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Hi all. I'm new here and I would really appreciate some advice please. I can stick weld and have done quite a bit of MIG welding. I like to build custom bikes and would like to build an Aluminium one and would like to try some TIG welding. I have never TIG welded, or welded Aluminium before. I have a weld team 90i inverter with stick welding gear. It is only really a diy piece of kit, but it is all I have at the moment. It says I can convert it to TIG with a suitable torch and gas. I intend to be welding thin gauge (8 or 10 probably) ally tube. Is this equipment suitable in your opinion? Any help and advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks and best regards.

Tim

ALUMINUM MUST be welded with AC TIG or DC MIG,,,,,,[ALTHOUGH some welders do it with ACETELINE]
AC TIG for aluminum must have the HIGH FREQUENCY START
DC TIG will not work
IF your welder is DC only and I suspect that because you have a INVERTER machine,,,,, you probably dont have AC capability.
although you can weld alumimum with DC MIG with a spool gun or a very short torch,.
You cant do it with TIG.
REMEMBER that the AC TIG must have the high freq start.
if the tungsten touches the aluminum,,,,, it will contaminate the weld and blow the hell out of the weld.
that is reason for the high freque start.
the primary arc created by the high freque actually jumps the gap and provides a path for the welding current to flow at start.
CLEAN is the operative word here.
dont ever use a STEEL brush to clean your weld surface area.
use a stainless steel brush only and dont EVER touch it to STEEL.
DONT even touch your weld area with your fingers after cleaning.
the area to be welded must be very very clean.
failure to do this will always result in disaster.
absolutely ANY contamination of the weld area will result in JUNK.

Aluminum must be sanitary. As the previous reply stated, make sure you only use a stainless steel brush for removing the surface oxides in the weld joint area, and use that brush for Al only. You can get away with using only Argon form most Al welding, Mig or Tig, up to about 250amps (for Tig)...beyond that consider adding a bit of Helium which carries a bit more amperage and effectively carries more heat to the metal. Use AC with a high frequency carrier to stabilize the arc (your tig machine will do this automatically on the AC setting). I could really go on and on, but I'd suggest picking up some good books, and looking at weldingtipsandtricks.com, or same on youtube. He's got great advice on all processes. Tig is really rewarding once you learn, and is actually very easy once you know how to set up your machine. If you have an oxy-fuel setup, practice gas welding...many of the same motions will translate over.