Metal origami - my first attempts at welding aluminum.

[mjncad]

Please read the album cover and photo captions for details.

Thanks,

https://picasaweb.google.com/jtpyo.mjn/MetalOrigamiAluminumWelding?authkey=Gv1sRgCJbTr6qM1orT1AE#

 

[Shield Arc]

What do you mean "should have used a root gap"?

What machine are you using, and what tungsten?

 

[mjncad]

I'm using a MillerMatic 210 MIG with the 3035 spoolgun with 0.035" wire.

On the butt-weld, I had a 1/32" gap between the plates. I should have just had the plates touch each other.

 

[Shield Arc]

I should have looked at you pictures closer, soon as someone say aluminum welding my mind thinks Tig. I don't do a lot of aluminum Mig, I have a Cobramatic, haven't touched it in years.
That looks to be about 1/4-inch plate, isn't that pushing the upper limits of your 210?
Those inside fillet pictures, picture 7 of 9 is the top piece bent at 90-degree? If so that is a huge heat sink, wonder if some pre-heat would help?

 

[dstig1]

Your last few pics - most of them are not shielding gas being blown away. That very last one is lack of gas in that center section. The rest of them just look cold or perhaps poor movement/technique for covering the whole joint.

 

[mjncad]

The origami was made from 3/16" plate, and my MM210 is good up to 3/8" with 0.035" wire, which is what I'm using.

The first Tee joint was made by itself, and the next two were made after I put the three separate joint types together to get more practice.

As far as the shielding gas, each time the joint went to crap is when I felt a breeze swirl around in the garage after I started the weld.

I still think the inside corners giving me grief was a combination of limited gun movement due to the clamps needed to hold the parts in place and wind.

I started out with Miller's suggested settings for plate thickness and wire size and found it to be too hot, so I turned the wire speed down about 5%, which seemed to be the ticket.

 

[Shield Arc]

I still think the inside corners giving me grief was a combination of limited gun movement due to the clamps needed to hold the parts in place.

That could be the problem, wonder if it also forced you to have too much stick out?

 

[mjncad]

That could be the problem, wonder if it also forced you to have too much stick out?

That could be as I hadn't thought of that.

 

[Shield Arc]

It's amazing the effect stick out / arc length has over the puddle, and control of the puddle. Take some 6010 and get in a position where you can really see the gap between the rod and plate, change the arc length in and out. Jam it in real tight, no heat! Open up the arc length and see how hot it gets! But there is a point when the arc length goes past a certain spot and the heat goes away, (think thats what happened to you).
Sometimes when Mig welding you can change the stick out just the least little bit and find the sweet spot quicker than adjusting the wire speed.

 

[mjncad]

What I've been doing for stick-out that seems to work well for both steel and aluminum is to take my MIG welder's pliers, and place the face away from the cutting edge against the nozzle. This seems to give me a consistent stick-out length.