Aluminum MIG vs TIG Welding

Let's explore the 2 most common processes for welding aluminum

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🧰 Tools Used In This Video 🧰
-For MIG & TIG - Revolution 2500
-For MIG - ProPulse 220
-For TIG - Invertig 221

📖 Chapters 📖
0:00 Welcome
0:23 MIG Welding Aluminum
6:17 Welding Machine
6:40 TIG Welding Aluminum
9:36 Summary

🙏Thanks for Watching!🙏

Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) and Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW) are both great processes for welding aluminum. Watch this to find out which welding process is better for your project.

[georgebuck]

Rules for TIG or MIG welding Aluminum. It's the only common metal that has to be free of all oil, grease, paint, gum from labels and any anodize coating. When you file, grind or use a carbide burr to clean the metal, you also remove the oxide layer which lowers the melt temperature which lessens the chance of burning thru the metal. Some welders also clean it with acetone. All welding shops that do military/Federal spec aluminum welding are required to have chemical tanks on site to etch the aluminum with a mild acid, which removes the oxide layer. All metals are TIG weldable except zinc which is the plating used on galvanized steel. The short list: steel, aluminum, stainless, copper, brass and titanium. And you can only use Argon or a mix of Argon/Helium for TIG welding, and that rule also applies to MIG aluminum. Argon/CO2, Argon and Oxygen or CO2 by itself is only used for MIG steel or rough stainless work.

[melgross]

Hi Tim. This has nothing to do with the points of this video, but I thought it would possibly be helpful. As you know, I have the same table. I use 1/4” thick copper plates under small weldinds I’m doing and often use a spatter shield spray. A couple of weeks ago I was doing that and had some odd problems with the welds. The welds were fine, but somehow the metal looked like it sputtered all the weld shmutz off and it looked very bright. I was welding some A-36 with 309L wire with 100% argon. I’ve done that in the past with no problems. Sometimes I prefer that to 75/25 as I can’t get other mixes in the 80 cu bottles. When I finished and removed the copper, I noticed that some of the black surface had come off the table in odd patterns. It was, fortunately, a small area. I found that small particles had worked themselves under the copper and between the copper and the work and the areas right around them apparently had taken a heavy dose of amperage due to poor contact and lifted some of the blackening off. I’ve never had that happen before, but I thought it would be interesting.

[gearhead]

The slope down feature on the revolution and pp220 is a game changer for the craters I absolutely love the features of these machines and how smooth they are and I’m really glad guys like you and others are doing more videos with them because it’s helping me figure out how to use the machines features better I always say the machine is smarter than I am

[josiahutah]

Nice Tim! I can’t believe one volt made that much difference

[johnjelinek-gb]

A great tutorial on the differences between the two Tim . :)

[rjbath]

Very well presented. Thanks for keeping the solution understandable and simple.

[jamesyates]

Your welding courses are great. Well worth the money.

[tedbastwock]

Great comparison. For the projects Ive done so far, the actual welding time is a surprisingly small proportion of the total project time. This, among other things, has led me to want to buy a TIG machine. Admittedly, I have only done a few small to medium projects using a small flux core machine so far, but it has helped me learn where I want to go next. Thanks, Tim.

[shdwz]

Yo this was the first vid i have found that has given me a pretty decent understanding and clear direction in what kind of welding i would like to explore. Thank you

[RichardSmith-mshh]

Hi Tim - amazing first time seeing someone else use CV (constant voltage) (and constant current in physical reality) Aluminum GMAW/MIG and constant smooth weld progression.
Here in UK insistence is
* Pulse MIG even at high powers where could "spray"
* must be stepped progression producing ripples
When result is more than 90% of welds *do not* meet specification you'd expect a re-think - but no.
I hadn't yet found how to macro-etch marine-grade aluminum when last did CV Ali MIG (hot "drain unblocker" (certainly an alkali - likely based on sodium hydroxide)). Would love to know what the weld was like inside.
Thing is with CV and smooth progression
- see that consistent electro-etch cleaning action around the weld - near the arc
- and you do not mess around with the weld pool
If you disturb it least, you will surely get most float-out of gas and oxides. Wish could do a test fillet weld, saw it so you have a flat sample containing the weld, and take it to be radiographed.
Despite crippling rejection rates using Pulse&manip., no-one interested in doing tests here. Would prepare a Pulse&manip. weld the same and get that radiographed too - get honest good information.
Anyway, thanks for showing.
By the way - setting CV Ali MIG solely on welder's judgement, you end up within a few Amps and closer than a volt to the recommended conditions in the Lincoln Foundation "The Procedure Handbook of Arc Welding". Which is CV. Could have knocked me over with a feather that day when I got home and found this to be the case with a weld I had just developed and had accepted that day.
The rule I know is:
for 1.2mm wire (47thou) with wires like 5356 is
* >= 10m/min - spray at about 24-ish volts
* < 10m/min - pulse
[10m/min==394ipm]
You can spray at a bit lower, but to be honest, being pragmatic, pulse simply gets easier at less than 10m/min with 1.2mm ali. wire - then you get to where the metal is too thin to "spray" at all.
But yes it seems you get everything you want going CV with spray transfer for ali MIG, yet have only once been permitted to do that here - on a high-value job.

[gholdsfishing]

Would you mig .080 aluminum or is it too thin. I have a project i need to join 1/4” angle to .080 plate. Figured id be ok if i just focus my puddle on the thicker material

[ypure]

Beautifully clear and well paced vids. I am new and want to learn to weld. Really enjoy you vids. I have subscribed

[stefanblack]

Great videos. I would have mentioned or shown how it's possible to taper off at the end of a weld with TIG, whereas a MIG weld tends to be and abrupt, less than ideal ending to your weld bead.

[andyb]

Very good information Tim, thank you.

[Smoothdude-wo]

The most useful welding for performance tuning and racing cars is aluminum welding.

[donaldhalls]

Every time I watch I work out where I'm going wrong 😂, aspecialy with heat on a lot I would turn it up, hoter the better rite 😂😅 haven't started tig yet, but mine is lift tig no pedal, bought, it before I started watching, 😢 but it performs a lot better than my Telwin 😂😅 not even produced anywhere, only mig, thanks for sharing, being very instructive, great to follow, all the best to you and your loved ones

[behemothinferno]

The arc can be very erratic on AC TIG so I find myself using MIG for aluminium more often than TIG as I seem to be getting a more consistent bead.

[gyulakiss]

Hello ! Why MIG/MAG maschine good to alu weld and TIG DC no? Please write me

[DodgyBrothersEngineering]

When looking through the camera, your TIG filler rod looks a lot lower angle then when you are shooting the same shot from further back. I'm currently doing a TIG course, and what you demonstrating is in line with what I have been taught.

[johnmacmillan]

Greetings Tim. Thx for the video. I do have a question.
Many sites I visit state that mig welding aluminum requires spray transfer period. These sites claim that you need at least 200 plus amps and 24 plus volts to obtain this type of transfer. I notice in your aluminum welding course that you obtain spray transfer using much less amps and volts. I seem to be able to hetthat nice hissing sound with my 180 amp mig welder with lower amps and lower voltage.
So are these sites wrong?
Thx for responding.
Have followed your videos for quite some time and enjoyed them all