Yeah, I love people who bring me alum. to fix after they have tried to fix it with JB weld. As soon as I see that double the price!! I'm in the Lancaster/Harrisburg PA area and have my own shop at home if anybody needs aluminum, stainless steel or carbon steel welding done look me up!! Oh yeah bring the beer, class is in session
thanks for the input guys. I am only planning on welding stuff onto my trailer, and making/reparing my fairing stays and stuff like that, so I wont be welding all the time. I am looking to keep it under $500
I would recomend Tig welding it. Most low dollar Mig welders wont do what you need anyway. AC is pretty much a must. You need the samll amount of DCEP to get the oxide broken up and the DCEN to get any heat input/penetration. If you have a good machine you can control the wave form how your want it (mostly DCEN, but with some DCEP). As previously noted......CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN for Al welding (Oxide). 230v is probably needed as well to get the heat input needed. Other than that, good luck. Jeff - Welding Engineer (really)
Yep, what Jeff said. I also pre-heat my aluminum with a real fancy Coleman camp stove. Use white gas in it so it burns clean without carbon smut. It seems to help prevent melting your whole job in a puddle (Which I have also done) Oh, and practice, practice, practice before you hit the good stuff, especially thin wall fairing stays. Wait till you get to the end of the tube, and you'll see what I mean.
Fairing stay trick.... Get a peice of bar stock, bend to the right shape, stick an inch or so in either end of the broken stay, weld around the joint. Dont have to worry about destroying it. Works great and wont break there anymore. Jeff