Hey,
When welding some aluminum this weekend I discovered that I was adding filler rod when I didn't need to be. I was making a lot of corner welds where I was welding on the outside of the corner and I was trying to add filler rod thinking that it was necessary. Somewhere along the way I noticed that if I just let the heat pour into the joint evenly on boths pieces of metal eventually the two puddles would "pop" together forming one nice little puddle that I could push down the seam without adding ANY filler.

Upon further reading on the internet it seems that there are many kinds of joints that don't require any filler rod which really suprised me, I just assumed that the rod was a critical part of the process. It appears that on the thinner aluminum adding rod is most often not needed especially if you're making non load bearing parts.

This may be common knowledge to the welding masters here but it was a major breakthrough for me so I thought I'd share incase it helps anyone here.

Thanks,
Free

 

How are you fitting up your outside corner? I leave a nice V by lining up the inside edges of the square cut pieces and fill the V in with filler. easiest weld ever and much stronger than mitering the pieces at a 45 deg angle and fusing the edge. AL also has a tendency to crack really really easily when fused.

 

I've been just lapping one piece over the edge of the other one, flush with the top, kinda hard to explain for some reason.

Fred

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Fred_Allen_Burge &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I've been just lapping one piece over the edge of the other one, flush with the top, kinda hard to explain for some reason.

Fred</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah I get what you are saying. That's probably why you find it easier to fuse the pieces together. If you understood what I said in my previous post (i suck at explaining things) you will find it much much easier to weld with filler and will probably never fuse an outside corner again

 

I use this property all the time. I made an air box for a Chevy S-10 and use maybe 10" of filler for the whole deal.

It pretty much goes like this:



Mine comes out looking like this:




Just make sure you have atleast a "heat trail" on the other side of the weld. This insures a strong weld. Otherwise, chances are you don't have good penetration and the weld would crack.

Good luck

 

Ya, I follow you, I'll try that next time. I don't see how you keep the two pieces jigged together though?

Fred

 

corner clamps for AL, corner magnets for steel

 

some aluminum cannot be fused together, and can only be welded with the correct filler rod. So if you find yourself messing up, make sure you look into what type of al your going to be welding be for you start going hog wild and messing up some expensive aluminum.

 

My welding teacher said that fusion welding alu can cause it to crack.

 

If it's done with certain types of aluminum. Some are fine, but the others must be welded with filler, or it will crack as you stated.

 

btw its not a "heat trail" its an "etch" trail when your tig welder is in the etching side of the square wave(i believe DCEN)...then it switches to penetration. This adjustment is your balance. Lower your number the more etch(cleaning)higher the number the more penetration

 

I'm not familiar with some of the terminology, but I'm talking about the back (penetration) side of the weld, not the top.

I believe this is what's you're referring to as "etch trail", correct?


What I'm referring to is the back side of the weld. I was under the impression that it was called the heat trail.

 

The cleaning portion of the arc is when it is on the EP side of the cycle. The oxides form on the outside of the bead, the "etch trail" that ernie is talking about.