AlanB
Elite Member
Pat, I do not understand all the dynamics of TIG and wave forms, but I believe that you have to have the "other side" of the wave with TIG to do the aluminum to get the cleaning action needed to break the oxide surface up. So did you get actually to both sides of the line with the sine wave or did it always stay on the one side? I am probably just not understanding, but it sounds like pulsed DC, and to the best of my knowledge, that will not work. What you described, ie, not seeing the change, in the material sounded an awful lot like welding Al with DC which is what made me make the comment. I would have told you to slide the wave balance on my machine to more cleaning action till you saw the puddle change.
Could be way off base, and I certainly do not fully understand the whole thing, but that would be my belief.
As too the Alu MIG, that is why they invented spoolguns.
The problem with running Alu on a "standard" larger mig, is the normal length of the gun. Again, back to my spaghetti, you are lengthining the straw. Some production applications use a very short lead Mig, but most either go too a spool gun, or high volume folks go to what is called a "push pull" set up, where the machine pushes the wire forward, and the gun has another set of powered rollers pulling it forward as well.
I have done it in a pinch several times with a baby mig (lincoln 100, Hobart whatever, and a Miller 130) If you are going to do it, get another liner just for the alu wire. But sometimes when it starts going wrong and you are cleaning out the 3rd birdsnest of the evening, it can drive you flat out nuts.
Gem, the cast is usaully a bit harder, as again, the crust or oxide layer is usually tougher. One thing that may help you is to literally stir the base metal with you fill rod to break that crust, sometimes cast can be truly miserable, because it is very rare that you truly KNOW what base metal composition you are working with. Sometimes on cast you just keep going in, grinding out, and building back.
Could be way off base, and I certainly do not fully understand the whole thing, but that would be my belief.
As too the Alu MIG, that is why they invented spoolguns.
The problem with running Alu on a "standard" larger mig, is the normal length of the gun. Again, back to my spaghetti, you are lengthining the straw. Some production applications use a very short lead Mig, but most either go too a spool gun, or high volume folks go to what is called a "push pull" set up, where the machine pushes the wire forward, and the gun has another set of powered rollers pulling it forward as well.I have done it in a pinch several times with a baby mig (lincoln 100, Hobart whatever, and a Miller 130) If you are going to do it, get another liner just for the alu wire. But sometimes when it starts going wrong and you are cleaning out the 3rd birdsnest of the evening, it can drive you flat out nuts.
Gem, the cast is usaully a bit harder, as again, the crust or oxide layer is usually tougher. One thing that may help you is to literally stir the base metal with you fill rod to break that crust, sometimes cast can be truly miserable, because it is very rare that you truly KNOW what base metal composition you are working with. Sometimes on cast you just keep going in, grinding out, and building back.
