"too thin" is just another phrase for "not enough skills". I agree it can be done.

 

I’ve used aluminum braze with success on some air cleaners I made. Can be used with a propane torch (I used oxy/ acetylene). Orchard Supply sells it, though I haven’t tried theirs. Here is a link to a video of the process. http://www.durafix.com/ And a photo of my air cleaner.

 

About 2 months ago, I got a rock caught in between the fan and the radiator. The tip of one of the water passages got a nick in it. It held pressure when I blew in, but leaked like a sieve when hot. I called everywhere, and there was only one place around here that would do a tiny, aluminum spot-weld. Not many companies are doing radiator repair anymore. Anyway, it's worked just fine ever since. He tested it to 40 psi, I believe. My bike runs 210-220 when it's warm out. YMMV.

 

Yeah it's uncanny what these guys can do. I got a customer (just the wierdest duck in the river) who is certified in 30 different types of welding. He's good from surgical gear to professional kitchen devices. CaptainChaos has just come through school for this and I'm sure these pros like to come around and show off for the new students. As well, if you're good I'm sure as your certification grows, answering the phone gets easier by the day. With all the exotic metals that are out there in use in sports cars to hospitals, somebody gotta fix this **** when it breaks.

 

re. the welding kits :

Is there anyone here who has hands on experience with this material.

My guru is an ex toolmaker from Pratt Whitney, He tried and tried with the stuff and finally gave it away. He says the next guy didn't have any luck either.

Seems to me, if you were meticulous with surface prep and got some feel for flow point you'd have a pretty good chance.

I don't want to blow $40 (the minimum cost for the aluminum rod) if it's going to be that tricky. I can do a job with JB WELD for a lot less.

I'm already down on myself enough for the wreck itself. I don't need another failure here.

Tom

 

I just went back and followed Greg's link instead of searching. The search was getting hijacked to a competing brand of rod for the first hits.

I amend my question. Is the durafix specific material greatly superior to the other materials that have been around.

My guru remembers seing the demo man at the flea market welding/ braxing everything in sight with the stuff he bought and couldn't get the hang of using.

I AM impressed with greg's air cleaner work!!!

Tom

 

The best way to weld aluminum is w/ a spool gun. I'd strongly recommend finding somebody w/ this capability. My company does all process welding (TIG, Stick, MIG, etc..) and welds all materials, and we've found using a spool gun the best way to weld aluminum. TIG is nice, but most smaller machines don't carry the amperage to really penetrate and bond the materials. Also, bare in mind that w/ TIG, unless you are using a filler material, you can severely contort the metal. MIG/spool gunning it not only gives a proper bond/weld, but you're also depositing material into the work area. Granted, not everyone carries high tech welding gear, but I'd strongly suggest finding a weld shop w/ a spool gun or MIG.
ps. alot of those "miracle" brazing rods are about as useless as chicken sh_t on a pump handle. Good Luck...

 

I don't mean to disagree, but I will anyway I think you might have a hard time getting people to agree with your saying mig is a better way to weld aluminum than tig. What exactly are you welding? Now of course done properly both and many other welding and brazing methods will all work. How come all racecar frames, motorcycle frames, fishing towers, and most any other precision work that also needs to look nice are all tig welded. Though slower, tig is a much more precise weld that mig/wire feed. It also looks like a roll of dimes where mig kinda looks like mush. Not that it won't work, but there's no way you can weld thin metals and pinpoint your weld puddle with mig the way you can with tig. Tig also allows you to see the weld puddle much better. For his application the problem is that the metal is so thin already. If the people trying to tig weld it are having problems they need to use a thinner tungsten, a thinner filler rod, and turn the amperage down and be PATIENT with the heat starting the puddle. Like I said I only took a month and a half class but definitely learned to tig flat & vertical well enough to get certified (didn't feel like paying for it) and pretty well overhead too. And one of the instructors could tig weld the foil in a cigarette pack. Sorry but you just cant mig that. You'll only severely contort the metal if you're hamfisted and don't know what the heck you're doing and use too much heat-regardless of whether you're using mig or tig. And how are you not depositing material with tig welding? You're using a filler rod! The only time you don't is if the pieces fit together so well that you don't need to, like a root pass when welding steel pipe together. And then you'll make several more passes using the filler rod. Also I've welded stainless pipe together w/o a filler rod, but it has to fit together perfect. And you can also tig weld in a t-shirt and shorts, where you get molten hot **** spattering all over the place with mig welding, and anyone who does it you'll see wearing a jacket that looks like swiss cheese.

 

I have done just a little mig welding, CC and I agree, I'd like to see more of my work. The helmet that I was using was way to strong for my old eyes - I couldn't see **** at best. It is a bit like welding with a machine gun. Again, you're right it's the puddle not the line. It brought out my old high school hot rod days with an arc welder. I bought a mig setup over the winter just because I got a fab deal on it and it's all in the box - no missing pieces. Runs on 40amps of 220. With all the **** we break and make around here the mig will have it's place. Is it possible that the same unit will do tig as well. Is it just a matter of different tips and gas? I thought I read that on the box.

