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Hobart 140 and aluminum 6063 HEEELLPP!!!!!!!

First try at aluminum 6063 with hobart 140 mig running ER5356 ally wire in .030" at highest amp and fastest wire feed speed under 75%/25% Ar/CO2.

Was digging trenches and cant seem to establish a weld pool at least one I can see. Early trials produced trenches with little balls of aluminum filling them, worked with it until I can get a continuous bead that seems really tall and is blackish in color with a pitted looking surface. And I am having the occasional expected bird nests pushing the aluminum, but not too bad really. These weldments look like 40 miles of hammered wolf crap and I am running out of options. Im having hell with this application any advice is welcome that might adress the black pitted color of these weld beads I am getting. Trying to put two pieces of channel flat side to flat side .125" thick 6063 Ally.

Cleaned with SS brush and rubbing alcohol, but the dark color seems to be unavoidable with my current lack of skill and knowledge.

Love this site by the way- thanks for sharing the knowledge, its great....


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here is your problem...

you are using 75/25 and what you need is pure argon.

i will bet that once you make that change, you will be able to dial it in pretty quick

Comments for Hobart 140 and aluminum 6063 HEEELLPP!!!!!!!

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Jan 28, 2014
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Welding 6063 Aluminum NEW
by: Anonymous

The 6063 aluminum alloy is a pain because of the clear anodized finish it's harder than the base metal, ***** go with an Oxy-Acetylene torch rig,
1.clean the weld area with Easy Off,then clean it with Isopropyl Alcohol,& clean w/stainless brush, 2.preheat the area w/a propane torch 5 min.or so, 3.turn off propane & use your torch to heat the weld area until you get a slightly greyish spot, 4.use a Arc Welding stick / rod (Alum#43)made by Radnor Welding Products,....or whom ever you have available at your local welding supply ...when the metal is hot test your stick & Braze in your weld the results are awsome sand off the cooked on flux from the stick, spray aluminum paint to reseal the area & you're done, ... aluminum is hard to work with but this works great... you're welcome
May 17, 2011
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		aluminum and a hobart 140
by: Anonymous

That was it the argon/CO2 75%/25% blend was crap for this application, the 100% Argon did the trick, Cant believe the 25% CO2 had such a dramatic efffect, I did not chande any settings just switched to the pure Argon and the first bead laid was nice clean shinny and looked great. Thanks for th help, I knew argon was "recommended" for aluminum but from now on i will consider it a requirment rather than a reccomendation.The difference was really dramatic and suprised me. I would not hesiate to weld aluminum with my Hobart 140 and a bottle of good clean argon, it worked well and was relatively hastle free once the correct gas was employed.

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