Does any welder like Mig Welding Thick, (1/2 inch +) Aluminum?
I have never met any, including myself! The smoke, heat, blinding brightness, warping, gun jamming and feeding problems, water cooled, air cooled, cracking, wet in, pre heat, post heat, speed of wire feed, clean, clean ,clean, absolute destruction of clothing and consumables, etc... There are so many technical challenges and design paramiter obstacles, in my opionion it is one of the most challenging areas in welding and inspection to get really great at doing on a consistent basis. I have talked about several issues regarding Aluminum Welding Challenges on this forum and at AWS meetings. There are always vigorous discussions about welding technique, design applications and paramiters. One of the coolest things about being able to weld thick Aluminum is the field application, because thick Alm is usually used in the military, Tanks, APC's, Gun Mounts, Missels, Rockets, Airplanes, UAV's, s, Submarines, ROV's, etc... All the cool stuff in my opinion!

I Just wanted to share some results we are getting on a 1 inch thick Aluminum 6061 T6 Job.
We are useing a Millermatic 350-P Mig Welder,with the XR Aluminum Pro Push Pull Gun (Greatest machine I have used for Mig welding ALM). in the Pulse mode. We are running the wire feed at 600 inches per minute with .3/64th diameter, ER5356 wire, 100% Argon gas.We are able to lay in single passes at 7/16 fillet ,8 inches long. We are able to keep the interpass temp well below 250 degrees. The weld looks really great with good wet in at both toes and a good throat/face and not a lot of smut on the surface. We are useing our Pulse Puddle Arc Welding Vibratory Stress Relieving Machines also.We have had these frames pull and crush tested and they have passed both tests. When we cut the weld in half to examine the penetration we were seeing about .250-.300 depth of penetration. The customer is really happy with our results and has placed a large order with us.

This was something that about 3 welders and myself worked on setting up these parameters to achive these results. A lot is trail, error, research, reading, testing and patientce which in our industry we are never allowed to have very much of!