Sounds like you had a blast at this school

 

It was cool, can't learn fast enough you know? The best part was it was something I've wanted to try as far back as I can remember. It's much like learning alot of other things-impossible when you first start but once you start doing it right you wonder what was so hard about it. Having said that I'm in no way an expert. I really want to buy a nice machine to practice on but even the smallest new tig machines are like $1500 for a setup. They have so many different machines, but from the little I've seen the same machines can be used to arc and tig. You use argon (the "ig" or inert gas in mig and tig) for both mig and tig. I've dont know if they have machines that can be switched around to do everything but that doesn't mean they don't exist (they probably do). The mig welders are nice because they're cheap and easy and great for all kinds of general repairs. You can switch the wire and add a bottle of shielding gas to yours to weld aluminum, but it's still wire feed mig welding. But for precision work and for welds you're going to see tig is the way to go. I even picked up up a pair of rashed two bros slips ons and brought them in to try my new (lack of) skills on. I managed to lay some nice beads where the inlet caps and one of the cans were all ground away. Ground them back to shape and sanded them and they look brand new! Too cool!! Also tried welding stainless exhaust pipe and had mixed results. Burns through VERY easily. Did finally switch out to a thinner tungsten and use some thinner filler rod and started getting the hang of it. It's really slow and you need sharp eyes and a very steady hand but it's alot of fun when you get it right. My instructor had great hands but was more of a pipe welder. Not much experience with the thinner stuff. Would be real nice to get a chance to work side by side with someone who builds real tedious stuff like custom exhausts and stuff like that. Oh well they have another class in a couple weeks but I don't know if I'll have the time to take it.

 

No ****! That's exactly where this is going. Right after I started hanging here, one of the guys on the UK forum posted what he had worked all winter on - complete custom undertail exhaust with the collector box under the seat and dual shotguns out the back. It was just totally ****! Lots of bends that were carefully pieced together it was a work of art. The collector box fit under the seat like your console in the Vette. And I bet it sounded badass too! Had to be all tig. Shortly after it was posted I went to refer back to it for one of the guys on the forum and never could find it. It was real picture intensive so maybe they took it down for that. Truly a loss for fabricators everywhere.

 

Yeah that kind of fabrication takes years of practice and some real talent. Big difference between being able to lay a weld bead and building stuff like that...I know mrbillet is pretty good-he fabbed up an sp2 swingarm to his superhawk and also made it so his bike kept the stock wheelbase. I actually pm'd him again because I'm thinking of pissing away my next paycheck and having him build me one...woohoo then I can mount up a set of aftermarket rc51 wheels. Just mounted a brembo radial master cylinder. This bike is turning into a ******* obsession....

 

And by the way that is really nice work Greg!

 

put another toy on the list. Santa is getting very tired of me.

Wait a minute . . . I AM Santa!

Yippee, yippee! Santa is coming!

 

I hate to tell you this, but my company is a metal fab, subcontract welding organisation w 2 certified welders in all process welding including pipe and sanitary/food grade. Ham fisted does not apply either. I whole heartedly agree w/ what you say about TIG, I own 4 TIG machines which we run every day, but in our experience a spool gun (and I emphasize spool gun) is a better way to weld aluminum. Funny thing is, I just welded custom tabs onto a radiator for some shade tree mechanic yesterday - (guess what we used?), the TIG got parked..... If you're worried about spatter when welding, either use an Anti Spatter spray, or WD-40. My bad on the filler rod thing, I did forget to mention that. Congratulations to you on your SS pipe welding, we've welded entire processing plants w/ out a stitch of filler - it's called back purge.....Oh yeah, if you're TIG welding w/ a T shirt and shorts for a prolonged time (my employees are required to wear full protective gear), I hope you've got some good sun burn lotion, and a dextrous significant other....

 

LOL yeah I figured I'd hear about the sunburn! If you're doing it all day yeah, you'll want to wear some sunblock and/or just a long sleeve shirt, but for shorter stuff/repairs in the garage it's kinda like going out into the sun. No need to hate to tell me your company welds...the way you describe it it just didn't sound like you were that familiar with tig welding. Like I said done properly many techniques will all work, but tig is the most precise and the prettiest. I never said other methods done properly wouldn't work.

 

Yeah Chaos, I get ya'. We do an extreme amount (and I mean extreme..) of welding and fab. TIG is one of our specialties, and we've been sanitary/food grade pipe welding for 10 years. I've done alot of aluminum too (along w/ everything else..) and have had tremendous luck/success w/ the spool gun. TIG on aluminum is nice, but 1st off you need an AC machine (all of our machines are DC except for one Thermal Arc unit..), you should be running the rare earth Tungsten (some call it pure tungsten), and you need to blunt your tip. Kind of a pain when I can hook my spool gun to one of my power MIG 255's or one of my Ranger 250's you know??? Anyways, enough on the metal working crap, I should be out riding. Later....

 

Thanks for the tip re. look for a good welder.

I found an Air Conditioning Supply place with a heliarc. A few hours and $20 later, my Radiator is good as new. Didn't have to buy $40 worth of rod and the subsequent frustration, while hoping I don't screw up my radiator beyond repair while I learn.

Miles of Smiles
Tom

 

HAHA he TIGGED it he TIGGED it LOL!!! I'm only kidding... Wow nice guy $20??!!! Better keep his number around... Cool when people help you out like that. Back in college I was racing a new mustang on the expressway with my old vette and just had it buried/redlined in 4th and pulled out one of the crap stock pressed in studs in the head. Well a local guy in an engine shop tapped it in and drilled and pinned it for $10. That's how I like to do things for people when I can.

 

Glad it’s taken care of. It’s pretty rare to pay someone less to do a job than what it would cost DIY.