Welding Tips and Tricks

Hello,
I'm new to the site. Just wondering if you ever heard of cobra welding torch. Also your opinion on them welding aluminum?
Says you can weld aluminium with oxegen/accetalene and tig rod.
Thank You in advance.

The Cobra leads are the stuff!! They are perfect for aluminum! They are rather large but very functional. I have two on the MP350 Lincolns that we run just for aluminum. Both have the Cobra leads. I have had zero problems and am going on 3 years of use in manufacture setting.

I know this is an older thread but I think he was asking about a Cobra 2000 gas torch not a tig torch.

The subject area is tig so I doubt that you would have gotten much of a response here. But maybe I can help.

I own a Cobra 2000 aka Henrob torch and it works really well on thin aluminum. For thicker aluminum...I'm talking 1/8 and higher, then I tig every time. The welding of thicker material ( aluminum or steel) with a torch is a real pain as the thicker stuff is such a good heat sink it absorbs tons of heat before it starts to be able to be welded. The Cobra torch has a higher heat output than a regular torch due to its mixing of the gas inside the torch head. Even so, it takes a long time to heat up thicker aluminum to start welding it. So I recommend tigging anything over 1/8 inch thick. I prefer the ability of electrical welding to generate heat in a short amount of time in a small area like mig or tig on thicker materials.

For sheet aluminum, that's when the Cobra comes out. You do have to use aluminum flux to weld aluminum with the Cobra. The flame is so soft and smooth that you can weld without fear of blowing a hole. Very controllable and very smooth welding sheet aluminum. It also welds thin wall aluminum tubing well. Again, flux is needed.

Some old timers hate it because it looks different or they say it is too heavy. For me, it is perfect. Uses a lot less gas than a standard torch too.

Overall, I highly recommend the Cobra / Henrob torch.