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Anyone used Alumiweld before?
Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:19 pm
by redrustbucket
Trying to weld/braze an aluminum tubed up zzmt crawler cage with Alumiweld. So far all I've really had success attaching together is thin sheets of aluminum. I carved an FJ40 hood out of a thicker chunk of aluminum but I can't get the Alumiweld to really stick to it. I'm guessing it's due to the amount of heat but I'm not sure. Just wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to work with this stuff better. I'm not very good at brazing. Usually I give up on my brakeline tubers and just weld them with my mig.
Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 6:35 pm
by Clint
man, that tiny tubing is going to be tough. there's not much material to
work with as it needs to dissolve the metal for adhesion. (not like
soldering). you need to make sure the surfaces arent contaminated.
get a good stainless steel brush(and dont use it for anything other than
aluminum) and scratch it up a bit. shiny=good. now heat up the metal
individually to get a thin coating of alumiweld on the welding surfaces.
the trick is to now use the cold end of the alumiweld rod and as you heat
up your workpeice again, scratch the alumiweld rod onto it, and it should
hold.
Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 6:53 pm
by redrustbucket
Word, that sounds like it would work. I've gotten it to work ok but tend to end up with too much alumiweld on the joint if it sticks at all. I didn't think of flipping the stick to the cold end to set it off. Thanks for the tip Clint I'll give it a whirl.
Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 7:04 pm
by ChemicalInDependency
Honestly I would stick with brazing, ive never had very good luck with Alumiweld. If you have access to a liquid cooled TIG welder that would be the best because you can focus the arc in a very small area, that and you have more controll with the amout of heat produced.
Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 7:31 pm
by redrustbucket
No tig. I could just braze it but I don't know if I could get brazing rod that would work without destroying such small tubing ie. with a low enough melting point?
Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 8:49 pm
by hue35
Here's what I was looking at getting... looks like the same as alumiweld, only cheaper.
http://www.amazon.com/BAC-Industries-Pr ... RZQB6&s=hi
"Working temp: 732deg F"
Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 9:18 pm
by redrustbucket
Yeah, looks the same. Wish I'd seen it before I got the Alumiweld. I didn't get a brush either.