aluminum

[buckracer24]

hello,i have an old dialarc 250 AC/DC welder with a tig torch on it and was wondering what it would require to weld aluminum?

thanks
Jody

[welderman23]

all you need is filler rods,regulator/flowmeter,argon bottle,beer
and go to town

[buckracer24]

thought i needed high frequency or something

[welderman23]

no you do t need HF to do it .although it is a luxury.
high freq.only allows you to start the arc without touching the base metal. you will have to use the scratch start method,much like arc welding.
for welding aluminum you need to have the machine set to AC not DC
with a pretty good amount of amps.
,and your base metal must be VERY clean

when i tig i always try to weld with the gas off cuz i strike an arc and wonder why it isnt welding right

[FusionKing]

Truely you would get more and better responses if this question was moved to the welding discussions section. If you did not notice they have merged the forums together now and this is actually a new section even tho the old adress puts you here and they are not moderating it either
To answer your question, if your machine is not a tig unit then you will need a torch with a gas valve and a lug made for a torch cable and an argon regulator. Yes you will need high frequency to weld aluminum or you won't be able to maintain an arc. When learning to weld aluminum you really need everything in your favor so trust me when I tell you you might find it possible to weld it without HF but it won't ever be worth a crap untill you know what you are doing first. But I really doubt it could even be done.
Chances are by the time you get it all rigged out you could'a had a real factory tig for about the same money
You can scratch start DC tho and not use HF...it happens everyday

[buckracer24]

ok thanks guys,the welder works fine for tig welding stainless and mild steel but was just curious to know what was involved with aluminum.

[SundownIII]

Buckracer,

Welderman has obviously not tried to weld aluminum with an older transformer machine. On the Dialarc you will need everything FusionKing has mentioned. The HF 15-1 is the recommended HF unit for that machine. You need HF, not only to start the arc (scratch & alum don't mix) but to maintain the arc as the wave cycles from positive to negative.

The newer inverter machines make that +/- transition much faster, thereby they are able to use HF for starting the arc only.

Also, as FusionKing mentioned, the Dialarc is not the machine you want to try to learn aluminum tig on. It is not a squarewave machine, it has no balance control, and it has no provision for varying the amps (foot/finger control). By the time you get all the pieces together, you'd be better off picking up a used Sync 250 and have a "real" tig machine.

[ASKANDY]

I'd have to vote with Sundown on this one. The Dialarc without the HF option would be a pain to use on AC. On DC it's ok but without the HF on AC to stabilize arc at the zero crossing point as it switched polarity every half cycle it would just spit and have constant arc outages. A squarewave machine crosses zero much faster and can in some cases be used with out HF.

Good luck
Andy