Another weld critique plz.

[Jaylegger]

Haywires post is a great idea for a running thread, one solely for critiquing welds and advice for improvement.

Anyway, I have little to no welding experience but did weld up a small steel job last year for the blower and since have purchased a spool gun for some aluminum welding that I thought might be handy for my aluminum trailer. Haven't done anything with that yet but a buddy is modifying/adding a new leg lift system of his design for his aluminum boat lift and approached me to weld them for him. Any after much practice on some small scraps I gave it a shot but where failure of the welds could lead to potential property damage I want to run a couple photos of the welds past you guys for your thoughts. Do these welds look ok or are they destined to fail?

Each leg is about 4.5 feet tall and each of the four spacers welded to them are about 12" tall, the aluminum is 3/16" thick and welded with a Lincoln 180 on highest setting D and wire speed at around 430ipm. I decided to do the stop start method of welding as I found it easier to maintain a relatively straight run when compared to maintaining one continuously steady movement.

Thanks.

 

[k0ua]

Well I am pretty much still a novice welder, and I have never welded any Aluminum, but I am pretty impressed at how well it turned out. I think it looks great. Lets let some of the more experienced guys comment, but I like it.

James K0UA

 

[Jaylegger]

Well I am pretty much still a novice welder, and I have never welded any Aluminum, but I am pretty impressed at how well it turned out. I think it looks great. Lets let some of the more experienced guys comment, but I like it.

James K0UA

Hey thanks for that, Hopefully my buddy won't have the nicest looking weld on the bottom of the lake. I must say I really enjoy working with aluminum, just like the feel of it.

 

[Agrantina]

If I may- what kind of welder and spool gun? what wire dia?? What gas did you use? 100% argon?

AndyG

 

[Agrantina]

If I may- what kind of welder and spool gun? what wire dia?? What gas did you use? 100% argon?

AndyG

 

[Jaylegger]

If I may- what kind of welder and spool gun? what wire dia?? What gas did you use? 100% argon?

AndyG

The welder is a Lincoln 180(t) and the spool gun a Lincoln 100sg. .035 4043 wire and 100% argon.

This might be a good time to gripe about the tips included with the spool gun. The included tips were .035 to work with the spool of aluminum included but the tips were the ones used for steel. I was having a heck of time with inconsistent feed and burn backs and after some digging found the problem. Lincoln has a tip made for .035 aluminum wire which has an oversized hole which is far less likely to bind the aluminum as it expands when heated. An unbelievably stupid thing for them to include the wrong tips with the gun. Had to order in the tips from Lincoln as none of the 6 or so welding supply shops had them and instead recommended using the .045 tips that are used for steel, I opted for the tips specifically suited for aluminum though the .045 are often used for this application.

If anyone has this gun and is having problems with feed and burn backs take a look at your tip, the correct aluminum tip for .035 aluminum wire is KP2067 and that number is stamped on the tip. The incorrect tip (which again came with my 100sg gun) is KP11, which is the standard tip for the 100L gun (the one that's included with the welder).

 

[Chilly807]

Looks pretty good to me, I have limited experience with aluminum too.

Sean

 

[Jaylegger]

Looks pretty good to me, I have limited experience with aluminum too.

Sean

I appreciate the input, thanks. The best part of this endeavor is that I also am to weld those legs onto the lift but can only do this welding vertically. I've never done that before either, obviously, but appears an upside-down V pattern works well for that. I'm out of 3/16 scrap tubing to practice on too, darn.

 

[crazyal]

Just be thankful that the spool gun for your Lincoln is reasonably priced. I really wanted one for my 255 but the Lincoln gun is over $1200. They do have a lower end gun now for $700 plus $100 for an adapter. Still too rich for me so i can only dream of welding Aluminum.

 

[Jaylegger]

Just be thankful that the spool gun for your Lincoln is reasonably priced. I really wanted one for my 255 but the Lincoln gun is over $1200. They do have a lower end gun now for $700 plus $100 for an adapter. Still too rich for me so i can only dream of welding Aluminum.

You're right, thanks to Lincoln for marketing a low cost spool gun. Despite it's apparent lack of robustness, for a couple hundred it does the job.