I've got a lot of 6061 scrap 1/2 inch thick and larger. I make a fair
amount of shop parts out of the scrap. The tool racks on three of my
machines are the "good" side up of lots of 1/2 inch scrap as are the
shelf brackets under them. Often for a small part for my own use I'll
spend 20 minutes going through my scrap to pick a piece for the job.
Anyway, I've got shelves, boxes, and atleast one cart full of failed job
scraps.

I would use more of it if I felt comfortable welding anything that thick.

All of it is to thick for me to be able to weld easily. The thickest
aluminum I have ever welded is 3/8 and it took me several tries. Lots
of preheat made it happen. From what I have read it seems I can "learn
to" weld that thicker stock with a small percentage of helium in the gas
mix. I probably will not do enough of it to justify buying a helium
bottle and setting up a mixing rig. I was thinking maybe to buy another
bottle and get some premixed. My concern is that Helium is a very small
molecule. I'm consider that if I have a bottle sitting there for a
couple years between projects all the helium will ooze out leaving me
with a bottle of nearly pure argon. Is this a real concern?

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