Al U Min Ium

Have you ever heard a British person say Aluminium?  They turn that word into a whole lot more syllables than we do on this side of the pond.  Very humorous in my book.

I do have a TIG welder, so yes theoretically I could weld Al-u-min-ium, but at this point I have not bought supplies to do Al-u-min-ium  (rods and fillers)  Honestly, still working on Tig welding steel.

I have always wanted to learn how to spool weld aluminum,  which requires a welder with a spool gun, which I dont have.  The process is more like MIG (although it uses Argon gas) so theoretically its easier, although I have been told welding Al-u-min-ium is never easy.

Along comes the Amazon Prime Day this summer.  I look around a little bit, but dont really see anything out there that really interests me.  Then I run across this welder.   Its a Lotos (which is the same Chinese brand as my plasma cutter)  Its transformer based, so its really heavy.  But its a 175Amp MIG welder that also comes with a spool gun and some Al-u-min-ium filler wire.

Hmm, do some digging,  pretty good price,  free shipping, reviews say its a good hobby machine,

So I send my wife a text  (I am sitting in the parking lot at a baseball field,  she is at an airport)

"I am looking at buying a welder from Prime Day"

..........

Crickets

I decided to go for it even though she probably would be mad at me,

(not unusual, I am always finding new ways to frustrate my beloved)

figure since she does love me, she would forgive me

hopefully


new text

"correction, I bought a new welder from Prime Day"

fingers crossed....


response   "OK"

guess that means she isnt pissed at me



A few days later, a really, really, heavy box shows up.   I get a text from the LOML that says..

"really heavy box showed up.  had to get M to move it inside.  He agreed it was really heavy"

well, bet thats my welder.

Sure enough, it was.

Naturally, as is everything in my life, it took a number of weeks before I had the time to get it setup and burn some metal with it.  Finally one weekend, I get to the shop early so I can get the welder all put together.  I get some Al-u-min-ium cut up into some coupons and went to welding.

I didnt clean the metal at all, and went through playing with some settings, but all in all, for the first time welding dirty metal with a brand new welder, I think it worked out fairly well.

Cherry Pie
DD