Thread: Aluminium

Originally Posted by catbuilder

the krieger brand welders on ebay, would they be worth looking at?

No! Over priced crap with only a 90 day warranty.

If a vendor can't offer a 12 month warranty, it is not worth your time.

Originally Posted by weisyboy

you can get sticks for an ark welder to weld aluminum

Have you ever tried to ark weld aluminium with any sort of " sticks" it's like buying a Lear Jet "if you got the money" , don't mean you can fly it

Guys

I would like to offer some small points of understanding on the aluminum stick welding electrodes to clear up some possible mis understandings about them. Lets keep in mind that the objectives of the original poster was to to weld 2mm box ali box section and butt weld sheets.

Those who have done a little bit of stick welding know that as the metal gets thinner this sort of work becomes progressively more difficult as the metal thickness reduces,ie it becomes easier to burn through and harder to fill up the hole.

Add to this the oxide melts at twice the temperature of the the parent metal,so once you have melted through the oxide skin you have overheated the metal your trying to weld into a molten mass ready to follow the rules of gravity-bingo big hole.

Knowing this, why are we going to use a stick that burns at 6000 degrees C and heats a 10 x zone wider than a tig.Bear in mind aluminium melts a couple of hundred degrees higher than solder.

Having that picture in your head helps make the selection of the correct process easier.This can only be TIG because of the narrow concentrated heat zone and small foot print and slow speed -meaning good hand manipulation characteristics and therefore ability to control is enhanced .


Its not the cheapest, or the easiest but its the Best.
If Tig is to dear or difficult ,don't weld the job.Screw and pop rivet if you want cheap and effective!

The stick suits plate from 6mm and up.OK! Again I will make the industry comparison- do they use it ,No! because it is not efficient!

Mig ,and I am speaking of a 180 amp or better properly set up for aluminium unit suits plate thicknesses of 4mm and and up much for the same reasons - less metal thickness - is far too hard for most to deal with.It will weld aluminium but in certain thicknesses and with only proper machine set ups.

Grahame

Thanks for clearing that up Grahame

Kent White of TM Technologies, www.tinmantech.com, has some outstanding DVD's on many types of metal working, two of which show techniques for gas welding aluminum. He makes it very clear that only the 5000 and 6000 series aluminum alloys are appropriate to gas welding techniques. He uses a small "aircraft style" (Micco Midget) torch and uses aluminum wire for the filler rod. The flux (powder mixed with distilled water) is applied to the weld area with a small brush prior to beginning the weld. His welds look beautiful and appear to have better penetration than TIG welds on the same material. Just to show that it can be done, at the end of the DVD he does a weld on some thin aluminum using a cutting torch.

I have many of his videos/DVD's and am very pleased with all of them.

Originally Posted by catbuilder

But my question is, what is the easiest and cheapest way for me at home to weld aluminium, what I have in mind is welding box section aluminium with probably a 2mm or slightly thicker wall, and mainly butt welding sections together, to make framing for camper walls or maybe a ute canopy, etc

Schof
With respect, sending to the US may not be the easiest and cheapest option for our local poster.

I do not like to be a naysayer and come across as negative,but there are realities due to local conditions that you are likely, unaware of.

For starters one of the problems is that the threaded connections on US standard torches are not compatible with those on the Australian standard hoses.

Secondly the type of torch the Tin man (who would have thirty or forty years of expertise) would possibly be a type that runs on low pressure ( 3 to 7 psi and low volume.I say this as its the operating premise for the Henrob/Dillion torches which doesn't appear to have a loyal following here anyway.

To my knowledge such a similar torch or regulator to the Mico midget is not available locally as theres no market for it.
If you are referring to standard oxy acetylene welding torch with the normal pressure oxy acetylene torch, one needs to use a moisture absorbing flux and crikey it's really corrosive.

I have used it it it needs a lot piddling about and extremely good cleaning after use. I would not fancy any structural work to be done on an aircraft I would have to fly on.

Thirdly,while torches and the regulators presumably can be obtained ,the exercise is going to cost substantially more due to the current Aus dollar against the US dollar and there is also added costs for adapters to be made.

Also the original blue cobalt lens that the Tinman has recommended on his site is no longer manufactured.People are offering $500 us each for originals.The plastic replacement offering is reported by many of US welding forums as being not good enough.

Cheers
Grahame