Flux or gas?

[GEM]

Hi all,

I'm working on a project in which I need to weld some 16ga mild steel to aluminized exhaust pipe of about the same thickness. (Basically I'm welding some baffles inside the pipe - has nothing to do with exhaust other than that's the material I have.) Given that the pipe is aluminized (not aluminum!), should I use flux-core wire or will solid+gas work?

Thanks,

Gary

[Bowtieman31]

If it were mine, I'd use solid wire and gas. I think you'd get cleaner welds and less chance of burn through.
Just one of many opinions out there.

[GEM]

Thanks for the input, Bowtie. As oppsed to what is preferred, my real question is will solid+gas even work given that the pipe is aluminized - I'm not sure I'll get a clean weld because of the aluminized coating. If I can use solid+gas that is certainly the way I would prefer to go for the reasons you stated.

Thanks

[lars66]

If it were mine, I'd use solid wire and gas. I think you'd get cleaner welds and less chance of burn through.
Just one of many opinions out there.

thats the way to go. use small dia. .023 or .030.

[miestro_jerry]

The aluminized pipe may give you trouble as that unless things really have changed since I got off of work today, aluminum doesn't weld to anything except aluminum, so file off the aluminum coating and weld away.

Personally I like solid and gas, but then again I like my TIG welder much better than my MIG welder.

Jerry

[GEM]

so file off the aluminum coating and weld away.

That's what I was wondering. The muffler shop guys weld on this stuff but I don't know that they use MIG - that's what prompted my original question.

OK - rather than speculate I'll dig out some scrap and try it.

Thanks

[Aeroweld]

I would 3rd the opinions of Lars66 and Bowtieman

[MAC702]

The aluminized coating is so thin, you blow right through it, even with a light-duty MIG. Pretend it isn't even there and concentrate on everything else, and you'll do fine. Use .023 with C25 for best results.

[GEM]

The aluminized coating is so thin, you blow right through it, even with a light-duty MIG. Pretend it isn't even there and concentrate on everything else, and you'll do fine. Use .023 with C25 for best results.

Yup, that's what I figured out! I used .030 on 75/25 gas. I set my HH180 to V=2, WF=40 and it worked great on this material. I went ahead and welded everything up and considering my beginner skills and the weld complexity (for me) it came out pretty good.

I appreciate all the input!

Thanks,