Any tips on stick welding aluminum? I have a tig , mig and ac/dc stick welder but welding conditions are less than ideal for any gas use as I am trying to weld a railing on an aluminum boat outside in 10-25 mph wind. The aluminum is fairly oxidized on the existing rail. Even if I did not have wind, I would never consider tig welding this because of the long welds needed and oxidation.

 

Good luck. http://www.zena.net/htdocs/welders/Rods/Aluminum.shtml

 

didnt work well for me either, the stick diappears very quickly!

 

Anyone tryed this stuff? It works with a torch. http://aluminumrepair.com/land/index.asp?src=msn Check out the video http://www.aluminumrepair.com/video_new.asp

 

I have been wanting to try this stuff it looks pretty tuff.

 

I have some HTS2000, which is suppose to be better than that alumirod, and there is stuff called durafix. I have used it. Filled a 3/8" hole in the bottom of a pop can on the first try just like in the video, but the second time I burned thru. Thats really thin aluminum though, and I have a brazing mapp gas torch. EDIT youtube version of the video is unwatchable.

 

A guy that used to be a member tryed it and said it worked good , i would use an O/A torch though.

 

That hts2000 looks interesting. I have an oxy- acetylene torch. I might just give that a try or at least get some in case the stick welding doesn't work well. I have a 4 foot long crack to fix and about 32 feet of angle that needs to be welded on. I wonder how much of that stuff I would need?

 

The aluma-fix type brazing rod is available at Harbor Freight for $12 a box.

A friend had some small rot holes in his jon boat. It worked really well with just map gas. I tried it on some old ecm housings and some smaller stuff with good results "testing" it. Its brazing with low melting point alum.

One thing though. CLEAN THE CRAP out of the metal with a dedicated stainless brush. He also mentioned it "flows" better using some 40 grit to roughen up the surface some.

 

I would use a pencil torch on really thin aluminum, a mapp gas brazing torch on stuff thats up to 1/8 inch or so, and for thick stuff I would use oxy/act with a rose bud. I have read where people have used it to join there whole intercooler piping with good success. That alumirod at harbor freight has good reviews too. I would get a box of 50 of the HTS2000. It works better than you can imagine, but you can go through a rod pretty quick. Might as well get enough to build something. I actually want to build a custom intake manifold upper with the stuff. Should work.

 

Here are some oxy-acetylene welding videos:
http://www.cut-like-plasma.com/info_welding_aluminum.htm

 

Furchaser? Didn't he use a propane torch?

 

I have this torch, and it does work great for cutting just like they say, but for welding its no better than a victor. Its too heavy, and the gas flow changes when you point the flame down to weld for some reason. Not a deal breaker, but there is a guy that sells a torch for like 135.00 that is a good torch for gas welding.

 

I finished the boat this weekend. The aluminum stick welding worked well on dc+ ~90 amps with preheating. If you tried to weld it cold, the weld would not penetrate well. Any higher on the amps and it would just blow through. It worked great on the crack, but was very messy(a lot of chipping and grinding). We totally lucked out and the wind died enough for me to weld on the long sections of aluminum angle with the mig! I tried the HTS2000 on a vertical weld inside the boat that had cracked, but all it did was just warp the aluminum and run down when it got hot enough to melt. I will have to try that stuff on a regular flat surface before I come to any conclusions on it.

 

Yep ... just a plain old propane piece of crap ...I just wanted to see if I could do it ..
It's a little difficult to work with when you get thicker material because the rod wants to burn away first .

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You? Thought you were dead. How's it going?

 

Okay , just getting rid of the second wife ....