Stick welding Aluminium

[Mister Mad Mower 64]

I own a few electric welders , Migs with and without gas , an Oxford oil filled monster and several stick welders .Last year i purchased a Chinese electronic inverter Tig / Stick welder . A 200 amp model of the all electronic variety ( no heavy coils inside ) .

So i decided to give ally welding a go , something i had always avoided like the plague .

And to my suprise found it to be easy ! .

As the rod arks up i have to simply lay the rod down the break , none of this weaving side to side or making an " e " movement as with the steel rods .

A 12" rod is gone in 5 or 6 seconds it's that fast a process .

The welder set at 160 amps with a negative torch polarity works really well on water pump casings of around 1/4" wall thickness .

After a few water pump housing repares for people i dared try it on a 1974 Yamaha TY80 side casing of only 2.5mm thickness at 120 amps.

Plus a plate had to be welded in along the top of the casing where the chain had broke the whole thing away .

The inside aint pretty as i added extra blobs to stop vibration cracking and just left them  , but the amount of ally laid down allows for a good reshaping back to origonal profile on the outside .

The main break was right along the curve where the casing drops to the chain guard , heavily splitered and bashed .

But it looks good now .

I hold my hands upto not getting on with Tig welding at all , but this new welder has enabled me to ally weld at last .

Fast and easy , just remember to clean the break up good and give it a wire brushing with a stainless brush to remove all the grime then blast it clean with carb cleaner to make sure it's clean .

 

[C-101plowerpower 548]

wait, there's ally rods? where did you get them? since i still haven't figured outhow to tig weld ally properly

[Mister Mad Mower 64]

33 minutes ago, C-101plowerpower said:

wait, there's ally rods? where did you get them? since i still haven't figured outhow to tig weld ally properly

I got them off the well known auction site , they were a tad expensive at £15 for 10 3.5mm rods , but the price of a new casing soon offsets the cost of the rods .

And i have managed to repare 3 water pumps , the TY and used my last rod last weekend welding an Ally foot bar back on a pushchair .

All in all they have opend up a whole new area of welding for me .

Of note is tthat i did not preheat the casings as the process is that fast the heat stays localised .

And when you do a blob of weld  , i scrape the rods tip on a house brick to remove the flux bulid up .( a little white clump falls right off the tip ) allowing you to strike an ark without scraping along the jobs break line as i found this left spatter and black holes in the ally casings .

Goto the auction site and search for " Aluminium welding rods " and scroll through all the Tig rods finding all the suppliers of the flux coated stick rods to find the size / quantity you require .

And remember that all you may know about using steel rods goes out the window with Aluminium , as they burn so fast all you need to do is drop your hand towards the job as the rod

shortens , simply laying the run of weld along the break line .

edit -

Forgot i had none left so have just purchased a 12 pack of Harris 26 rods for £19 , so the price has gone up a little but you now get an extra 2 rods .

Edited September 23, 2016 by Mister Mad Mower
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