My buddy has a little lincoln electric welder and hes agreed to make some endtanks and new intercooler pipes. My question is what do I need for his wirefed to weld aluminum?

I understand I need wire, and some type of gas. But am I going to have to get him another tip also?

 

he should have some extra tips that came with his welder, just use what ever wire size you choose.

the gas will be the most expensive part... like $100+... maybe just get someone whos setup to do it for you... would cost less

 

no, you don't need another tip as long as the wire is the same gauge. the copper contact tips work the same for alum and steel. However, i just read apparently it is recommended you get a different contact tip (dont know which kind) you could get a flux core self shielded wire if you dont wanna spend the $ on external gas. Make sure there is as little tension as possible on the drive wheels in the welder. but as for shielding gas use 100% argon

 

You'll likely need a special Liner to feed the wire throuth. Aluminum is really does not feed well through mig guns unless you have a seperate spool gun.

 

I've got a little Lincoln welder too. Welding Aluminum with flu-core is not going to be pretty at all in my experience. It can be done pretty good with Argon shielding gas though. I would NOT recommend going with flux core aluminum in my experience it is not going to do a good job. Your welding your charge pipes and that weld has got to be airtight.
I have the flux core aluminum wire and the welder to work with and when I put my intercooler pipin on for my turboD this spring I am going to use the silicon couplers.
oh and P.S. I can weld steel pretty decent on mig with and without gas and I can weld some pretty good stuff on aluminum if I use gas too. Just saying I'm not a total noob to welding.

 

I've never seen flux core aluminum wire. Could someone give a reference for one?
Not that I'd use it... lol

 

now you've got me thinking I've never seen it in stores either...
I found these:
http://www.omnibraze.com/wire.html
http://news.thomasnet.com/fullstory/478912

perhaps the aluminum wire we were using wasn't flux core..... I was at my parents and my stepdad and I were trying to weld with it, it was horrible. I never gave it a second thought or saw the spool.
lol eeehhmmm ya.......

 

Thanks a lot for the advise guys, I'm going to read up on what has been said in this thread a little later. I might end up having someone weld it for me if the gas is expensive.