A question arose at last week’s meeting about the possibility of welding aluminum with our MIG welder. While we currently lack this capability, it is easily possible with a few accessory purchases. The addition of an argon tank and a spool gun would allow the Millermatic 211 to weld aluminum between 1.2mm and 9.5mm in thickness.
This seems like a reasonably useful ability to have at the Hive. Before going into great detail on parts and pricing, I wanted to gauge general interest.
Does anyone have an immediate application for aluminum welding? Or think they might want to explore it in the future?
I’ve only ever used a TIG for aluminum. It was scary enough. I think that would be a much better approach. I was planning on buying a Miller Synchrowave 210 (and probably keeping it at the hive) and I think that this would be a much better idea than aluminum MIG, but that;s mostly based on my experience with TIG welding aluminum and utter lack of aluminum MIG experience.
Considering how few people can effectively weld ferrous materials, how unforgiving aluminum is and how much more expensive the shield gas is I would say this should be pretty low on the priority list.
having a fair bit of aluminum welding I would certainly go with Dave on this , TIG is much easier AL is much more sensitive to temp than steels and blows out or puddles away very easily under MIG. over all a Argon tank isn’t really overly bad from Weld Plus but that’s just me I have several tanks from them no rental fee saves $$.