Welding Tips and Tricks

Hello everyone. I have welded carbon steel (mostly for art pieces for fun) and have recently started welding aluminum. I have been able to weld it descent enough for me at work. I bought a Lincoln 180hd and after a little time playing with the set up, was able to lay down a good three feet of descent welds(.190" thick 6061 aluminum). The next day I went to weld again, and every time I pulled the trigger, the wire melted all the way to the tip and temporarily fused to tip. Over and over again and finally the wire gets all bunched up at feed roller tensioner.
Any body have any idea why the wire just melts away as soon as I start the weld?
Thanks,
Dinger

Welcome to the forum Dinger12. I moved this to the Mig forum where you'll get more views.

Thank you.

Your trying to push aluminum wire through a standard mig gun???

I have not had trouble feeding the wire from the spool through the standard might gun/sleeve.

Well,

Your having trouble now!

That wire bird nesting in front of the drive rollers means that the wire is to soft to push.

If you must do it, Watch this video.

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=cyo ... 4A2FAF43FA

OK - so it's only a feed problem I assume - aluminum will usually need a dedicated drive roller of the correct size so as not to deform it - the torch liner will also want swapping for either teflon or preferably PTFE - keep the torch hose as straight as possible & the tip wants to be either an aluminum specific one of the correct size or if not available where you are go to the next size up in standard tips as the heat so it's a bit loose until the heat builds up during welding - I think that covers the simple setup - don't know your model welder - but traction feed is preferable over single roller / friction - 4roller is even better - & 5356 feeds way better than most others.

He's got a power mig 180.

Get some 5356 wire, .035, and keep your roller pressure lighter than for steel wire.

~John

Thanks for the tips. I'll give them a try.