Welding Stainless Steel & Aluminum Tubing

N

nymack66

God
I am on a venture to LEARN to weld Stainless&Aluminium tubing. I am thinking on building a Radar Arch for the V.
I don't know where to start in regards to buying to correct welder for this job.
Any ideas are always welcome, I need to purchase a Welder first and foremost can anyone recommend what is consider to be the basic,mid or top end welder for this job?
My local access is Sears, Harbour Freight and Northern Tools etc ...
 
I have a friend that does it for a living(he's in the pics I posted about wheelin), the TIG welder he uses cost about $2500, I asked him about lower priced ones, he siad they won't do the job. I don't think a mig welder will do it either
 
I think you could possibly use a MIG weld to do both jobs. However you will not get a clean splatter free type weld like a TIG weld in stainless. Keep in mind that setting up a MIG weld to do both materials you will have 2 different types of gas mixes and 2 different wires (I'm pretty sure on this).

I think that the MIG process is actually easier with aluminum because the filler material is feed in mechanically (but I could be wrong).

I used my MIG welder for stainless last spring. I had to change the wire and gas mix to weld stainless. The work came out pretty good with good penetration but not very pretty with splatter. I made a support for the roof top dingy davit for the Rosborough.

I don't weld for a living but have a brother in law that is a high purity, X ray quality pipe welder/fitter.
 
http://www.lincolnelectric.com/knowledge/articles/content/compactmig.asp

Here's a good article about aluminum welding.....if you can get a mig setup your welds will be ALOT prettier eventually. Sounds like you are doing this for the experience so this advice may not be useful but if you are doing it for economies sake I recommend that you get all your material, cut it and fit it getting all your angles right and then take it to a local shop and have them run it off....most of the work is in the fitting and a good welder who already has the machine set up can run it off in not time.
 
What a lot of the guys are saying that you need to tig them if you want a good lookin job, I would rec a Miller (brand) thre are others but when I was at the Navy Yard they used Millers.
 
This is something like the unit that I have from Lincoln.
http://www.mylincolnelectric.com/Catalog/equipmentdatasheet.aspx?p=42422

My unit is an older model of the one above. You need a dryer type outlet with a 50 amp circuit breaker. Using a 230 volt set up the penetration is much better then a 120 volt machine.

It has worked fairly well but it's duty cycle is small and not geared toward production type work. I have welded stuff for the tractors (weight box/front loader/3 point hitch assembly), car stuff like mufflers,gas tanks and trailer stuff. Just started doing stainless steel last year. My brother in law was fairly impressed with job the little machine did as the splatter wasn't to bad. No doubt about a TIG machine will give a much prettier weld however TIG welding is a bit harder for the novice.
I actually enjoyed TIG welding better then MIG. It was a lot like oxy acetylene welding with a filler rod. I was never qualified to do TIG it just came to me naturally.
 
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Even a thief needs the right equipment and the knowledge of how to use them to be successful. IMO if the welder was free you would still require a pipe bender, drill press, and a crash course on how to use it all. I am like you. I would love to learn how to use the Tig. I have a portable Lincoln stick welder and access to a Mig and I can put two pieces of steel together but that is about as far as it goes. I have an aquaintance that built a 24' or so aluminum cat boat and did it all with a Mig. I think you need a spool gun attachment to use the mig on aluminum. The cost of the anodized aluminum is pretty steep to be making many trial pieces too. Factor in the cost of those do-overs and it gets real expensive. The advice fo fab it up and take it to a pro seems sound to me.
 
Thanks for all the information, I will sit tight and shop around for a deal on a used arch and modify it if I have to. I have since selected the services of a professional welder who is willing and does on the site aluminum and stainless welding for 80 an hour. To me this is worth it. I will prep everything myself so the welding time is kept to minimum.
Found a use one on craigs for 450 its 84" wide needs to be cut and welded to fit the V, however I still 2 cheap :)
http://orlando.craigslist.org/boa/1652660871.html
 
if you buy go with Miller i have both the Miller and the Lincoln, the Miller is a much better built welder an if you buy the right Miller you can TIG ,MIG or Stick with it most will even run a spool gun to use aluminum, copper, or stainless in a clean weld as long as you use 100% argon. you can use reg 70/30 or 80/20 gas but your welds will just be black and will require polishing with a wire brush and steel wool. aluminum requires alot of wire speed / feed and mid temp. stainless mid speed and mid temp. copper high speed / feed and low temp. but only buy a Miller. you will thank me later.

here's one of the Millers i have but i like my 15 yr old Miller Pro 485 better

here's the newer of my millers

http://www.millerwelds.com/products/mig/millermatic_350_350p/

i have the 350P series.
 
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