Help with spoolgun aluminum welds

[Yofish]

"Other factors also can be responsible for inadequate shielding, such as contaminated shielding gas or hydrocarbon contaminants on the surface of the filler wire or parent material.

But if the smut is just aluminum and magnesium oxide, why is it black?

These substances are white. The particle size of the oxides in weld smut is so small that it acts as a light trap and appears black."

When you're using 5k series wire, you will never get rid of all smut.

With all do respect to the guy in the video, if I tried the ScotchBrite tick in the gun barrel, I'd have a nice plastic molten goo to deal with!

The wire curling is common with small wire and can be obviated somewhat by using the tightest tip you can as long as it doesn't create other problems. 5356 is much stiffer than 4043 and if there is a choice, make sure your liner is the right diameter. I can say honestly that I've never had a bad roll of wire. Recently I ran some Chinese stuff that was as good as any.

What thegary said about wire speed is true and his advice to stick with 3/64 is sound.

You must post more close-up pics.

[TheGary]

Well are you welding with 5356 yet?

[zoama]

Well are you welding with 5356 yet?

I tig welded my boat stringers with 5356. My spool gun has to be sucking air somewhere because I've been through every setting systematically several times with the same results. It can't be the gas since I use the same bottle for tig.
I haven't been out to the shop for a while since my best friend and fishing partner got out of the fence and was run over and killed by some a-hole who didn't bother to stop.

[DaveO]

Sorry to hear about your best friend and fishing partner.

[Rambozo]

My condolences, as well.

[Rugar]

That sucks Zoama. Sorry to hear that.

[everlastsupport]

Yea, that does suck. I lost mine a couple years ago. Due to my age opted for no more. But you are probably young and will get a new fishing partner your old one will approve of. Sorry to hear about it and down here they would not stop either.

[zoama]

Yea, that does suck. I lost mine a couple years ago. Due to my age opted for no more. But you are probably young and will get a new fishing partner your old one will approve of. Sorry to hear about it and down here they would not stop either.

I'm 50, she was 2. It's illegal to hit a dog and not stop here in South Carolina. I only wish they had stopped to give me a chance to save her.

[Kempy]

I tig welded my boat stringers with 5356. My spool gun has to be sucking air somewhere because I've been through every setting systematically several times with the same results. It can't be the gas since I use the same bottle for tig.
I haven't been out to the shop for a while since my best friend and fishing partner got out of the fence and was run over and killed by some a-hole who didn't bother to stop.

I have being reading this post on spool gun and aluminum welding on mine it was the gas flow was to low on tig welding at was set to 25 to 30 SCFH @ 50 PSIG for aluminum and had to go to 50 to 55 SCFH @ 50 PSIG for the spool gun to get it to work with 5356 but 4043 does work a lot nicer. Sorry about you fishing buddy, had my buddy for 17 years still miss the old girl after two years had a heart attack, dog have them too.

[zoama]

I hate to throw money at problems but I could not make the other spool gun function correctly. It sucked air and had erratic wire feed speed. I tried and tried but couldn't correct those problems.
I purchased the same basic spool gun from Mundaka but it has a much nicer one piece lead, same as a regular mig gun and uses common Tweco front end parts. I changed them to the screw on 23 style that I use on my Profax mig gun.
My skill isn't there yet and I'm guessing at pulse settings but I at least have a starting point now. I also learned from an old Esab chart that 5356 needs lower voltage and higher wire speed than 4043.
Here are a couple of pics I took about two months ago when I got the new spool gun and started testing again
I've been working a lot more lately so I haven't had much testing time but I think I'll catch on quicker now that the spool gun problem is solved.
If anyone would like to share pulse settings for .090 aluminum I'd love to test them. I might even learn to weld in a straight line.

[everlastsupport]

I hate to throw money at problems but I could not make the other spool gun function correctly. It sucked air and had erratic wire feed speed. I tried and tried but couldn't correct those problems.
I purchased the same basic spool gun from Mundaka but it has a much nicer one piece lead, same as a regular mig gun and uses common Tweco front end parts. I changed them to the screw on 23 style that I use on my Profax mig gun.
My skill isn't there yet and I'm guessing at pulse settings but I at least have a starting point now. I also learned from an old Esab chart that 5356 needs lower voltage and higher wire speed than 4043.
Here are a couple of pics I took about two months ago when I got the new spool gun and started testing again
I've been working a lot more lately so I haven't had much testing time but I think I'll catch on quicker now that the spool gun problem is solved.
If anyone would like to share pulse settings for .090 aluminum I'd love to test them. I might even learn to weld in a straight line.

I will get the starting range my son uses. We do 4043 all the time and look great. No spatter. We have never got it to spray with aluminum either.

[zoama]

I will get the starting range my son uses. We do 4043 all the time and look great. No spatter. We have never got it to spray with aluminum either.

Any luck finding those settings? Do you use different settings for 5356?
The forum has that jumping cursor problem again where midway through typing a sentence the cursor jumps to the line above.

[zoama]

I will get the starting range my son uses. We do 4043 all the time and look great. No spatter. We have never got it to spray with aluminum either.

Any new developments?