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This week’s video is about tig welding 7 aluminum parts.
I was busy building a plasma cutting table when these parts were brought to me. 7 assemblies made from one inch aluminum round stock and one inch bar stock.
These 7 parts seem to be some type of fancy pry bar that will be used to pry expensive parts to disassemble a precision machine.
That is why I reckon the parts are made out of aluminum and why they have a strip of nylon fastened along the thick member.
Anyway, the main thing is that they are straight… and that I don’t melt off the .120″ thick lip on the smallest part.
Using a 250f preheat along with the Miller Dynasty 2000DX set at 100-15 hz helped.
I should have cleaned these parts better.
I should have dipped them in degreaser, wiped them down, wire brushed them, and baked them.
But I didn’t.
They interupted another job and I just wanted to get them done so I just gave them a quick wipe withe acetone… it wasn’t quite enough.
I met a guy down in Florida at Sun ‘n Fun who says Easy Off oven cleaner works good for an aluminum cleaner.
Next time, I will try it and let you know how it works for cleaning aluminum prior to welding.
( And as always, feel free to visit us at our sister site, WeldingTipsAndTricks.com. )
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April 18, 2012 at 9:52 AM
Thank’s for the lesson. We join a lot of .090″ to 1/4″ material and so your lesson this week is of special interest to us.
A couple of very helpful points were the pre-heating of the heavy part and then keeping the electrode more toward the heavy material and letting it flow onto the .120″ material before finishing the joint.
As for cleaning, I wipe a wetted paper towel over the surface area and squirt acetone onto a SS wire brush to scratch-prep the joint.
April 15, 2012 at 12:58 AM
Jody:
Thanks for all the TIG tips, im just about. To startup another Miller Econotwin HF after being away from tig welding for 30 yrs.
Could you post some comments on HF radiation interference?
Our alarm system is triggered when I use the Miller Econotwin in HF mode.
Thanks, David