Is there a good cheap way to weld aluminum?

I have a broken Hobart 187 that I don't wanna deal with right now or I'd buy a spool gun. I also have a little Miller wire feed that doesn't allow for gas to be used with it. So my two questions are:

1) Is there a tig welder that can do the job without spending a ton of money on it?

2) Can I use straight CO2 with aluminum? I just need to build a few basic things so I would rather not buy new tanks.

 

No !!! Depends what a Ton of Money is to you .

No!! You can try using CO2 it will make a big mess

Maybe find someone to weld your Aluminum Projects

Fix your Hobart and Borrow a spool Gun

 

How much do you think it would cost to have somebody come out to my house and weld for an hour 5-6 times over the next few months? I was guessing that would cost more than one of the cheap China AC/DC tig welders like the Lotos, AHP, Everlast and so on.

 

Your projects are so big they need to be assembled in place ??

Just what are you building ?

China built stuff seems to either work or not you might get lucky

 

There is no shortcut to welding aluminum properly on the cheap. I had an Everlast, I sold it. Bought a Lincoln square wave AC/DC. The difference was night and day.

 

I'm guessing you had to toss in some money on that deal? I'm in the works for something but I'm in an odd situation where I have plan a and plan b, plan a requires the welder, plan b requires a tow dolly for a car. I may be able to figure something out on a used market AC/DC unit but that means a heavier transformer unit, a used unit, and comes with some other issues as well including no dual voltage and it costing more. I guess I need to really think this over well.

And yes, I'm building a little house inside an aluminum trailer so I need walls welded in there and a ton of things like that done.

 

*****UPDATE to update, see post #19, I actually canceled the order on the AHP due to bad customer support, rigged reviews and $175 shipping charges on warranty work*****

Okay to update I went with the AHP Alphatig 200, for the price it's just unbeatable, $680 plus $30 shipping less 5% cash back on my Amazon card means $680 total for an AC/DC tig welder. I thought about Lincoln as I have a little flux core red box and it's been a trooper for 15 years now. In the end though I need portability and wanted an inverter unit versus a transformer and I can buy two of the Alphatigs for the same price as a Blue or Red box so I saw no compelling evidence beyond anecdotal to justify spending more when many of the machines at twice the price aren't even reviewed as well.

Thanks for all who chimmed in, I'm starking a build soon so will report back so we can call this thread officially "solved".

 

I wish I could weld aluminum... I'm building a bed frame out of aluminum tubing. I'm going to use 3m automotive adhesive and rivets to put it together. Didn't want the weight of wood.

 

Do you have a budget? That AHP is on pre-order sale through Amazon for $710 shipped which is an amazing deal for the money. With that said I've also used this:

$20 Blue Demon BDTP-125-01T Triple Play Low Temp Aluminum-Zinc Brazing Rod 1/8" x 18" 1 Lb Tube,

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MCTUIUN/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It might clean up your seams and make things look nicer and stronger but I would still use the rivets as I wouldn't trust it for anything structural. In a shear (versus pull) capacity rivets are amazing, 310 pounds for 3/16 and 600 for 1/4, I'll be using the latter for putting my flooring down actually.

PS Damn, that's a great idea, I may buy some more supplies to make a bed frame myself while I'm at it.

 

Thanks Tucsonaz for the advice! Yeah 710 is to much. I wish I knew about those welding sticks tho! I'm gonna get some and try it out with future projects!

 

It worked super well on one joint I did but not another, I would make sure to use a hotter gas like mapp and make certain you clean it well first. Good luck and post a picture here of your finished product if you don't mind.

 

https://www.eastwood.com/tig200acdc.html

I bought one of these as a temporary solution until I bought a Miller but I have been pretty impressed.

 

Square wave 200 is $1500. Worth the money, best “entry” level inverter machine for the price in my opinion. Easy to use too. Or look on Craigslist for an ac/dc tig. Or machine big enough to run a 200amp spoolgun. Spoolgun is fast AF.

 

Like this?

 

I love that thing! I love aluminum and that looks great!

 

Yeah, if you can figure out a way to justify the additional double+ price tag I guess that's always an option. For me I could buy two of the AHP machines with the extended warranties and have enough left over for tungsten and filler rod. Another option is to just wait till Miller and Lincoln realize their days of having a cornered market are over and they start dropping prices on consumer units. At the end of the day these China machines are doing a great job and getting a lot of attention while making huge improvements every year. I see nothing to justify Red or Blue over a China machine and trust me I tried HARD!!

 

Yeah! That aluminum bed frame is very similar to the one I'm building.

 

I will try not to hijack the OP’s thread too bad. 2x1x.125” aluminum with a 16ga skin. The skin is riveted on due to the possibility of burn through. I had originally bought 1/8” (.125”) but then realized how heavy it was going to be. 16ga is plenty heavy enough IF you have enough supports to take the actual weight. At the ends (head and foot) are 1x1x.125 angle so I had something to attach the ends of the skin.

Now I might be revisiting the design and chopping the legs off and putting a piece of round tube at the ends so I can use vertical e-track in my trailer with connectors for 2x4 (wood). I should be able to drop the pegs (bars) in the connectors and even pivot the bed up 90 degrees when not in use or lift the whole thing up to ceiling height.

 

Another update, I decided against the AHP, horror stories about customer support and $175 shipping frees for warranty work. I got a deal on the Hazard Fraught Vulcan ProTig 200 and I'm happy I did, amazing one year risk free trial so they clearly are willing to stand behind it and the ability to swap it out locally in under an hour makes it a no brainer!

Stay away from AHP, Everlast, Longevity, basically anything that has the power switch on the rear of the machine. Or, you can buy an AD/DC Tig machine in lots of 10 for $310 direct from China so start a group buy and go that route. I will update again if there are any issues.

 

As long as the China Built Machines work all is Good the problem has always been Tech Support and warranty .

All Warranty claims it is always the end user responsibility to get it to the repair center .

Shipping back and forth across the country once is bad enough .

Waiting to hear if The Vulcan Line at Harbor Freight if you get cash back or store credit if you return the machine anddo not want another one.