Aluminum weld

[Dan]

I learned how to weld aluminum 17+ years ago. After school was over, I really never had any need to weld it again, until recently. well, since I at least knew how to weld aluminum at one time , and nobody else on the job know how to, I was given the job . Anyway, I had a couple scrap pieces left and decided to run a sample weld on them. I'd say at least 95% of my welds turned out to this level (see attachment) or better on the project I was working on. BTW, the material is 1/4" thick, and the weld joint is a butt, that i gapped about 3/32 of an inch. On the real project, I had to give the material a very healthy preheat for my Lincoln Squarewave 175 to get the job done.

[yardman1]

Looks great, are you sure it wasn't 17 days ago that you welded aluminum or 17 yrs.

kevin

[tigman]

Just like riding a bike, somethings you never forget.

Great looking welds, I see your talent is not limited to SS

[TOMWELDS]

Nice job Dan...how did you do the preheat? O/A?

[ruben]

that is nice welding for not welding in such a long time.

[Sammy da bull]

Looks like a stack of dimes pal! nice!

[RcRacer]

Dan,
Great looking bead! You guys make me envious
PS. I haven't done aluminum yet with my TA185 but eventually will. Out of curiosity, in your pic at the start of the bead , is that porosity or is that a normal looking surface for an aluminum bead? The reason I ask, is that I use you guys as a reference when I try something new. I've never really inspected one up close.

[Sundown]

Very very nice

[Mike W]

Dan, that looks great but if you grind the weld down flush to the surface, what do you have left? Aluminum is kind of funny compared to steel. 1/16 ground down flat has surprised me.

[moody2.0]

I learned how to weld aluminum 17+ years ago. After school was over, I really never had any need to weld it again, until recently. well, since I at least knew how to weld aluminum at one time , and nobody else on the job know how to, I was given the job . Anyway, I had a couple scrap pieces left and decided to run a sample weld on them. I'd say at least 95% of my welds turned out to this level (see attachment) or better on the project I was working on. BTW, the material is 1/4" thick, and the weld joint is a butt, that i gapped about 3/32 of an inch. On the real project, I had to give the material a very healthy preheat for my Lincoln Squarewave 175 to get the job done.

well your alu welds look allot better than mine...i just started learning alu TIG yesterday

not too fun...i got a nice fire goin on my pants lol
and dont even ask me how i did on a T joint....didnt even get a tack on there...pieces kept fallin over lol

anyways keep up the great work

[Dan]

Nice job Dan...how did you do the preheat? O/A?

Well Tom, since the O/A outfit is off site at our smaller production facilities, I had to resort to using a propane torch. Which wasn t really a big deal, considering I was just welding in some reinforcement piece on several small 2 step stands. It sure took getting them pretty darn hot for the Lincoln Sq wave 175 to handle the job.

[Dan]

Dan,
Great looking bead! You guys make me envious
PS. I haven't done aluminum yet with my TA185 but eventually will. Out of curiosity, in your pic at the start of the bead , is that porosity or is that a normal looking surface for an aluminum bead? The reason I ask, is that I use you guys as a reference when I try something new. I've never really inspected one up close.

There's no visible porosity. The weld looks much different in person. In reality, the weld is a very shiny silver color. I,m just a very poor photographer, so shadows are distorting how the weld truly looks in person.

[JD in SoCal]

Out of curiosity, in your pic at the start of the bead , is that porosity or is that a normal looking surface for an aluminum bead? The reason I ask, is that I use you guys as a reference when I try something new.

Dan is too humble a guy to say so, but you will never see a picture of a "Dan" weld with porosity or any other flaw. You could cut out every weld picture posted by Dan you would have your reference book of what welds are supposed to look like.

Just to clarify, the dot at the left is the end of the weld, pushing right to left. Maybe you were seeing something else in the pic that you are asking about. Sometimes it is hard to tell from a photograph.

Dan, that weld is looking sweet for a guy that doesn't do aluminum.

JD

[tigger1]

Dan is too humble a guy to say so, but you will never see a picture of a "Dan" weld with porosity or any other flaw. You could cut out every weld picture posted by Dan you would have your reference book of what welds are supposed to look like.

Just to clarify, the dot at the left is the end of the weld, pushing right to left. Maybe you were seeing something else in the pic that you are asking about. Sometimes it is hard to tell from a photograph.

Dan, that weld is looking sweet for a guy that doesn't do aluminum.

JD

That dot to the left is a crater......needs to be filled. Other than that, it is a beautiful weld bead! I'll need a bunch more practice before I'm there. May just get there when I build an aluminum boat in the next year or so.....

[Aeroweld]

Usually that "crater" can be "filled" by backing off the heat more gradually at the end of the weld. True for both aluminum and steel/stainless

Nice looking weld Dan