Welding wire and gasless welding

[keith1948]

Can someone help please. I was given an old little used Static Arc gasless MIG130 welder. The welding wire was jammed around the rollers but have sorted that bit out. There are a couple of minor things to fix which I can do but..........

I have a reel of 0.5kg 0.8mm diameter wire that is unlabelled. There is a fragment of label that looks like it might say 'Aluminum'. Apparently you can't weld aluminium on a gasless welder so why this was fitted (wrong way round as well) in this welder I don't know. I have a gas welder I could use it on but how do I test if it is aluminium or gasless steel wire. Both are similar colour. Also the tip size of the gun is 1.0mm diameter which is best for 0.9mm gasless steel wire I am told. 0.9 wire is also supposed to be better than 0.8 for general gasless welding because it 'pools' better. I have read that on a gasless welder the tip size should be one size up above wire diameter size to help prevent jamming of the tip. Never done gasless before so bit of a novice here. There is anti spatter paste and spray but how do I use that? Do you coat the bit you want to weld first with this stuff?

Yes I know the polarity of gasless is opposite of gas welding and initially it will be a challenge since the trigger on the gun only starts the wire going. Some practice needed I think. I have gloves, vizor, welding apron etc because do a bit of gas MIG welding now and then so ok for that.

Any help/advice welcome

Keith

[keith1948]

Roger has pm me to say Al wire is not magnetic (why didn't I think of that?) and on that basis it is aluminium I have. Which grade of aluminium I don't know but that is a start. Maybe I could use it on my gas welder but would need to check rollers and nozzle size first and then get some Argon gas.

Keith

[stillp]

"Roger has pm me"

Pleased to hear that.

Pete

[FatJon]

Keith, welding aluminium is very challenging at first, even with an AC TIG. With MIG I have had no luck at all. You need special rollers, the steel V profile rollers will squash the soft aluminium wire and jam frequently. The soft wire also has a tendency to bend and jam in the pipe/torch unless it's short and as straight as possible. You will certainly need argon or helium and you need to throw quite a lot of current at the weld as aluminium conducts heat away from the weld much faster than steel. My advice is try it but don't spend a lot of money on a big cylinder until you are sure it's worth it. AC TIG welders are very much cheaper than they were a few years ago but still have a steep learning curve. It's taken me some years to get proficient. In fact I would not go so far as to say proficient, I can usually make an acceptable job but not by any means like you would see from a true professional who does it all day every day.

Cleanliness is king with aluminium. You cannot weld through the oxide coat and neither can you see it, but it is there unless you cleaned the weld area within the last few hours. You can unpack 2 new, shiny and apparently spotless pieces of aluminium and find them virtually impossible to weld until you clean them.

Use a clean stainless brush and/or stainless wire wool, not brass or mild steel. A bit of spray brake cleaner after brushing to degrease them before welding also helps a lot.

 

And good luck!