Oxy/acet welding of 1/4" round aluminium rod

[hammermill]

well if you want to beat your head a lot you can get it done if you will with a lot of constraints here is a guide from maine welding supply.

Yes, you can actually weld aluminum with a low cost
DC power supply. It doesn’t make it any easier and you won’t be able to weld very thick materials, (typically 16 gauge maximum), .065 in thepockref
but you can attain a high
strength, great looking weld beads on Aluminum using the DC(+) technique.

TIG Weld Aluminum DC(+) procedure and technique:
To TIG weld aluminum, set your welding machine on DC+, (in some cases you just need to reverse the cables).

Place your 2% thoriated or ceriated tungsten sharpened (to a point) 1/8″ diameter – in your TIG torch
Set your 100% argon (not a mixture) flow at about 15-20 cfh
Scratch start and maintain a very close arc distance (maximum 1/16″ tungsten to puddle)
Be very patient as the heat builds up in your part.
When you TIG Weld Aluminum with DC(+), the following will occur:
After you scratch start and maintain an arc the point on the tungsten will start to
ball and then sustain itself, you will then see Aluminum oxides starting to dissipate because you get half a cleaning cycle when you are TIG welding with DC+.
Your weld puddle will finally form and it is important to see the puddle and make small dabs of filler material to maintain control.
Use 1/16″ diameter (maximum) filler material. If you contaminate the tungsten by touching the puddle, the then regrind your tungsten to a point.

To TIG Weld aluminum is always a challenging task, but if you just have a small aluminum welding projects around the house, then this will work for you and the total set-up cost is less than $500. It works well for material thickness of .020″-.062″.
If you are having trouble getting a puddle because your welding machine doesn’t have enough power, an easy and inexpensive technique to compensate is to “pre-heat with an electric paint stripper gun, place the blower gun over the area you would like to weld and leave it there for 5-10 minutes. Its amazing how the preheat will help you when you weld aluminum,
and remember to always use filler material to avoid hot, short cracking.

Have fun with this.

[rustyh]

My parcel from TM finally arrived today, despite UPS.

I have been watching Gas Welding Aluminum and Gas Welding Aluminum 2.1 "The Difficult" since this afternoon. First impressions are the Gas Welding Aluminum is a bit dated, produced in '92 I believe. I'll give it another go tomorrow.

The 2 DVD Gas Welding Aluminum 2.1 set is perfect, as it uses the setup I have purchased. I'll probably buy this set as these are 7 day rentals and there is no way I'll be able to practice and watch it all in a week...but I'll give it a go...

At least I figured out I wasn't doing any single thing wrong, I was doing it all wrong. Tomorrow ought to be a lot of fun...

[hammermill]

you are progressing, which is good indeed. lets hope the loops prove popular.

[rustyh]

I'm building and donating them for all our paragliding spots on Vancouver Island and here on Hornby. At least 2 per site, one at launch and the other at the LZ. At night I get out my sewing machine and sew the socks. I have been testing ripstop fabric quality, weights, and colours this last year. Also collecting decomposition times on the ripstop, various sock shapes, and frame designs.

Here's one where the white fabric just fell apart after 4 months. I found the pieces a quarter mile down the runway, and the white fabric just disintegrated in my hands. The white was a cheap ripstop from the local fabric store, I have since found a high quality ripstop from a Seattle supplier that is currently being tested, and is standing up pretty well.

Of course my sewing skills are deplorable. I have a whole new regard for seamstresses.

[hammermill]

you want something uv resistant for sure, a few years ago i wanted tool rolls and ditty bags for gloves and other gear. wound up buying a sewing/upolistery machine and learning to sew in a crude but acceptable manner. you will get it figured out and be wiser for the experence. my most common fabrics are canvas from drop cloths the paint shops sell them cheep and in large sizes also old jeans legs for glove bags.

try this ????
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&keyword ... r%20fabric

[rustyh]

Hammermill, some of those products look good.


My fabric supplier recommends to spray the ripstop with Armor All. However, the paraglider manufacturers do not. I figure I'll be sewing new socks for each season as wind damage is more probable.

[rustyh]

Update:
Okay, the Meco torch arrived Friday afternoon as I was leaving to go to town. I've ended up having to do 3 First Aid Certification requirements (every three years, and one more to complete in the middle of the month) for my marine endorsements and Transport Canada. So I won't be able to get welding until at least Tuesday....until then....

