Anything welding

Been hitting the aluminum tig hard lately

 

I had some sliders welded on a couple years ago but the guy who did it did a subpar job in my opinion. I think I only paid $65ish so it was really whatever and they've held up so far. Would there be any downside to grinding them off and having someone with better skills slap them on? Would it weaken the frame at the attachment point or anything?

Trying to get back on the mainland next tour so hopefully I can hit up Jlee or Erik at Relentless since I know they do bang up work (and they are Relentless sliders).

 

If done right it won't weaken the frame. You could always just add more stand outs, but it wouldn't be hard to cut and re weld.

Can you post some pics of the welds?

 

If your not satisfied with the original welding job and are going to cut them off and start over, it might be a good idea to weld them to a piece of 1/4" plate and drill and bolt them to the frame instead of re-welding to the frame again. It keeps from adding more heat to the frame which may reduce the strength of the frame in the heat affected zone(HAZ). Just something to consider.
If they need to be worked on later it is easier to un-bolt and do the work, then re-install.

 

my room mate's dad just gave us his old millermatic 135. looking forward to playing with it. I have no welding experience but want to learn

 

Teaching myself to TIG aluminum today. All I had available is 1/16" pure tungsten which is pushing it on .250" thick material, I had to hit it with the oxy torch for about a minute to get things up to temp.

It's not pretty but getting there.

 

What welder u using?

Are you the one who was talking about using a gold shield? They really help with aluminum.

Next try some brass, it's real fun.

 

It's a Lincoln square wave 175. Also Im using a gold lens. I think Im gonna get good at the aluminum first

 

Brass makes you feel like your dying, I hate welding brass. But it pays good money. LOL.

One of my brass projects from last year.

 

How do you like it?

Talking about no porosity/contaminants I don't think it's possible with brass.

 

Tell me about it! we did a ton of metalwork in a penthouse and 90% of it was brass, fuck brass.

Looks awesome!

My problem is no matter what I do I get porosity and cant fill it properly for a uniform finish, especially if it's going to be polished. Any suggestions?

 

Any more pics/details?

 

It's a great machine, this one has taken quite the beating since 2002 in our school's automotive shop. Not a lot of cool features like pulse or pre-flow, but it's a very nice bare bones machine.

 

cool, I'm looking in the far future to pick up something similar. I don't really ever mess with the settings on ours, i mostly forgot what they all do. I took a couple basic welding classes like 7 years ago then went back to college graduated and got a job welding/fabbing forgot everything I learned about welding.

 

Not to quote you 3 times, but just checked out your websight, awesome work and shop! wish ours looked like that.

 

Dip the tungsten in the puddle, it does wonders

 

It was for the first 2 mulberry stores in north America. One in San Francisco and the other in New Jersey. Unfortunately the company that contracted me decided to stiff me on 18k, file bankruptcy and open as a new name so I never got to see any of the finished products installed.

Brass can be tricky, color matching for polishing can be one of the hardest parts.

 

I've always been thought not to do that!

Makes me want to give the brass a go.

 

Only on brass, nothing else. You don't have to dip it much.

 

gotcha, I just watched a welding tips and tricks vid on youtube about brass. He says welding it backwards (torch first) helps too. Also to wear a respirator because of the zinc.