MIG Welding Aluminum Ain't Easy

I spent some time practicing MIG welding aluminum today. It’s a difficult skill to master.

I spent a lot of time reading articles and tutorials all over the web about MIG welding aluminum. Some of the articles helped, some simply confused me. Most people recommend using 4043 .035″ MIG wire for general purpose aluminum welding. That didn’t work for me.

I tried working with the 4043 for about 30 minutes. It wouldn’t feed through the gun properly even with a brand new Teflon liner. When I could get it to feed for long enough to attempt to weld I’d just burn holes through the 5000 series 1″ aluminum tubing I’m using even at the lowest voltage setting on the welder. It was pretty frustrating.

I was ready to give up and wait for the spool gun to arrive early next week. I do have one roll of .030″ 5356 aluminum welding wire so I figured I’d give it a shot. I’m glad I did. I can learn to weld with this wire. Using the .030″ with a .035″ tip works perfectly on my Hobart Beta-Mig 170 welder. I’m kinda surprised how fast I have to run the wire speed setting. I guess that’s normal and I shouldn’t be surprised. I just need to order more wire so I don’t run out.

I finally got to the point that I felt comfortable enough that I could do simple tack welds so I could start assembling the base tray of the roof rack. It was right around then that my left eye started swelling. I guess I didn’t get the welding hood down the whole way and a bit of arc flash got me. It was bad enough that I knew I should stop welding and get out of the sun. It scared the crap out of me. I decided it was time to upgrade my welding helmet to one of the auto-darkening types. They sell them at Jordan Lumber so I picked one up. Wow, what an improvement. I can see what I’m doing and it doesn’t hurt my eyes!

Check out the photo gallery below for examples of what aluminum welds should not look like. It’s an random selection of the learning process today before the eye pain started.

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