Anybody stick weld aluminum?

[yomax4]

Harbor Freight carries it for about $2 a stick,,,

That Alumalloy is nothing more than the old Welco 52 that you can buy for $2 #. Works best with Welco 52 Flux. It's zinc really.. Some folks have gotten very rich off of this product marketed under various names. Smoke in Mirrors really. Not so good for joining but works good for fixing Bullet Holes in irrigation pipe. I used to sell the stuff back in the day.

 

[yomax4]

Yeah I did notice how fast they burn up, and my biggest problem was I would think I was doing good, the flux looked great and then I would clean it off to find a gobby melted mess underneath. When I have more time I'm going to practice some more and maybe try the brazing thing. I imagine if you used them as brazing rods it would give you a bit more control without having to move so fast.

Right. The only thing is that Aluminum has a very narrow welding heat range. You can be going along looking good and then with very little warning the bottom falls out. At shows, I used to take a stick of Welco 26 Aluminum stick rod and lay a nice bead half way across a 3/16 coupon and then stop and leave the rod frozen in the puddle. Distributors would set the part on the counter and customers would buy the crap out of the rods. Unfortunately for some, It's not nearly as easy as it looks.

 

[Mark @ Everlast]

You have to keep it moving. But after one rod or two, if you a proficient at stick welding, you can adapt.

I did this video for Everlast a few years ago. As you can see, the results aren't TIG perfect, but they aren't that bad either.

 

[Shield Arc]

WOW Mark those welds look great! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[Mark @ Everlast]

Thanks, but that was basically first run, first shot, right out of the box results. I felt I could have done better with practice, which I did not have time or the materials to do. I was using some old scrap from a project I had. Up to that point, I had never run any aluminum rods before. I researched what I could and from my recollection I set up the welder then went after it. But I am/was a pretty fast learner.

 

[yomax4]

Better than 90% of the spoolgun welds I see.

 

[Thats Hot]

This is my only stick welding, it a wind chim.

 

[Thats Hot]

Here is a better look.

 

[Underdog57]

You have to keep it moving. But after one rod or two, if you a proficient at stick welding, you can adapt.

I did this video for Everlast a few years ago. As you can see, the results aren't TIG perfect, but they aren't that bad either.

Very informative video Mark.........thanks for posting :thumbsup: