Anybody done any aluminium welding using a Mig?

Tig is the more normal way of doing it but the difference in price between an AC Tig and a Mig is huge.

I know a Tig will give far more control, anybody with real experiance they can share comaring the two?

ta
Chris

I once welded up a broken aluminium fuel injection inlet manifold on an injected Rover V8.
Worked ok for this.
I think the answer is try it on a scrap first - if it works well enough for your task then go for it

It is true that MIG welding is used commercially where speed is the essence on such things as lorry bodies etc. These machines are 3 phase and I believe have a special wire feed system that pulls the wire through rather than pushing it. The normal push type of feed because the wire is soft will not give a consistent feedrate and that is absolutely essential for decent welding. Also, commercially, MIG is used on thick material rather than thin sheet. I have done it and believe me it a fast and furious process. Aluminium because it is such a good conductor of heat does need a lot of power. If you have a largish welder and you wish to weld 5mm thick aluminium you will probably be successful. For aluminium it is normal to have a Teflon sleeve and a nozzle one size larger than normal for that size wire. For welding sheet say 1.2, 1.6 or even 2mm I think you might struggle with MIG and be very disappointed. As you say, AC/DC TIG is hugely expensive and also takes time to perfect. The cheapest way might well be to get a professional TIG welder to do it for you. This may not be what you wanted to hear but that is my honest opinion.

There are a number of good welders in our Group and it will be interesting to have their thoughts on this subject.

John

cant comment on the reliability but there are sellers on ebay shipping 200amp ac/dc machines from china for about £500 which is pretty good value for money but still expensive.

Cheap Tig welders on ebay?
Item number: 260016048407
Seems to have good feedback.

AC/DC welder for £500???????????

where, can't look at ebay now but last time I looked the cheapo chinese ones were a grand!!!

Are you getting muddled up with HF start DC machines???

There was a Chinese bloke selling them Buy it Now for about that but postage was £180 and you had the taxes and import duty to sort as well. They were identical to the Butters 200 amp ac/dc tig but with Telwin? name on them. He was selling plasma cutters and migs as well but he seems to have disappeared now.

yep, was definately the ac/dc. the seller also said that he checked the 'gift' box on the invoice and puts the value quite low and reckons none of his cutomers have ever paid duty. with the postage all in the price caem to something like £509 cant remember exactly but was seriously considering buying one.

shop-river on ebay.com, here's one . It looks like he sells worldwide for the same postage. It's a Mitech welder, not Telwin as I thought it was but it looks the same as Butters and Telwin machines.

[Edited on 7/8/06 by Peteff]

yep, thats the one. my only reservation was on service and whether you could get a foot pedal for it. i guess any decent service engineer who can fix a butters could fix this tho.

at £500 I think I would take the risk!!!

That is VERY cheap! (about the same as I paid s/h for my big ESAB ac/dc tig)

Trouble with "sevicing" those "butters" tigs is that it will cost the same or more than buying a new one. Parts have to come from the same place as the welders, and usually will consist of most of the inside of the welder!

on the flip side, you can't physically get an ac/dc tig for less than £500 be it new or secondhand really, so it makes no odds.

I would scan ebay for a s/h industrial tig like my esab but you need a monster power supply for it.

PS foot pedal is VERY necessary, buying a tig without it is like buying a car without a throttle pedal.

[Edited on 8/8/06 by NS Dev]