Aluminum welding, CSaddict, Hotrex, give me some advice.
 

Here are some pics of a 3" ic piping I'm welding for my car. I checked for pin holes. Please give me some advice. I'm not a good welder but I'm practicing every single moment I have free.

http://home.nyc.rr.com/pikachu/Fab/aluminum%20011.jpg

I'm not great but I tested it for leaks with with water and filling the inside.

Thanks guys.

Re: Aluminum welding, CSaddict, Hotrex, give me some advice.
 

I just called hotrex...he says to dip the metal in cheap malt liquor before you weld it and it will look beautiful.

on a more serious note...if you're just starting out it looks pretty decent...and if it doesnt leak, then hey, all is well.

i know the material probably isnt very thick, but try beveling the edges of both pieces so you have a nice V to weld into...kinda like how the manifold elbows that everyone uses have a beveled edge to them

Re: Aluminum welding, CSaddict, Hotrex, give me some advice.
 

I don't do any aluminum John. I only do Steel.

Re: Aluminum welding, CSaddict, Hotrex, give me some advice.
 

did you wirebrush that after you welded it? it looks like you did to me... it would be better not to before you ask for help.

what kind of filler are you using? what kind of tungsten? what amps? give some more details.

with aluminum it helps to pre-heat your base metal before you weld it.

i can give you more advice after i know what your setup is maybe.

Re: Aluminum welding, CSaddict, Hotrex, give me some advice.
 

Fook, this is 1/16 material. It's really really really thin. One wrong move and you'll blow a hole thru it. I love a challenge.

WeiRtech,I did wire brush right after. I wire brushed before because the material is all chrome and stuff. Material is 1/16th aluminum. I'm using the following settings.

Preflow .1sec
Hot Start 20amps
Base Amps 70amps @ 100hz with 20% balance
Postflow 6.0sec

How come it's not shiny? I think i need to clean the inside of the pipe before welding. I only used a brush to clean to the outside. I think I need to clean the inside with acetone or something to clean it up. I notice the dirt just comes all the way up to the top.

Well, it doesn't leak and it works. I need to get consistant. The welds don't leak which is the really important part.

John

Re: Aluminum welding, CSaddict, Hotrex, give me some advice.
 

Did you brush it before or after the weld? If you brushed it before, its not shiny because of too much heat, after because it dulls it with the wire brush.

Re: Aluminum welding, CSaddict, Hotrex, give me some advice.
 

What dia filler rod are you using?

Re: Aluminum welding, CSaddict, Hotrex, give me some advice.
 

i've welded the same piping without doing any cleaning at all without a problem. it is just polished, not chromed. using acetone is not nescassary for most welding unless the base metal is really oily or greasy. if you do wire brush it make sure you DON'T use a carbon steel wire brush but a stainless steel or brass wire brush.

turn your amps down to 25-30 amps. set your argon flow at about 15-20. make sure you are using a pure tungsten (green) electrode and sharpen it to a point, don't ball it as is suggested by most people. it will ball itself. make sure your gap is 0 and you could even try doing some antogenous welding with this stuff so you get a feel for how little filler you need to add.

Re: Aluminum welding, CSaddict, Hotrex, give me some advice.
 

;)

Re: Aluminum welding, CSaddict, Hotrex, give me some advice.
 

The thing is if I reduce the amperage, it would take forever to melt the base metal. Argon flow is at 20. I am using pure tungsten. The only thing that I may really change is that I'm using 1/16 tungsten and I think I should switch to 3/32. I'm also using a stainless brush. I am using 3/32 filler... should i get some 1/16 filler? I don't leave any gap actually. I did notice that it seemed there was too much filler.