..............

 

try bumping the ac balance up to 7.5 - 8

as for holding the pieces i usually have someone there to help so i have them hold it
or i prop them up against other items then tack

 

I sometimes use that green masking tape to hold everything in place while I tack it, especially charge pipes. As long as it's a few inches away from your tack it's a pretty clean way to hold things together.

Also, keep a bunch of steel and aluminum blocks around to prop stuff up with. I have a few that are around 1" x 2" x 4" that I milled square and some other ones of various sizes and shapes. they make great heat sinks too if you are welding small parts.

 

to get the part in place i just no filler tack it, then adjust it and then do a filler tack, where and how many depends on the part.

tack it by getting both pieces molten and try to join that puddle/dap filler in the middle of each "half puddle"

 

use powder coating tape instead it withstands heat a lot better than masking tape and it won't leave melted adhesive on your parts.

 

Not a bad idea. Does it have much strength? The green 3M masking tape can hold quite a lot in tensile. I always wipe every thing down with a solvent after mock up anyway, but yeah If you get masking tape hot it gets gooey. The green stuff does smell like pineapple when it burns though...which is nice

 

Just get some aluminum magnets

 

hey, where can i get some of those aluminum magnets? i'd love to find a set.

 

keep tryin it, try to use gravity with you, use a like BARELY enough pedal to get the part melted, i kind do a 2 finger hold the plate there USE a small piece of filler to stab the tack type method if i am alone

 

it is stronger than automotive masking tape but it doesn't have a pineapple smell.

sdubfid while you are learning use 1/16" filler to tack, as for as technique heat up one side until it wets then bump the power a little while simultaneously moving to the other side and adding filler, if its a closed corner joint start your heat on the overlapped side. you'll get it just takes practice like everything else.

 

only works on magnetic aluminum

 

I've got some of those AL magnets. $100 a set. All sales are final.

To tack AL with no filler you have to hit it with a lot of amps really fast and then let off just as fast. They don't typically hold really well so I go back over and retack with filler before welding.