Weld Aluminum with a Harbor Freight Mig

[@shortattentionspangarage1312]

Who cares how beautiful the weld is, you saved me hundreds of dollars I didn't have making this hack work on my HF 170 MIG. Thanks much!

[@oneangrycanadian6205]

I mig weld aluminum for a living. I’m a fitter welder and build all kinds of things. Anybody who is gonna weld aluminum the best this is to take the clear coat off the material. Believe it or not it takes more heat to burn that off than it does to melt the aluminum. The next thing when prepping your material is to bevel all the welding surfaces. Then when welding you will have better penitration and a way stronger weld. Just trying to give some helpful information. Great job on your video my friend!!!

[@curtislathrop]

I mig weld for a living in a shop mild steel , and galvanized and wanted to teach myself how to weld aluminum thanks for the information also we do stainless which I have never welded yet can’t wait to learn tho

[@josephwalker8021]

Great tips and explanation of an oversized tip

[@louisramirez3128]

Hey Mike, Great Stuff. Thanks for that. You did what seems like a really good joint fairly easy. I appreciate your Skill & Advice . . . GA - USA

[@SiTengoTiempo]

Great video. Learned a lot. Takes the mystery out of welding aluminum. Thanks!

[@christianeriksson4733]

Thank you so much for this video man. It´s informative and practical as well as it is explaining some of the theory. You´re humble as well which presents a great character. Now I feel more comfortable taking the step towards MIG and aluminum. Greetings from Sweden.

[@juanarreola3338]

Very cool. Thanks for putting this video together. Very helpful.

[@crankygrandpatech3894]

DUDE! thanks, well done, this is exactly what I need. JUST TO STICK TWO PIECES of aluminum together! I have watched so many videos on how to weld aluminum and yours is the ticket!! I have the HF welder and 100% argon (wanted to practice tig) but a DC welder. Fun for the weekend now!!

[@BOREDANDWELLBORED]

Can this be done without argon gas tank? Just using flux core mig, no gas

[@jobbernog6968]

Perfect video! Informative and straight to the point.

[@billarroo1]

I got the same welder, I will try your idea, THANKS

[@Funlinkto]

One of the best meaningful video thank you so much

[@trekp1]

Thanks man. Picked up a few tips. Literally I went and got some oversized tips. Also I never leave the gun wire tangled but i never have it perfectly straight. I tried that, I think it might have been just a tab bit smoother maybe. Thanks man.

[@renestolp8]

Thank you ,very, very much!! I almost bought another welder.........You saved me a bunch of money because I already have the harbor freight welder which I like very much. Rene, happy ( ier)new year to all!

[@thepragmatic6383]

Thank you very much for this information, it allowed me to make a wise choice. I have a heat pump bracket to weld on, but I only have a 120v mig welder. This welder looks a lot like the one in your video and comes from Canadian Tire, which is the Canadian equivalent of Harbor Freight. I never use argon, since I use flux cored wire, so instead of spending money on outfitting my welder for this one job, I think I'll bring the support to a specialist shop this time. .

[@loganwork7024]

This was exactly what I was wanting to know. Thanks

[@Frankivity326]

some good pointers here - just got this unit and was curious about aluminum capabilities

[@hopinmytimemachine986]

Great video because I was struggling a bit then realized I forgot to switch my polarity 😅

[@user-bahbah_mahmoud]

thanks , but you are really a good teacher, thanks again.

[@Bats.8924]

You saved me lots of money! Thank you!

[@markhubanks3715]

Thank You for the video and information, answered alot of my questions, Nice Job!

[@fourscarriers7551]

love the video. is there anyway that you can show how to set up the wire and how to set up the gas

[@VietTran-lg4dh]

Great video!

[@1HotRodHudson]

Mike, great video, lots of practical knowledge provided & right to the point. Certainly appreciate it!

[@roelanddekonink9768]

Mike, the use of an teflon liner will help the wire feed mutch more than the standard liner.

