TIG Welding Aluminum Techniques & Tips

Hope you enjoy this video

In this video, Brad Goodman shows how he welds one of his Dog Feeders. Material is 5052 aluminum .090" thickness using 5356 3/32" filler metal.
He likes to use a standard #5 cup for tig welding aluminum.
Brad welds dog feeders and dog boxes along with lots of motorsports parts and his customers like the stacked dimes look.

[loulagro]

Back in the late 70's in the San Fernando Valley of California, I worked for a then relatively famous racing frame company named Trackmaster. We made flat track Harley racing frames, and later did all of the welding of the Redline BMX frames and a few others. Most all 4130 Chromoly. Anyway, Trackmaster was known for a signature weld appearance and it relied on aggressive pedal pulsing. Not only did it allow us to negotiate less than ideal frame tubing gaps (mostly on the Redline 4130 tubes, .... .039 if I recall, where the edge could disappear real fast) You can get your rod right in there as you come in with the pedal. But it also allowed us to get our signature spacing on our beads, at a high rate of speed. Lastly and importantly Chromoly does NOT like to be in the heat get in get out, faster the better generally. If you walked into our shop at any given moment you'd see and hear all these pedals going nearly full travel pretty rapidly, lol, along with our big Linde UCC305 machines. Man, those were huge beautiful welding units! Still rival anything I've used to date. The pulsing has stuck with me my whole welding life and I use it probably more than I should, but it works and solves lots of problems. Thank you Trackmaster Racing Frames!

[tomandres]

That little tab for tacking is freaking genius. Holy crap am i stealing that idea.

[datdudedatguy]

Watching the puddle sink initially lets you know you're getting full pen I love watching your videos it reminds me of why I got into welding in the first place

[mrctuned]

Jody, you and your videos single handedly taught me how to weld. I had never even held a MIG before jumping in to TIG. Now a couple years later I'm able to weld just about anything at a satisfactory level, from fuel tanks, to chassis, to turbo manifolds. Thank you for all the hard work you've done making these truly exceptional videos!

[The_Wolf]

Hey Jody!

I like many have been watching you for well over 10 years. You helped so many of us get better with the craft and to most of us your the GOAT when it comes to welding.

One thing I would love to see you cover is how people can get into the trade on a budget. Quality machines are so out of reach for a lot of people wanting to get into the trade.

I feel like there are some decent $300-$500 welders out there for people who just want to run beads and practice technique.

Would love to see the goat talk about budget welders and tips for those who don’t have that big budget.

Thanks for the many years of great vids.

[Studio-kyoj]

I'm a huge fan of your "jump in / let's do it" style with the constant play-by-play dialog over the visual. In these pulsing videos, however, I would love to be able to watch and hear the pulse to get a sense for the rhythm of the dipping, moving, pulsing, backing off. There is a lot going on at once and being able to use my ears to hear what's going on with the pedal while using my eyes for everything else might make it easier to take it all in.

Keep up the great work.

[RoyClendaniel]

I'm new to aluminum TIG and learning so much from your videos. Thanks.

[venturefly]

The main thing I feel pulse does is limit the heat input. He doesn't have to increase his travel speed to counter act the thermal conductivity of the part. If you can feed fast enough the same results can be achieved with a torch button, but with that you have to be on point with your stepping distance and filler amount. I use special four step and pulse on pulse quite a bit at work for this same reason, control is insane and it limits distortion. I thought the burst tack tabs were clever, thanks for the video Jody.

[jerseyshoredroneservices]

For years I worked assembling aluminum oil pans, tanks and accessories for race cars, with that same 090 material.
We didn't normally wrap the corners that much but we did pulse everything and we also welded it on the inside. The inside weld was tricky because we couldn't affect the appearance of the outside weld. Some of the inside welds also had to be done left-handed and/ or with a mirror...

On the steel pans we used silicon bronze on the inside. Stainless screen over the oil pump pickups also got silicon bronze.

[Bradgoodman]

Always enjoy working with you Jody, so glad we can share these techniques with your viewers.

[duncanmiller]

I've been running tons of .060" - .030" 5052 work and it has been very difficult; whether it be the one handed tacks or having a touch too much heat in the assembly. I honestly forgot that working the pedal is something I've done in the past with relative success. Thanks for the reminder and the video Jody!

[hopelessnerd]

Haven't turned on my welder in 2 years, but MUST watch Jody's videos! They keep me from withering away until I can get my welder powered up again. Thanks!

[CarolinaReaperr]

i've been welding for a little over a decade now and you have you taught me through most of it I can weld every weird steel alloy you can think of but I had not welded aluminum as I was just a combo welder so stainless and high chrome was all I did most of the time it took me a second to remember where I learned everything but then I found you again and this was the stuff I was looking for😂😂😂 years later you're still teaching me how to feed myself and make excellent welds, thank you so you're a blessing!

[jondavidmcnabb]

The absolute expert level of the video capture on this is amazing!!! Jody you really know how to capture "The Weld" on video.

[НиколаАј]

Jodey thank u for teaching me to weld aluminum because for the next 2 years I have a welding certificate aluminum plate vertical 6mm but not only my test but for welding test for workshop reparing Semi trucks for petrol and diesel
Thank u for teaching me ❤❤

[bobs-nqwr]

Impressive craftsmanship! Thank you for sharing these techniques

[gioni]

Welding Aluminium Tool Boxes for Utes, Trucks and Trailers.
Customers complain about different colours between the parent metal and the weld.
I use home made rods made from the same material and it is cheaper than buying rods.
I only use rods for specific industrial applications.

Try it out one day thin guillotined strips used to weld Aluminium tool boxes.
Do a cut and etch and you will be surprised how difficult it is to see the difference between the welded section and the parent metal.

[TheAnonymousone]

Amazing when I joined this channel there was around 100k subs and now you’re over one million. Congrats

[JD-ftlr]

Great video. Im building a aluminium storage box for my boat. Trying it with .07 aluminium i had on hand. Only tacking stuff so far. A little heat goes a long way with this thin stuff. I may need to rebuild it with 1/8 material but will definitely be trying this pedal pulse first! Timely video and awesome!!

[WillCouch]

It's always interesting to me that generally the guys that immediately are nay sayers of the pedal pulse aren't industry welders. Or at least automotive industry for sure. I run a motorsports based fab shop down in florida and I'm a big fan of pedal pulse. Sometimes it's nearly the only way to do it in weird spots. Also I've always felt like for certain applications especially on thin ish material you'll get a stronger pen with less heat input. This is especially apparent on metals that really show a visible heat affected zone. The higher amperage punches through but background low amps during travel is less heat in the parent metal over time. Best of both worlds. Not to mention on tube work where rotating your hand is crucial, if you get hung up with manual pulse it's no big deal.