Reply to "Learning to TIG aluminum"

For the purpose of info and learning,

Preheating

The need to preheat aluminum prior to joining depends on the welding process, type of alloy, its thickness and ambient temperature. In general, it is accepted that preheating is not usually required with MIG welding until the material thickness exceeds 25 mm. However, some preheat, i.e., 150-200°C will be found beneficial from the point of fact of improving weld quality (with respect to porosity) on material thicknesses in excess of 9 mm.

For AC TIG, preheating is necessary when sections greater than 3-4 mm are welded, to aid fusion without the need to use excessive welding currents.

Just something I found on LINCOLN's site ? Our spec books have info ususally specific to a certain use on a project so they are not really beneficial. I find they are the WISH LIST for something an Engineer dreams up at night that he would like to see in a process. But then cost soo much money that the spec is scraped. So I pulled some thing generic.

Ron