MIG / TIG Combo Work - Makes sense? (Aluminum)...

Main Page | Report this Page

Science Forum Index » Engineering - Joining (Welding) Forum » MIG / TIG Combo Work - Makes sense? (Aluminum)...

Page 1 of 1

Author

Message

Bob La Londe...

Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 10:30 am

Guest

Ok... Here is the deal. I with a variety of sheet thickness down to the
limits of my machine I can get a passable weld in aluminum. By using heat
sink metals at the ends I seem to be able to do ok there as well. Atleast
with the thicker sheet (1/8 inch and up). I burned up all my thinner
practice stuff for now before I started trying that. In practicality I was
wondering if it might be best to make my long welds with the MIG (mostly for
time savings) and then pick up a cheap TIG just to go back and do the last
1/4" to 1/2" of each weld?

Bob La Londe
www.YumaBassMan.com

Curt Welch...

Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 4:17 pm

Guest

"Bob La Londe" <nospam at (no spam) nospam.no> wrote:

Quote:

Ok... Here is the deal. I with a variety of sheet thickness down to the
limits of my machine I can get a passable weld in aluminum. By using
heat sink metals at the ends I seem to be able to do ok there as well.
Atleast with the thicker sheet (1/8 inch and up). I burned up all my
thinner practice stuff for now before I started trying that. In
practicality I was wondering if it might be best to make my long welds
with the MIG (mostly for time savings) and then pick up a cheap TIG just
to go back and do the last 1/4" to 1/2" of each weld?

Bob La Londe
www.YumaBassMan.com

I would think that would work fine. However, you need AC TIG to do
aluminum and that doesn't tend to be very cheap. You also have the
aesthetics to think about. MIG and TIG welds tend to look very different
so depending on whether people can see the welds, it might not look as good
to have the weld different at the ends. Or maybe, it will actually create
a better look to do it that way? Who knows.

And if you do anything but the thin stuff, you need a lot of amps for
aluminum, and again, high amp A/C TIG machines don't tend to be cheap. It
would be a shame to spend a lot on a low end machine which would work on
the skin of a boat, but not have enough amps to do anything with support
ribs or corners braces etc.

If I though I would be doing a lot of aluminum work, I'd get a TIG machine
for sure even of the bulk of the welds were going to be MIG. I can fill 1"
holes in aluminum with TIG but I would never want to try it with MIG. If
nothing else, TIG would be nice to have when dealing with problem spots or
to patch up errors.

--
Curt Welch http://CurtWelch.Com/
curt at (no spam) kcwc.com http://NewsReader.Com/

Page 1 of 1 All times are GMT - 5 Hours The time now is Thu Nov 20, 2008 12:59 pm Science Forum Index