Aluminum welding question.

69427

69427

The Artist formerly known as Turbo84
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Mar 30, 2008
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Clinging to my guns and religion in KCMO.
I've been welding up (TIG) my aluminum lower radiator crossmember, and am just amazed at the amount of heat required to do the welds. The new crossmember is quarter inch and 3/16 inch material, and obviously needs a bunch of current for a while to get things heated up, and during the welding, the heat spreads throughout the whole thing . (Below is an early mock up photo during construction.)

IM001222.jpg

In one of the hardware stores where I go to I've seen aluminum stickweld rods. Anybody ever stickweld aluminum? My experience with stickwelding steel is that you can put down a bunch of heat and move pretty quickly. I would expect the aluminum rod to be consumed quickly, but would it allow a quicker weld and prevent a lot of the heat from just conducting off to the rest of the part? I'm also unclear about the bead strength compared to the TIG bead.

Any learned opinions?

Thanks,
Mike
 
Mike, if you don't get a good enough answer, I can get you in touch with my welder buddy.....the only guy I know that welds aluminum to concrete and makes it stick.....

PM me, but he headed south to see a old g/f of his this afternoon....

so maybe late tmrw evening....I try to let you guys talk one on one about this, as I dunno shit....

and expect him to pan my ass pretty good, too, little bastard.....

tell him I said so too....:hissyfit::goodevil:
 
Preheat the whole piece with a torch, that'll do the trick. And yes, it'll get pretty toasty.
 
I just bought a TIG a week ago and so far I can melt aluminum pretty good. If you can wait a half century or so I will weld that for you....:harhar:
 
Thanks, guys, but my original question still remains. Anybody ever try stickwelding aluminum? It's got me a bit curious. I might just round up the stuff and try it on some thick scrap pieces I've got left over.
 
We tried to modify cable tray with aluminum stick years ago with no luck, ended up getting a spool gun to MIG it
 
You have a TIG, it's by far the superior setup. The only thing that comes close is using a gas setup. The rest is piss poor (unless you have a pulsemig but I doubt it ;) )

Use a torch to heat up the entire piece and start welding. Pieces that thick should easily be weldable if preheated.
 
Here is alum stick results using Harris 26 rods.

AlumStick1.jpg
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alumStick2.jpg
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If your tig setup is hot enough, suggest practicing till you get the speed you want, it's a lot easier.
 
You shouldn't need more than 150 amps or so to weld that alu when preheated, duty cycle may be down on the machine and a cooled torch is handy but with patience it can be done.
Those welds look very clean for stick!!
 
I only tried welding aluminum once during a night course I took on Tig Welding. I remember the instructor set it up for me by changing the tungsten tip from a point to blunt and I believe he may have reversed the polarity on the tig welder, but I could be wrong. Nothing was preheated and the tig welder was set at around 120. I didn't do to bad for my first try but then again conditions were ideal and at a bench with lots of light and a couch behind my shoulder.
 
Twin_Turbo said:
You shouldn't need more than 150 amps or so to weld that alu when preheated, duty cycle may be down on the machine and a cooled torch is handy but with patience it can be done.
Those welds look very clean for stick!!
Click to expand...

I agree. I'm using 130 amps on the digital readout at the moment. With less amperage it takes forever to get the area to melt, and more amperage just pops my garage circuit breaker at very inconvenient times. :cussing:

Very impressive bead with that stick example!
 
Do you have an electronic circuit breaker? Get one of those sand filled fuse things (or 2 or 3 depending on how many phases), they are much slower than the electronic ones.

Also, do you have adjustable slope? If so, set the initial spike a bit lower, that should keep it from popping. Starting the HF w/ a spike will blow the breaker if it's barely up to the job.
 
TT, I have a migatronic here and I have some difficulty setting it up for welding alu. What settings do you use ?

Also, is a watercooled torch worth it. I asked for the price and it was something like € 500,00
 
Do you have a model number so i can see what options your machine has? No sense in suggesting stuff if you can't adjust it. What thickness do you want to weld?
 
MTE-440 dirlock. I don't know how old it is.

I think that i will be welding a maximum of 4-5 mm of alu, with 2-3 as a regular thickness. With 440 A i should be able to do that.
 
Got the new crossmember all welded up and installed. I duplicated the two large access holes in the bottom, and painted it black to match the frame. At casual glance it looks like the stock piece. The weight turned out to be 8.8 pounds, so I ended up removing a touch over five pounds off the front end, ahead of the wheelbase.
 
aussiejohn said:
Refer title.

Regards from Down Under:drink:

aussiejohn
Click to expand...

I've been having computer problems lately, but finally am able to get some pictures uploaded from several projects.
I just tried to follow the contour of the stock steel crossmember for this part. Unless someone looks closely under the car, I don't think it will be noticed at all.

IM001263.jpg

Just for kicks I tried doing some stick welding on some 1/4" aluminum scraps the other day. It sure was faster than doing it by Tig, but the electrode almost gets eaten up quicker than I can move my arm down towards the bead line. It sure was different than stick welding steel.
 
Nice work!

69427,
Thanks for the photo. What sort of front end do you have? Looks like a C4 A-arm in a custom housing.

Now that you've made the radiator support, what other parts on a C3 currently made of steel, could be replaced with aluminum? I'm thinking of the (automatic) cross member, trailing arms, diff. support, maybe even the big cast iron pedal bracket.

Let's face it, we replace cast iron manifolds with aluminum ones, same with water pumps. What about the power steering pump? So why not replace some of the other steel or iron parts in a C3 with aluminum?

What do others think?

Regards from Down Under:drink:

aussiejohn
 
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