Hello tcoyen, I believe the answer to your question is yes. There are a few things that you should take into consideration in the process, you should probably run as small of a diameter of wire as is feasible, probably .030, since you mentioned that you are planning on anodizing the finished parts you will also want to weld these with 5356 alloy, if you try to use 4043 the finished weld when it is anodized will turn dark. I am making an assumption here that the pipe is possibly 6061 T6 and the plate might possibly be the same alloy. I would also suggest an Alumimix shielding gas as the addition of a percentage of helium into the weld zone will allow a better heat transfer through the arc and help to minimize the rough finish that you have mentioned. Make sure that the parts are free from any sorts of chemicals from the cutting or shearing process (oils, cutting fluids, etc.). If at all possible use a little bit of preheat concentrated on the plate that you are attaching to the pipe. It sounds to me like you may have purchased a Miller MP350, if so, you already know that there are lots of parameters that you can mess around with when you are setting up the machine. The ones that will typically make a big difference, are setting the machine for the correct wire type(alum), size(.030), and series, (5xxx), I believe there is also an item referred to as sharp arc, adjusting the numerical value on this function controls the focus of the arc column, you can either spread the focus out or bring it in, I have found a setting of between 25 and 30 to work pretty well in most cases. Then of course, you have the arc length and wire speed setting, a lower arc length setting will cause the arc to pinch-off on the end of the wire closer to the weld, a higher setting will allow that pinch-off to occur further from the puddle. In your case you will probably want to set this so that the pinch occurs as far away from the puddle as possible without burning the wire to the end of the contact tip, you'll have to play with this a bit. Finally, the wire speed setting will determine how much heat is actually delivered to the arc and how large of a puddle will be generated. When you have the arc pinching off higher above the puddle you will generally have a smoother looking finished bead, if it is pinching off closer to the puddle this will usually result in a coarser looking bead. Using a push angle on the gun and possibly a slight oscillation should also help to tie in the edges of the weld and deliver a flatter weld profile. I hope this helps. Regards, aevald
Forum