I have a harbor freight 90 amp flux core wire feed welder and I can eaisily weld on steel but when I try to do aluminum it always burns right through can anyone help me out.

heres the welder http://www.harborfreight.com/c...44567

 

I work in a machine shop, we have just about every type of welder you could think of… Mig, Tig, Stick, Wire Feed (flux core). If I had to guess I would say that you are not changing the wire in you welder when you try to go from steel to aluminum. When you weld aluminum with a wire feed welder, you have to use aluminum flux core wire. Here’s the problem. The smallest spool of flux core aluminum wire is a 50 pound spool (yours takes a 2). You really are best to leave any aluminum work to someone that has a tig. It can be mig-ed with a spool gun, but it will turn out so much better when you use the tig. Just my $0.02 Hope this helps.

 

oh ok thanks... so your saying that I cant use something like this http://store.weldingdepot.com/....html ?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by LShatchie &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I have a harbor freight 90 amp flux core wire feed welder and I can eaisily weld on steel but when I try to do aluminum it always burns right through can anyone help me out.

heres the welder http://www.harborfreight.com/c...44567 </TD></TR></TABLE>

you need wire, and the wire sleeve in the mig welder itself. Also you need to reverse the polarity of the machine i think, i am not sure on this though. All i know is that i tried to weld some aluminum a month ago with my MIG and i contaminated the liner with steel wire lube. So much for that liner.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by snoochtodanooch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

you need wire, and the wire sleeve in the mig welder itself. Also you need to reverse the polarity of the machine i think, i am not sure on this though. All i know is that i tried to weld some aluminum a month ago with my MIG and i contaminated the liner with steel wire lube. So much for that liner. </TD></TR></TABLE>

how do I reverse the polarity? where can I get the wire? there has to be some way I can weld aluminum

 

The aluminum wire on that site is not flux core. Unless you have a wire feed welder with an optional argon tank, you are out of luck.

 

With the welder you have, you can't weld aluminum. The minimum you will need is a MIG unit with 100% argon. Once you get a MIG welder and your argon, you'll need at the very least an aluminum kit for it consisting of a teflon gun liner and smooth rollers for the feeder so that it doesn't deform the soft aluminum wire. The better choice is a spool gun. The teflon liner setup works OK but you have to be careful to keep the cable almost straight or the aluminum wire will ball up. If You should also use a tip .005 - .010 larger than the wire you are using because the aluminum wire has a habit of expanding and getting stuck in the tip, thus welding the tip shut. 110V flux core welders are good for mild steel only.

 

wow I had no idea that I couldnt weld aluminum with this welder, I probably would have re considered on buying it if I knew that... o well too late now

 

I just bought a Lincoln SP135T .... because it says right there on the box that you can weld aluminum. I tried, and Its a bitch. I finished the cage and the car is done so now I'll convert the machine (the rest of the way) and set down with a pile of scrap aluminum to figure it out. You really need to get a MIG unit. The flux core is a good learning machine IMHO.