If you use acid be careful not to breathe the fumes. It might not kill you, but it sure isn't fun to breath. Acid does work well. I also sand blast some stuff.

If you are using this to back up sheet metal then you can get a piece of extruded aluminum angle from your hardware store.

Great video, Awesome work.

The top joint with 45 degree angles is definitely stronger.

Cool!

That's great, but what is it?

Have you considered drilling a few holes in the sides of the tubing and adding some plug welds? A local chassis builder told me that he has had some problems with the weld breaking on this type of joint, but if he adds a few plug welds through the sides then he has no problems. I did this on the tra...

Looks like a pretty good job to me. Are all of the pieces made of the same alloy?

Adding filler to that will cool it more and help with the gray. See how you do with filler.

Notice how the small part of your bead has some color to it and the fat part is gray. You are getting too hot. Try to do a smaller bead and move a little faster. Try to keep it the same width. You also broke your arc too quick which is why you have that crater at the end.

Be sure that you are not pulling the end of the wire out of the argon between dips. Grind the surface of the metal until it is shiny before welding. It looks like you are welding on metal that is straight out of the mill and it probably has contamination on the surface.

I'm a beginner trying to weld 1/8 " aluminum together and the bead falls off. Amp is at 155. Filler rod is 3/32 what size should the tungsten be. And how much of the tungsten out of the cup. Beth I don't understand what you mean by the bead falls off. Is the metal getting too hot and the weld ...

Great story Steve. I hope you all do very well.

Rick, fancy stand. Good work.

Could be that you contaminated the end of the wire before you dipped it.

I agree with Josh, too much torch angle and arc length will cause the wire to melt before reaching the puddle. It can be hard to keep a short arc with aluminum, but you need to keep it as close as you can without contaminating the tungsten. As for the gray weld, adding more filler will cool the pudd...

Looks like you are doing pretty good. Maybe add a little more wire, or use a larger wire. Keep practicing and post when you have a problem with something.

Looks great.

Looks like a lot of work, but it should flow much better.

I've been building rear ends for about 35 years and I owned a rear end shop for 15 years. I've done a lot of rear end work and I haven't seen any rear end castings that I would call cast steel. Most, if not all of them are nodular iron. When you welded it you brought out the carbon and seriously har...

But it will see high heat.

Try a larger cup.

Not bad at all!

Looking good Hollywood. Are you not required to run a X in the door?

AFR, that looks great. What is the technique that you used?

Yes, clean the back side. Very important.

I've welded on several boats with paint. I clean about an inch on both sides of the weld. Cleaning out the crack is the hardest part. I've also welded them with everything still hooked up and didn't have any problems. I've welded directly on the engine without any problems. Keep the ground close to ...