Aluminum Welding straight talk...Aluminum Welding... Where would we be without our equipment working correctly this project would have been impossible.
When your looking for a dependable welder I cannot say enough about our Miller Spoolmate. You want to make sure you look for a 200 Amp Welder. Duty Cycle of the machine at least 20-30%. our machine is 50% duty cycle at the amperage we are welding at.
Miller Welding Equipment-welded together this 65' aluminum hull.
Stainless Steel brushes are a must have when cleaning oxidation off of the metal. Make sure you keep the brushes away from oils and liquids that will contaminate the stainless steel. 
Unfortunately for me the smallest brush in this picture was worn down from use...
Marks from black markers, greasy finger prints, oil of any kind
will contaminate your weld. You don't want to learn this the hard way out in the middle of the ocean.
Lacquer thinner works well for cleaning off finger prints or grease. We built a framework out of I beams, added rollers (casters), 2 hand crank wenches -1 on each side to help lift the ribs and hold them in place. The bulk heads were pretty heavy, having this helped take the load off of us and keep them in place.
My favorite Love/Hate relationship came with the stainless steel cup hand grinder. This tool had it out for me since day one of using this hyper drive man tool. The wire cup as I was cleaning a rib off for welding, bounced off the top of the swaying rib, grabbed my shirt and ripped it off. I was on top of a 15' ladder at the time. All I could say was Art...Pull The Plug!
Aluminum welding was not hard to adjust too. Just keep your eyes
open to a clean surface before welding. You will get use to the
sound that the welder makes as soon as it sounds different...you
know somethings wrong.
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Can I get a witness?
