Anything welding

Lol thanks man. I still have a long way to go.

 

Apropos Friday night on Valentines Day Weekend. (*)



(*) aka Singles Awareness Day.

 

So.... I’m starting Tig aluminum welding Monday. I have lots of experience with mig and torch welding/brazing, and in the past I have tig welded steel, but I had a spool gun for aluminum work.

Any tips or things to watch out for when setting up for tig welding aluminum?

 

When you get to the even thinner material you can cheat by backing it with aluminum, or even better is copper. It will prevent blow through and won't stick to the steel.

 

Aluminum will suck up a lot of heat. A lot of people will crank the heat up, but this leads to a LOT of warping so don't fall into that trap. It's a large part preheating with a torch helps. Also thin to thick is hard, don't start there.

 

thanks, always forget about how much better it draws heat. I’m working with recycled road signs, so they are all 1\8th or 3/16th thick. I’m going to cut up some small cards to test with, because once I figure it out, I have to teach it to a professor and 4 grad students. Should have kept up on my practice, hope it comes back from college and I can get a good process worked out for their project.

 

Thanks for the tip!

 

Some road signs are might be 7000 series with zinc in them and might not weld well, or at all. may also make you sick trying

 

great..... I will figure that out.... and now get to try with the doors open.... in the 0 degree cold.

thanks for the heads up. I will call the city, they donated them to the project, they will know.

 

If you are used to torch brazing you will pick it up quick.

Just remember the Aluminum puddle has a bad habit of getting to hot till you learn how to read it.

 

Impressed with this little titanium 125

 

Backing aluminum with Copper works to prevent blow outs too. If you have a metal recycler in your area they often have good size blocks/plates of copper for reasonable prices.

 

For those hesitant on a bandsaw vs chop saw, this is on my 10+ year old harbor freight band saw that’s had a bunch of heavy use. With a decent blade they cut really well. This was a clean up cut from a not so straight looking cut originally. If I slowed the speed on the Ram down more I have no doubt it could cut thinner.



and a welding a picture

 

I rocked a HF bandsaw for almost 2 decades. It's slow, but fairly reliable. Throw a quality blade in it and it will go pretty much forever. Chop saws are faster, but they will cost you more than the bandsaw in blades. A good bandsaw with a coolant system will almost match the chop saw in speed. And the holy grail is a cold cut saw. Fast as a chop saw with the longevity of a bandsaw, and you can even get them sharpened.

 

Which saw were you using?

 

The $200 red one. I recently upgraded to a jet though.

 

What's that for?

 

Lower shock mount

 

I wasn’t sure if that’s the answer you were looking for since I thought it was obvious I put a new relocate on to move both mounts up and gain ground clearance at the lower mount.