Reducing Consumable Tips for Mig

By alumtuna Date 11-17-2003 01:24

Hello All,
Taked to my local guy about reducing weld tip consumables on my MIG. Welding inside fillet weld on .250 thk 5052 Al w/ E5356 w/ Argon. Use many tips (2-3 per 1 lb spool .035 diam wire). Any ideas to reduce the burn back of the tip. Have the tip reset into the nozzle about 3/16 to 1/4 into the gun. Im keeping the nozzle tip as close as possible (to reduce amperage) to the work also. Need to push the work for better penetration. Tryied also a nozzle for inside welding shaped like an upside down V. What else can I try? Would increasing wire diameter help? Anything else i should try?

Thanks

By sparx

Date 11-17-2003 16:40

Aluminum reacts a lot differently than steel wire does. The Tip to work distance can be increased dramatically without having voltage/amperage problems since this doesn't preheat the wire as much as with steel . There are a couple of reasons that aluminum will burn back. the obvious ones are not enough wire (speed to low) or too much voltage (heat to much). these are easy to fix, by obviously an adjustment. The other reasons for burnbacks, is that the heat required to weld aluminum is much more than that of steel, and this causes the tip to contract around the wire, creating resistance and with aluminum being a soft product, makes it harder to push. I think the easiest way to solve your problem, is move a little further from your workpiece, and adjust your wire feed and voltage.
hope it helps.

By TRC

Date 11-17-2003 20:27

Hey Alumatuna, when are you getting the burn back? If it's when you first start your arc try a little striking motion as if you were stick welding. If it's as your welding see sparx post. Don't expect to get good perforamce out of the last 1/3 of the spool, the wire is spooled at such small diameter that it starts acting up with worse feeding performance then what you had to start with. Also check the wire as it comes out of the spool without letting it contact the feed rolls. If it is wavey try another brand of wire. And try a longer arc length.When I buy 1 lb spools I always figure 2 tips per spool. Sometimes they can be salvaged.
Get yourself a set of those tip cleaner drill bits that come as a pin vice. I use those and also keep a .056 reamer in it when doing .047 wire. You may want to try using .045 tips for your .035 wire. I recently finished a D17.1 job (pre Aerowave) with 4043, .047 at 25.6 volts and could only get about 15" of weld before I had to change tips (upper limit of electrode). Stopping as soon as you see a feed problem helps in salvaging tips. Don't wait until it burns back and melts the tip.
Hope this helps and you have my condolences for having to weld with 5356- Ted

By DGXL

Date 11-17-2003 21:24

A good observation by Ted.

It is common to go one size over on contact tips when spray arcing any material to avoid the tip pinching the electrode as the gun or torch heats up, even with water cooled torches or guns. This works very well on steel also.

I don't particularly care for small diameter electrode formats for the reasons noted above. The cast and helix of those small spools really make life interesting as a welder when you can see the wire exiting the tip like a pig tail. Sometimes the gun has to be oscillated to compensate for this condition. If business picks up try to get a wire feeder that uses larger diameter spools or coils.