[@Derpherppington]

Thanks for sharing a lot of value informations

[@frankmmiii]

Thank You for the video. Not that I need to weld any aluminum right now but it is good to know and it makes the Chicago Electric MIG 170 240v welder I am about to walk out the door and pick up, more versatile. I am just a DIYer and enjoy doing things myself but not enough to go out and buy an expensive Miller or Hobart welder. My Harbor Freight Chicago Electric 90 amp welder has sat about a year since I last used it but it still works great. I'm really buying the MIG 170 for the shielding gas and DC negative option(less splatter hopefully).

[@mr2001sc]

Very helpful nice job keep up the ggod work! 👌

[@johnovermeyer1793]

Thank you very much, very informative.

[@Mrcaffinebean]

Excellent video, I learned so much!

[@oldmountainmarineandmetals9736]

Thanks buddy, that was the most informative video that I've watched since I'm trying to do this with a Lincoln 110 and argon mix right now but, I was concerned about your health while watching, you should really wear a half mask respirator while welding aluminum, I got a pretty inexpensive one from Eastwood that works great with the helmet

[@jozyphilyaw9339]

Good job man thanks for the info

[@mountaintruth1deeds533]

Change to a Teflon liner, especially for regular 10' stingers, feeds way better and doesn't contaminate the wire. Takes 5 minutes once cut to length.

[@s.michlin3321]

Note: This video and comment are extremely informatieve. I have been a welder since 1973 on and off. Where do you get a teflon liner that fits the Chicago 270 and are there instructions on how to change the liner? Great idea u have. It is probably easy to do, I will check utube for a video on changing the liner of Chicago 170. Question,. some of the other welding machines on Amazon use a graphite/graphine liner. Is graphine better than a teflon liner? Does the Chicago use a different process for welding like DC than the cheap Chinese welders on Amazon. One excellent quality on the Chicago 170 welder is that it has dials to control wire speed. The cheap Chinese aluminum capable welders mostly have a graphic interface screen and have preset settings. Instead of controlling wire speed and power these other units have a setting for thickness of metal you are welding and the welding machine chooses your wire speed. No direct wire speed control unless you use a spool gun which costs more and is limited to small wire spools which cost more. Mainly, the thing I do not like about the Graphic User Interface is that in 1, 5, 10 or 15 years the and the GUI fails, the entier welding machine will be useless. So, that is why i like this Chicago welder. I have one for over a year. It is lightweight to carry around. For thicker material i need my Millermatic welder but I rarely use the expensive welder because it is so large to move around ( I keep it upstairs at my house).. I do most of my welding outdoors for safety reasons. I am considering getting another Chicago 170 and having one dedicated to Aluminum. Thank you for making this video.

[@s.michlin3321]

I meant to say at the end of my reply that the CHicago 170, by not having a GUI has a dial for controlling wire speed and push-bottons to control the Amps. One thing that i will be researching is why it is that the newer Chinese welders have a voltage output control as well as amps. I can only guess that this is a tweek to better control the heat with a finer tuner knob than amps. But i will find out why.

[@MonstroLab]

@@s.michlin3321any luck finding the correct size liner for your CE 170? I need to find out for my 170 too. Welding City has .040-.045 teflon . Im thinking larger diameter the better but no clue yet.

[@takinashot-c2s]

Mike: what exact welder is that and do you know if they still sell it? or one like it? and what is involved with getting the gas and tank and how expensive is it thanks brian

[@misterbulger]

I need to tack a leak in the bottom of an aluminum john boat... I have a 110v harbor freight flux core. Would it just burn thru on the lowest setting?

[@adamwright4969]

Good job

[@rayjguerrero]

Did you have to change out the inner liner for aluminum wire?

[@lukerichard1709]

This was fantastic

[@alleonidovich2571]

What about the gas? The most important thing is not covered in this video. How did you hook up the gas?

