Brent Philion wrote:
With the lack of an AC tig machine and an AC inverter appearing to not
be in the cards in the near future i"m looking at using Oxy/Acetylene to
do the al Welding due to the availability of an OA rig. Mainly i used it
for cuttingbut thats not to say its impractical for welding. If i
remember right OA has been used for Al welding for a long time
specifically in the aviation industry.

Compared to TIG how hard is OA welding of aluminum and are there any
special types of requirements for doing it? The only OA welding i would
be doing would be on Al and the rest of the time it would be used for
heat/cutting

I already have an OA torch (Cheap Harris style kit) but stumbled across
a real Victor 100 Handle Might i be better off getting a fresh welding
tip for the victor 100? than the giant beast of this harris one?

I will likely never weld larger than 1/4" with most work being smaller
than that (1/8" to 1/16")

the Victor 100 seems to be the most like the tig torch i'n used to
compared to the big beast of the current torch. If thats the case than
has anyone used gas quick connect fittings to swap torches and are those
reliable or am i looking to blow myself up

BLowing myself or the shop/house up is EXTREMELY LOW on my list of
priorities

So from what i Gather from what everyone has said the only differences
and things needed to OA weld Aluminum on top of what i currently have are

1. ALuminum welding flux

2. Upgraded Eye protection to protect against Sodium Metal flares.

3. Possibly a better means of cleaning the AL before welding (acetone?)

4. Better ventilation/fume extraction because some of the stuff coming
off the weld will be really toxic stuff (or at least stuff best left
outside of my lungs) And stuff more Caustic than say a plain old Cigarette


For question 2 will an autodarkening Welding helmet in the OFF position
(Shade 5) cut it for getting rid of sodium flare? (I have a Miller Xli
helmet already and if it will work i'll be happy)

Otherwise my eyes and ears have served my great for my 26 years so far
and i'd like to at least have them in decent shape for 3 times the 26
theyve done. I'll accept slowly starting to fall apart at age 78 but i'd
just as soon be nice to my eyes and ears and such before then

Safety equipment to me is not a cost its an investment in the quality of
my work and in the preservation of my keester to weld again another day.

As for doing it its not that much harder than TIG and the added
difficulty does not seem to be enough to justify my running out and
buying an AC tig Capable machine to replace my XMT. the technique IS
different but its close enough that I should have minimal adjustment
pains compared to say the jump form Stick to TIG

Am i basically on the right path with the Synopsis i've came up with here?

By the way Thanks to everybody for all the info


Brent Philion
Ottawa Canada