Cutting and welding 2" 5083 plate?

[monckywrench]

I have to cut and weld some 2" 5083 aluminum plate (the straight cuts will be several feet at the longest) and am looking for tips.

Cutting:
Anyone have a good cold saw solution? Any slick self-made track saws? Tips for preheating if required?

Bevelling:
Use a commercial beveller. pneumatic router, etc? Anyone build their own beveller head/machine?

Welding:
Recommend me a capable MIG setup including spoolgun, wire, etc. I'm new to welding aluminum but will get properly trained by my local welding instructor.

Thanks in advance!
monckywrench

[lazeyjack]

just a portable hand saw with ally cutting blade, take off foot and you can cut so accuratly its unbelievable , also very fast indeed, just sinking the blade to depth of material Cut to 6mm, with foot off, then for 8 and above it get very hard on hands, so foot goes back on
the reason its best with foot off, is that the foot skids so super accurate cuts are not quite as possible as with foot on( unless you clamp stright edge to plate) which aint possible with curves)You do need strong hands and arms for long cuts, but this is how I did it for 25 years(gallery)
miller spool gun, with a big ole miller or hobart or lincoln grunter
bevel with saw on 4 inch grinder I can sell you a spare blade 80 plus shipping which is cost, best on air tool as then when and if they jam the tool stalls
You can use this to fast bevel, , routers are no good, slow, clog etc
Whoops just saw 2 inch, you need a powerful saw with foot and go slowly, or if you have small bits put the blade in a bench saw, or vert bandsaw
the bit about milling the weld preps holds true 45 degree beval and 3mm land on joint, 1.6 wire and plenty of amps
draw your weldment here and I will give you a weld sequence

[lazeyjack]

here you go, Bosch is best for trigger on grinder, aeg is good for saw remove foot and sight over the top onto your line
With small saw, you can mill with it, use the flat of the the teeth, you can clean welds, and do most things, also cut, But it CAN be very lethal if you use wrong edge
Oh and I,m not slicing bread with it, and no you can not have a glass of vin rouge

[Jratte]

We recently had to cut and weld some 30mm in our shop. Cut with saw as others have said but we do much of our weld prep bevels with a router. Just don't try to do it all in one pass and it shouldn't be a problem.

[monckywrench]

Excellent! Thanks again for the advice. I can't provide the weldment yet as it would give away the project, but I'll share when I can. This was the only forum I could fine where I could get experienced advice with these kinds of inexpensive solutions to my problem!

"Oh and I,m not slicing bread with it, and no you can not have a glass of vin rouge"

Those ARE good for morale. I must add them to my shopping list.