Welding Rod Chart
Welding Rod Chart
Tips on Tig Welding Aluminium to know How to Tig Weld Aluminium
TIG Welding Aluminium is the most versatile kind of welding on the planet. Manual gas tungsten arc welding is often considered the most difficult of all the welding processes commonly used in industry. Because the welder must maintain a short arc length, great care and skill are required to prevent contact between the electrode and the workpiece. Gas tungsten arc welding is most commonly used to weld stainless steel and nonferrous materials, such as aluminum and magnesium, but it can be applied to nearly all metals, with notable exceptions being lead and zinc.
Although virtually all metals can be TIG welded, the metal most frequently associated with the TIG welding process is aluminum, especially when we are talking about
Tig Welding Aluminium
. Many other processes, of course, can join aluminum, but in the lighter gauges the best process is TIG. The popularity of tig welding in automotive, hot rods, and chopper applications has brought TIG welding to a new popularity. TV shows like “Monster Garage” and “Orange County Choppers” have made it even more popular and cool too.
As described earlier TIG welding Aluminium is the most versatile kind of welding on the planet for professional welders, professional racing teams, as well as the auto enthusiast or hobbyist. Why? Because TIG welding is precise and can be used for welding any metal: Carbon and low alloy steels, stainless steels, nickel alloys, Aluminum. Magnesium, Titanium, Cobalt alloys, Copper alloys, Tungsten, Niobium, Molybdenum and Unobtanium. Tig welding aluminum is worth learning. I missed out on a good job back around 1982 because I couldn’t weld aluminum back then. Now I wonder what was so hard about it. It can be intimidating.I thing aluminum should be the first thing you learn when You are in training. If you dont have anything to compare tig welding aluminum to, you wont know its supposed to be hard.
Tips On Tig Welding Aluminium
1. 4043 filler rod is probably the best all around rod as far a crack sensitivity etc. IF you know exactly what aluminum you are welding and if you are going to anodize after welding then see the alcotec chart link below.
2. All things considered , 2% lanthanated is probably the best all around electrode…I still use 2% thoriated but there is some concern about radioactivity. I aint scared.
3. 50/50 argon/helium is worth it
4. For castings, preheat is your friend
5. 3 c’s clean, clean, clean
6. Not enough Argon from the torch is BAD…Too Much Argon from the torch is even worse.
The Things and Tips On Tig Welding Aluminium like above these things also should be remember, Get a cylinder of 50/50 argon/helium for use on Tig welding Aluminum. You will not regret this… sometimes you can even weld thicker aluminum with a smaller electrode. It also makes the aluminum puddle quicker and welds cleaner. So we discussed above in deeply
How To Tig Weld Aluminium
safely and well.
As we must know how to tig weld aluminium well, we must also know that there are different types of joints designed for TIG welding to join the aluminium perfectly:
Butt Joint – For light materials the square-edge butt joint is the easiest to prepare and can be welded without filler rod. It consists of “butting” two pieces of metal up against one another (no overlapping) and then welding along the seam between them.
Lap Joint – A lap joint is made by overlapping two pieces of metal and then welding the edge of the top piece to the bottom piece. The only special requirement for making a good lap weld is to have the pieces in close contact along the entire length of the joint.
Corner Joint – A corner joint consists of welding one piece of metal at a right angle to the edge of a second piece, thereby forming a corner.
T-joint – A T-joint is prepared by placing a piece of metal perpendicular to another in order to form a “T”. Then a weld is made along the seam on either side of the perpendicular piece. Filler rod is necessary to weld T-joints regardless of the thickness of the metal.
We have run test after test comparing pure , 2% thoriated, and zirconiated electrodes and all the joints were x-rayed. The 2% thoriated electrodes perform as well or better than the rest. We know people are steering away from thoriated electrodes because of the radioactive thorium they contain. If that scares you , use lanthanated electrodes. Sharpen up your pure electrodes and use them to pop balloons. They work ok for that. But for tig welding aluminum, We have not found anything better than the 2% thoriated.
Aluminium welding is trickier than steel welding. There is a fine line between no penetration and blowing holes. This is due to the wonderful combination of a low melting point and high heat conductivity.
tigweld
Tig welding aluminium is not something that you can just pick up and be master in 5 minutes. You must have the wast experience of the welding to be a master in welding stream.
View all articles
.
website:
Shielded Metal Arc Welding – Stick Welding Rods