Those welds look great! For my build, my plan is doing most everything in aluminum as well. Don't have the van yet - but just picked up a spool gun for my Lincoln. Welding aluminum definitely has a learning curve. Found the aluminum really heats up during a weld, you definitely need to speed up. I now have a bunch of interesting looking molten puddles on the concrete. How are you doing the preheat - does that help with blow-outs? How difficult is it to get a straight assembly?
thanks, Mark
Mark,
Thanks a lot it's been a struggle that's for sure and I'm still far from proficient haha I have my days of frying tips and blowing holes still.
Good on you for starting to practice early it'll make a world of difference!
For the preheat I've started using just a regular old map gas torch and get the joint a few hundred degrees, not scalding just really getting it beyond touchable but not turning any colors. (No clue if this is right but it's been helping) it's mostly helped with the starts, my bead has less of a mound at the beginning. It's taken me countless errors in my values on the machine to get what I 'think' is a good weld and even then I really don't know if it's truest correct but stuffs been holding.
Considering I don't have a welding table or really any true flat surface to clamp off. Getting stuff square is really hard haha and really I'm not loosing sweat over it as long as it does what I need.
Something I have noticed is your tacks and beads will mess with your joint. The weld shrinks in the direction of travel if that makes since and I'll use that to my advantage after checking square and noticing something is off after a tack or opposite bead.
-allen
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