Stickwelding aluminum vs steel?

admin

Hello,I have a question.I have been stickwelded alot lately, in mildsteel mostly and been using 2.5mm electrodes and between 60-70 Amps.(I´m using sticks in my ESAB Tig welder and it works like a charm)And now I want to try to stickweld aluminum and wonder it the method is the same between the materials?Is it more difficult to stickweld aluminum then "ordinary" steel?The aluminum electrodes is VERY expensive here. 1 costs 19sek = 2US$So therefore I want to know more about it before I buy the sticks. /Pelleman
Reply:My grandfather welded aluminum with sticks, and he said it was hard the first time, he had the welder to cold, so the weld was balling up, he said once you have the right heat, it welds good.
Reply:yeah, welding with aluminium will be a bit differnt, but dont be scared of it.  It will burn like a hot knife through butter.  But dont be scared of it.  Make sure with the aluminium you clean the material just before welding thorougly with a STAINLESS STEEL wire brush.  A carbon steel one will add in carbon to your Al and that aint no good. Carbon and Al dont mix.  Otherwise, as long as you dont get skeered of it you'll do just fine.  Good luckCHRIS
Reply:Ok,So should I heat the aluminum before I start to weld?btw. I have that TIG that I mentioned, it´s a DC tig and I cant tigweld aluminum with it. how does it work if I use the tig as a stickwelder?I mean there is still DC amps that is used, so how can it work when I put DC into a stick and weld the aluminum? It´s not switching either?Should I plug the stick to the + feed, like I do when stickwelding ordinary metal?/Pelleman
Reply:You can weld AL with DC but you have to run a larger electrode and DCEP (well thats what the boys tell me)
Reply:best thing is when you buy your rods, it will tell you the proper polarity and guidlines for amperage.  Usually the polarity is DC reverse, electrode pos, and I cant remember the amps. Preheating isnt a bad idea for aluminum either.  As far as running larger electrodes with DC Ive never heard of that.  I will tell you Ive never seen less than 1/8" rods for Al.  It burns soo fast I think it would be difficult to control anything smaller.  !1/8" rods seem to do the trick, although tig will give you control on thinner material.  Also, with tig, AC is required.  DC wont work.  Why it works for stick, well the folks at lincoln told me once, and I dont remember but there is a good explanation.  Well good luck.CHRIS
Reply:I meant in regard to your  " it´s a DC tig and I cant tigweld aluminum with it" statement. A larger tungsten might have been a better statement.
Reply:Ok, thanks for all the answers.I´ll buy a bag of rods  and try to stickweld aluminum on my holiday.4 weeks of holiday starting on Monday. YES!Loads of projects to accomplish./Pelleman
Reply:Oh,  it just hit me like an epiphany, (however thats spelled)  I do believe it was explained to me once that you could weld Al with DC electrode pos, but this is where you use a very large diameter tungstun and you do it on something thin.  Like foil or beer can thin.  I think the idea there was there was the torch pos gives you cleaning and the torch neg gave you your dig.  In regular DC tig mode, thats why you use straight polarity.  You want that dig.  With AC on aluminum you want a back and forth of clean and dig clean and dig.  With something liek DC on aluminum foil, I think you soak up a lot of energy wiht that larger tungsten and due to how thin the material is you arent needing the dig cycle.  I believe this what cluna was trying to describe.  Hope this helps ya man.  Good luckCHRIS
Reply:I also heard that you could weld ali with DC TIG. Recommended gas mentioned was helium Can't remember electrode position tho.
Reply:the helium gives a hotter arc.  It was the first TIG shielding gas, hence the term Heli-arc. And yes helium would be the gas of choice for thsi type of welding.  Good luckCHRIS
Reply:Hey,concerning tig welding alu,some people say u can tig alu,sure when u have a high freq box.Better off using high freq,or spool gun,the rods are not that great,unless welding heavy alu.When i use alu rods,yes i preheat the alu.Also i would like to add,u use dc straight,electrode -  ,if u hook it up revers,u'll melt your tungsten.Last edited by baymen; 08-01-2005 at 10:54 PM.
Reply:I have to say every old timer I grew up learning from said stick welding aluminum is no good to put it politely. If you have one aluminum item that needs welding and more than likely will not weld aluminum again for a while then i guess you might could get by with stick but if you plan to add aluminum welding to a every day welding routine forget it and start pricing a mig machine. just my opinion P.S. I weld aluminum every day and have for years.