Whatever dude. You can armchair QB this one all you want. I know about aluminum and the speed with which it oxidizes; and that you need to use a SS brush. Even between changing work angles on the work. And you really wanna store that brush so it doesn't get contaminated by other crap in the shop, too. They make rod for stick welding aluminum, and you can also use it as filler for DC TIG as long as the metal is thin enough. 
I know it's the wrong way to do it, and gets no penetration; hence sheet metal and tube. Again... you're talking CAN'T vs best practice.
I don't like to stick weld with a coathanger either but I assure you it CAN be done, as I've done it when I had to. Not pretty, but welded nonetheless.
For fuck's SAKE man.
None of this REALLY matters... even if I CAN'T do aluminum with that little buzzbox I can still do ferrous; both stick and TIG. I could even do AL MIG with it if I wanted to spend the money on a spoolgun. There are plenty of applications here; $50 is nothing to throw at it. I spent more than that on pizza & wings for lunch.
mnem
Y'know Mnem. It would be nice if just once in a while you admitted that you don't know everything about all things mechanical and admit that sometimes you've got it wrong. All this flows from me pointing out that it was a DC only box, and that's not suitable for TIG welding Aluminium. Anyone who knew their way around TIG would have gone "Good catch, thanks".
You however, seem to blow up like this every time someone brings up something that points out the limits of your knowledge and you start getting squirrelly and argumentative. On this one, everything I have ever learned about this from the guys who do it for a living, and from the guys who do it for a hobby, and from my welding textbooks says you're wrong. Nothing says it with as much clarity as much as that screen grab of a DCEN weld in Aluminium. That one could bodge it, or even weld with a coathanger is just distraction. It's not a question of "best practice" versus "the possible", it wasn't even a question until you made it one because all the rest of the world says "AC for TIG welding on Aluminium" and for some reason you choose to disagree with the rest of the world.
That you have held a welding torch and used it a few times does not make you the expert who's competent to disagree with all the acknowledged expertise from the field, and does not excuse you from accusing someone of being an "armchair QB" because they disagree with you based on that pool of knowledge. Not that it counts for anything, but I suspect that I made my first weld before you were born (MMA on angle iron, frame for the two Villiers 2 stroke motors from two scrapped 'invalid carriages*' for a hovercraft that I was building with my father, circa 1970).
* Yes, the Ministry of Health really did hand out these deathtraps to disabled people right up until some time in the 1970s: 
That is a superior specimen. They were a common sight in my youth and were much rattier looking than that.
Y'know C... all this doesn't change the fact that I've DONE IT. I really get tired of having to defend what people say CAN'T be done... when I did it decades ago. It may not have been the RIGHT way to do it, but I DID it.
I DON'T KNOW EVERYTHING. There are libraries full of books full of things I don't fucking know. I've done a LOT of welding... even for a living for a while... but I for gawd's sake don't know even a fraction of everything there is to know about welding. But I know I CAN TIG aluminum with DC, I've done it.
But you know what... don't take MY word for it.
[url]https://weldingmastermind.com/11-tips-for-tig-welding-aluminum-with-dc/[/url]
See? I was wrong... this article sez DC for AL is best when you need deep penetration. That probably means I was running my TIG work too cold because I was afraid of blow-thru with the tubing/clip angles I was trying to weld. OTOH, I remember it felt like I had to crank it up 3x as high as it should be to even start my arc, and even then I couldn't see the puddle until after the flux from the filler rod started to curl away from the work. 
Or maybe this one...
[url]https://www.thefabricator.com/thewelder/article/aluminumwelding/aluminum-workshop-aluminum-tig-with-dcen[/url]
or this one, which feels a lot like MY experience...
[url]http://hildstrom.com/projects/dctigaluminumflux/index.html[/url]
or maybe this video...
That sez the same thing: DC for penetration. Oh, and duh... no wonder I had to use the stick welding rod as filler: I'm about positive I was using the wrong gas, Argon, and entirely possible the TIG filler rod I originally tried to use was the wrong alloy.
But NO C... the WHOLE WORLD does not say "never use DC TIG for aluminum". Just that in most cases, it's not the BEST choice.
I never said it was the BEST choice... or even a good choice... just that I knew it could be done. Just like I know you can weld heavy cast iron with a old Lincoln 225 welder and 6013 rod, just like I know you can braze aluminum treadplate with a MAPP torch if you get the right rod, just like I know you can cut plate steel with a brazing torch. All of which I have done for the same reason: the work needed to be done, but the right tools simply weren't available at the time or the job at hand didn't justify spending the money on the right tools for the job.
This short list was NOT me digging through the darkest corners of the internet. This was literally the first few hits. There's lots more, all saying pretty much the same thing.
I don't care if that little box is the right thing for the job. When I get one, I'll mod it for TIG use. And if I NEED to weld Aluminum, I'll do the same thing I've always done... use what I have at hand, or mod it and make what I need and get the job done. Just like I've always done. Just like I did back then, by trial and error.
I hope I've admitted I don't know everything and that I was wrong enough times here that maybe you noticed; it's not the first time and it certainly won't be the last. You have no idea how many times I've said these words to my son: Don't look at me like I know everything; all I really know is just about enough to guess at how little I really know.
NOW... can we please put this to rest?
mnem
smeesh.
You've had to go to lengths to find a few, very specific "you can do it this way" references but they're surrounded by caveats "aluminium thicker than 1/4 inch" (i.e. 250+ amps), heavy chemical preparation, huge water cooled tungsten, helium shielding gas, "process used in the 40s and 50s". All a lot of effort to get some weak backing for "I can weld Aluminium with this little DC welder". Have you ever heard the phrase "the exception proves the rule". Yes, I sure that you could, in some fashion, if you really wanted to, to prove a point, make a DC weld with a ~60A welder on 1mm aluminium and you'd have a weld, but a weld that wouldn't pass inspection anywhere. But you'd only do it if you stubbornly wanted to prove a point. Which is what this is all really about, not about the technicalities. As I've said, this started with a friendly, "erm you realise that's DC only", and you're going out of the way to try to prove "but I'm right and I must know better because I've done this stuff" rather than admit to a small hole in your knowledge. Many things are possible but not advisable, to use "but I've done it" as the touchstone is not the basis of wisdom. FFS, you actually admit that your path is littered with the results of trial and error and it's your intention to blunder on like that. What's the plan, decline informed advice with a "No, no, don't tell me. I'd rather just do it with trial and error and stuff I can find in the back of the barn"?
My purpose is not to humble you or to make you say "
I was wrong". By the way, saying "
I was wrong" multiple times interspersed with lots of reasons why you think you're right and anecdotes of how you counsel your son on admitting ignorance is not saying "
I was wrong" just as a small boy saying "
I'm sorry" while scuffing his feet and muttering "
but he started it" under his voice is not an apology.
I'm not having any fun here, and I'm not trying to prove a point, I'm trying to get you to realise that just because you have practical experience of something does not make you automatically correct on a subject, and it's clear that you
do think that because I've seen you use it as an argumentational gambit more times than I (genuinely) care to remember. You're a nice bloke, I don't like watching you get into spats with people because you cling to your experience (especially when it's with me). If you were just another "arsehole on the Internet" I wouldn't bother. When you do do this I see the classic engineer's "need to be right in a argument" come out in you, and it's not attractive. Sure, experience is a good teacher but experience is not infallibly right. To offer a counter-example, the boss who has gotten good results from bullying his staff will extol that as an effective method because experience has taught him so; we all know he's wrong, so experience is not an infallible guide.
For someone who claims he's a humble guy who meekly admits his mistakes and ignorances you're sure bull-headed about it.
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