Aluminium alloy TIG welding
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Well as most of you know I bought an AC/DC TIG set a while ago. Thus far I've only really done ferrous (DC) stuff with it, mainly mild steel. With a bit of practise I can now do pretty neat welds on steel, such as this




The other day Carl kindly fetched me some alloy scrap and a few welding rods so I started to have a play with AC welding.

However with the Castle Combe day looming I had to drag out the horrible "turbo house" I made last year to satisfy the scrutineers, some of you may remember it, a reasonably shite creation but good enough.




Anyway, I've had a go at welding it together, considering its the first proper go I've had at welding something useful in alloy I'm more than chuffed!

Nice work - hell of a lot better than I could do thats for sure!

Looks good Tom, it's not an easy art.

looks damn good.

i really want to get into tig welding but seeing as im waiting on £600 worth of mig i wont be doing it any time soon!

just going to have to mig up an exhaust untill i can afford a tig.

so when do you start doing the Crank posistion sensor brackets yourself then haha

looks good tom

Well done.

I've not tried it yet either but I'm about to start fabricating my intercooler end tanks.

So tell us what size tungsten, filler rod, amps etc did you use?

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

blimey !! good job .

Medusa + injection = too much torque for the dyno ..https://youtu.be/qg5o0_tJxYM

Tungsten was 3.2mm, about 65A, filler rod not sure, maybe 1.5mm, no heavier than that anyhow.

Main thing is however that part of the thing to be welded was 4mm ally, I think that must definitely help things a lot due to being able to sink quite a lot more heat before melting!

nice one mate, i better get my camera out now and photo the old girl, now you have alloy welded it

Best 1/4 mile 13.2 seconds @116 mph
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Very good job there tom! :)

great job, looks good :cool:

Yes i moved to the darkside

Instagram @jdm_brett

Looks good. Its not as easy as it looks when some people do it. I am so out of practice that the boss does most of the welding at work as he is more proficient.

Now aluminium gas welding is the one i want to have a go at ballsing up!!

well done tom. looks like nice welds, im going to college next year to do my city and guilds in welding! hopefully i can make my own ali tanks and nice bracketry.

im so stupid. i bought a new 50" plasma tv and forgot to buy the tig or lathe instead. So now im stuck whit a 50" tv and a 32" pc screen and no cool toys in the garage.

Nice weld.

good one Thomas!

Thanks for teaching me the TIG basics the other day

If thats your first go, Im impressed. See if you can get away with just a little less gas, it might neaten it up a little, other than that its just practice.
Nice one

Paul

I seriously doubt it!

Very impressed.!

You can not show and tell and not offer a tig welding service now..

I've got a few things you can practice on if you have the time.

Si

I drill holes in everything..!

Looks extremely tidy for a first attemp doing something on the DON. I get the feeling we are going to see alot more aluminium alloy fabricated items now you've got your eye in. Maybe even some peeps will want something made up from by your good self.

-MINI CLUBMAN 1380 TURBO-

And this is just showing off.



Most people take years to get to this standard

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

top stuff Tom, can you remind me how much was your tig set again?, very tempted!!

Team Racing

It was £385 I think Jim, can't honestly remember for definite though. I'm pleased with it, it may not be up to the spec of the £1500 miller machines but its certainly good enough for me.

The mild steel welding above chaps honestly isn't that difficult! I have to say that the one shown is the result of plenty of practise, and also Phil had 1/2 hr with me on it giving me some pointers from someone who knows what they are doing rather than myself who is self taught. Carl has also given me some pointers on the alloy side of things.
After my success with that last night I had an attempt first at welding some 1" round tube to a flat plate, internal corners are much harder to get started, but I managed to stick it together although no where near as tidy as the bit that is pictured above. Then I cut a couple of wedges out of 1" tube and did a small lobsterback bend, again not as tidy as above but practise makes perfect.
Before I tried I was convinced that alloy welding was some kind of black art but I have to say after having tried doing a bit I'll certainly be more confident to try a few things in future. One of the main things I have found is actually getting enough heat in there is the problem, I'm suprised at this as I thought it would be the other way around, e.g. putting too much in and melting everything, but if it isn;t hot enough you just get a horrible black scorched mess!

Cheers Tom, I think I'll have to buy one of these for the wife for christmas, she may not use it, but I know I will

Team Racing

I thought exactly the same Tom,

ally is easier than everyone reckons, jus follow a few simple rules ant its not to hard at all,

1) make sure everythings clean clean clean,

2) stainless brush everything, brushing in one direction as much as possible as aparently you can push dirt into the metal if brushing back and forward.

3) if you have a big job preheat it, despite ally having a low mealting point it does not just melt away at ba wave of the torch, the heat really does vanish into/along it,

4) dont turn the gas up too much, when welding in corners you can destabilise the arc with the gas flow. pretty sure i use 8 CFM for most stuff (8 somthings anyway)

on the miller website there is a good manual/handbook with lots of useful info, well worth downloading.

blimey tom thats some nice welding