Aluminium MIG wire

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

In our local LIDL, they sell aluminium welding wire. It doesn’t say if you need gas for MIG welding and the only MIG set they have for sale is gas less.

So would it work ??

Bob

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

the wire should say if its fluxed if it doesn’t its not and you will need argon

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, Bernard is correct. Fluxed aluminium MIG wire is usually a lot dearer than non-fluxed.

Regards Nick.

[simondavies3Participant @simondavies3]

Moreover (and I speak write from bitter experience with a spare reel sitting in the workshop), the wire is much softer – Once I had dealt with multiple tangles because the wire was not sufficiently stiff for the pusher drive, I read around the subject and it seems that the PRO end of the market have mini motors up in the MiG handle and pull the wire up the tube. At this point (some 30+ years ago), I gave up on the idea.

However, all may have changed in the intervening years!

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

This guy has done a lot of research – Flux cored MIG wire doesn’t really exist for the hobbyist. Its quite a good read.

Flux Core Aluminum Welding Wire: What You Need to Know

Bob

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

You don’t say what size MIG wire ? I use 1.2 on a big machine with a teflon liner and Argon. The wire feeder uses 2 geared rollers to pushes the wire up the liner but it is a good plan to keep the lead to torch as straight as possible to avoid a nest. It is not a neat process if it works at all on a hobby machine. Tig is a better bet but then you need AC/DC for ali. I have used ali MMA rods, not pretty but it works. Noel.

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Noel, I didn’t know that using Argon was called Gas Less – (Tongue in cheek).

Bob

 

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

Thanks Bob, as a compromise I try to hold my breath to reduce gas consumption to 0 !

When one looks at the range of skills from novice to highly skilled  and equipment from cheap and nasty to top of the range that one sees on here and having used some of the lower end of market MIG welders both given to me by folk who gave up trying to use them, and having bought a BOC Autolynx back in the 70s that I still use and claim as probably the best smallish MIG ever made, and also a large 375A industrial unit I can claim some skill and knowledge.

Industrial processes carried out with poor equipment and little skill are likely to end in disappointment at some expense.

Would it work ? On the basis of the information given, I would say NO ! You will note that I said 1.2mm wire and I described the feeding arrangements, a torch fed gun could use thinner wire but flux cored ? A domestic MIG is highly unlikely to be able to use wire above 0.8mm. It is the feeder/torch that lets cheap machines down ! Then there is the current needed ?

Be very wary of adverts claiming to do the seemingly impossible eg the soldering iron that was a laser cutter/welder !

Good luck. Noel.

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