'm not wanting to weld Alum. to Steel, those will fasten together. but I would need to be able to weld Alum as well as Steel. But I'm talking just some spots, like welding an alum. bung to a sheet of alum.

The mig welders I've looked at advertise welding Steel and Alum. and my understanding is that you'd need to change out the wire, and run 100% Argon. and that it's a bit trickier than welding steel since the alum. is softer and the wire feed can be problematic.

Anyone with experience MIG welding Alum on here? It may be that I take the alum parts to a buddies house that has a Tig.
 
if you are doing very little aluminum, why not just stick weld the aluminum? there are a ton of stick welders out there that someone has and they are easy to use. If you don't do a lot of aluminum welding, I'd just stick weld the tacks and clean them up if you need to versus buying the aluminum kits for a mig
 
I don't have a stick welder... but I do have a buddy with a TIG.

I will be buying a welder, and just wondering if a mig would suffice for welding a few spots of Alum, or If I need to plan ahead for other means of welding the alum. Mainly trying to plan my project out.
 
Back
Top