Yes, and you can weld aluminum using DC electrode negative and it's actually much more efficient than AC welding will ever be. However, it's even more expensive, picky, and difficult than traditional AC aluminum welding. Also, it's best suited for heavier/thicker pieces of aluminum.hklvette wrote:You can weld aluminum using DC reverse polarity, but the weld quality lacks a helluva lot to be desired. i have some E4043 aluminum stick that i'm going to try out-of-position in the next few days, but at $26/lb, its expensive as hell.
Now that all the technicalities are officially covered, my suggestion is to shop around and work with shops in the area of the boat. It may cost a little bit, but if you choose a good shop you'll be so much ahead in the long run. I don't know what little welder you're talking about being sold on pirate, but my guess is it's some smaller and/or under-featured machine, especially for this aluminum job. I'll look the machine over if you show me what you're talking about. Beyond that, you still gotta get solid at welding aluminum and pick up all needed accessories and consumables.
