Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi y'all!

I'm going to make some tanks out of 6061 sheet and want to keep the overall appearance as scratch free as possible. What are some of your tips for welding on the bench and keeping your jobs looking good.

TIA,
Ernie
Oregon

I use wood strips to support things I don't want to scratch. It's a little harder with aluminum because heat spreads so far from the weld. Makes grounding more complicated, but keeps things looking nice.

MarkL wrote:I use wood strips to support things I don't want to scratch. It's a little harder with aluminum because heat spreads so far from the weld. Makes grounding more complicated, but keeps things looking nice.

Thanks for the reply. I'll look at that too. I currently need to chill the fillet welds and am using a piece of 3/16th flat plate that covers my small welding table. It doesn't take much debris to make a scratch. I've seen some of the work folks on this forum, and others, look like they never scratch anything. Their work is astounding! I'm working toward that goal.

FWIW in some of Jody's videos he shows the use of chill blocks for thin materials including aluminum. Sometimes the blocks just rest on the piece being welded or the piece is placed on top of the block. He has also made a clamped device and used copper wire, etc. to draw heat away so a piece isn't overheated during welding. There appears to be many creative means to control the heat. Sometimes you can buy scrap aluminum from machine shops or metal suppliers that can be polished to prevent scratching the aluminum that you are welding. It provides the electrical connection from the bench to the weld piece along with cooling when needed.

If you look up some of Tamjeff ‘s posts you will see his setup . He hasn’t been around lately but he is an awesome marine fabrication welder. His whole bench top was sheeted with board. Maybe mdf. Flat, didn’t mark his pieces and he kept his most important angles and setouts marked on the board surface for convenience .


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If your material has a protective plastic coating, only take off as much as you need to do the fabrication and leave the rest on till the end.

i save large cardboard and use it on my welding table for layout
and even weld over it if what I'm welding in not in contract.
for larger projects i tape the cardboard together.
i can thank you wife for all the available cardboard (Amazon shopper)
craig