[rustyh]

I finally got to sit down and get started. First I had to move the tanks from my turning shop out to the old dog run which is partially roofed, giving good air flow and a dry place to work. I had a tall metal square garbage can that I made a top for and placed a pier block in the bottom. It's a nice pedestal work table. I then mounted a 1/4" plate of alu to the side so I can clamp coupons to it. The dog run has heavy wire fencing along the back wall and with the help of some old dog chain and clips the tanks are secure.

I was up at the scrap yard before I came home from the First Aid courses and picked up a pile of plates of various thicknesses. I cut several plates into strips then bent into "L" shapes. Following the routine of the video's from Tin Man I brush cleaned, heated and then fluxed pairs of plates and stacked aside. It was just around freezing here, so I found the flow through my single stage regs to be up and down, difficult to control for any length of time. I'd get it set up and the flame would slowly recede, no matter what tip I used. But I played with it and will look into double stage regs down the road.

The regulators are new Victors, the torch a Meco and the tips I used that first day were the 00, 0, 1, 2, and 3. The coupons I made up were from some thin flashing, and some at 1/16", and 1/8" of unknown grades of aluminum. I had TM's flux and his TM 2000 glass mounted in head gear. 5356 .035" mig wire and flux core rod to add to the puddle.

I used a bunch of odd sized plates left over from cutting up the coupon materials to see what each tip size would do. I ran melts down the plates and burned holes on all the flat plates. Tried several different consistencies of flux to see how they melted and ran.

Finally I started on my first set of plates. Trying to tack each end proved to be a problem. I added more oxy and didn't preheat the plate so the flux would disappear and when the ends finally melted the plates wouldn't bond. So I'd move the flame down the seam, watch the flux melt and then the alu would melt and bond in a beautifully smooth bead. I had to be fast and track down the seam to keep the flow consistent and the bead uniform. If I paused for a millisecond the bead would enlarge and the seam would have a dip. I was pretty happy with the results, so experimented with each coupon, adding more flux, burning down the seam, and trying different tips.

I haven't listed all I've gone through, but things that caught my attention and problems that I am working to solve I'll list as I think or experience them. Firstly, it seems I needed more flux than I first thought, so made the paste thicker and put more on, especially at the tacking ends. The mig wire seems too thin at .035, so will look into a heavier wire size. When first starting a new thickness of plate, I seemed to chose a tip too small, I hope this will change as I get used to how all this works. Following the bead and centering and directing the flame was critical, much more important that I imagined. Just a little to one plate or the other and they wouldn't melt at the same rate and the bead would then have a dip as I caught the higher side. As I have a vise bender, the "L" shape was about 1/2" in depth on the short side. Thinking about this, I'll cut them down so the short side is more like a 1/4". As I don't know what alloy of alu I'm using, I found dabbing with the wire or rod had mixed results, and probably a lot to do with my inexperience. The gradual change in my gas settings was frustrating. As I work away I find I keep adding tools and will experiment with clamping, reducing the heat sink, preheating, and remember just how hot a coupon is after sitting for awhile....that hurt!

More to come, I'm sure.....

[hammermill]

thanks for the update watch the hot coupons they do cause flat finger tips. ouch

course it don,t take long to look at them

[rustyh]

Yep, learned that lesson fast, just was so excited by the process and I had moved a bunch of the coupons into a discard pile with pliers. Then wasn't thinking when I went to check some of them out and finding the last to be thrown on the pile was still skin singeing hot...battle scars......

I forgot to mention that the TM2000 glass filter was exceptional. It gave a crystal clear view of the material and flame, unlike my other filter sets. The headgear was very comfortable and easily adjusted. The combination of the two would, in my opinion, be a necessity if one were to get into this method of welding. Worth every penny at $184 for the glass and $24 for the headgear. I had to take a gulp when I made the purchase, but it really is the visual answer.

I'm near sighted and wear glasses full time and the headgear fits over the glasses without a problem, very comfortable. However, for welding, I took them off as my focal lengths forced me to use the torch at arms length, much too far away. So lucky me, but good to know they work well if you need to wear glasses. Although I haven't tried, there is accommodation for magnification and/or prescription lenses if you'd like to have them installed, it's a great setup, well designed, and perfect at $24.

[hammermill]

now adays many folks get a inexpensive pair set for the focal legenth they work at, i do this with the computer,
sayes a lot of head rocking. if you wear bifocals it may also be pratical to get a pair with the bifocal in the top of the lens. by ordering them to fit a old set of frames the cost can really drop. also dont over look dallor store cheaters, grab a few in differient stregenths to see how you do.

i am supprised to hear the term heatsinks, al being such a efficient conducter of same.

[GlennW]

What color is the filter?