[@Garminrules]

True...100% argon

[@halliwaxbasementbuilds]

Thank you for doing this. I’m a prop maker and need to make simple welds like you just did. My only issue is I don’t have a 220v setup… did you ever attempt this setup with 110v? Thank you for taking the time and doing this video, exactly what I’m looking for

[@testchannel1834]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/govFen2QmsSMetU. this video will solve your prop making issues, Your Welcome

[@chriswest5360]

If you have a 110v mig welder with the proper gas setup and all I don’t think it would be much different although most mig welders I’ve seen are 220 and not 110

[@jasonlopez4855]

Good video 📹👍🏽

[@g41thomas]

Helpful video

[@zakerman2893]

I’m trying to figure out how to weld very thin sheet metal aluminum will this work or will I just burn thru instantly? It’s automotive sheet metal if it helps

[@willhall7777]

How thick? It's really hard to weld thin aluminum with spool or mig. Best way is probably tig welding the aluminum. That's probably not an answer you will like....I wouldn't like it. Tig takes more skill but you can have a lot more control over what your doing. For example with spool gun welding you have only one way to set it up for the thickness your welding on... Once you have your settings right then you just hit the trigger and roll with it. Tig you can have a petal to control the heat and speed you'll be traveling. Tig is more "adjustable". It's also a sucky answer if you don't have a lot of money cause the machines are costly... The consumables are costly. You'll wanna find a machine that will weld at low amps if your welding super thin materials. Sorry I'm not familiar with how thin automotive sheets are. Hope this helps.

[@Literature-ft8ru]

Only concern is aluminum is a neurotoxic metal. The fumes are probably 5x more toxic than your average welding fumes

[@brianmontgomery3478]

I can't find flux core aluminum anywhere

[@Derpherppington]

Does it have to be 220 welder

[@ratbike9883]

Awesome!

[@roguethrottle]

good video!

[@011CJ]

Very interesting

[@bomason7074]

Very cool!!!

[@stephenjoiner3]

How strong is the weld? I'm welding up a transom for a boat and looking for an easy and cheap way to weld aluminum

[@michaelh7527]

If you don't have much in the way of welding skills, I highly recommend letting a shop do the welds. My brother decided to try and save some money by borrowing a welder and doing the work himself. It was extremely inconsistent and the transom welds cracked while getting on a plane while out fishing. The motor didn't fall off nor did he sink. But he took it to a welding shop who said he was lucky the entire transom didn't break off with such bad welds and lack of support brackets in the middle.

[@Derpherppington]

@@michaelh7527welding here and there small projects not welding something as life support or structural support like your idiot brother . If your tip is to bring to the welding shop to get charge up the ass then why tf you’re here for.

[@jackas1583]

Whats your thought on using this to build an aluminum trailer using 3/16 aluminum angles?

[@theamaturepro]

I wouldn't recommend it... I have a HH aluminum trailer that's starting to have issues at the welds after about 10 years of regular use. For instance, the hinge for the back ramp broke off. It's a very high stress point, so it makes sense, but if that's with commercial professional welds from a high end company. I would never build a trailer out of aluminum with a chap machine and lack of knowledge. I know this method he shows works, but in an engineering course in college we discussed welding aluminum and methods available to amateurs. Aluminum is a very tricky science and there's a lot of variables involved that welders like this can't actually accomplish. The number one flaw in the various methods of welding aluminum at home is strength. It's very, very difficult and usually unlikely to get a strong weld that wont fail. I wouldn't weld anything that could put anyone in danger if it fails. I hope this helps.

[@mountaintruth1deeds533]

Definitely use the stiffer wire...

[@raydelarbolaezramos9923]

👍👍👍👍

[@DaveyD71]

Using dirty aluminum and not preheating the aluminum is setting yourself up for failure

[@watchguy7986]

Thank you, looking at the harbor freight titanium and can I not do that with 110v? Thanks in advance

[@iamthemaninde]

What wire are you running through when you weld aluminum?