Welding Tips and Tricks

We all know that aluminum is a real b-otch to weld when it isn't clean enough. What is your favorite or best method to clean out for welding? Wire wheel? Acetone? How bout old aluminum that has been subject to water, oil, or other forms of yuck that makes it that much worse to clean.

I bought a flap wheel designed for aluminum to cut through the oxide layer. Then an acetone wipedown to remove any surface crud.

I barely clean aluminum anymore.

Badly abused aluminum (10 years behind a semi-tractor) gets a grind and a wipe with laquer thinner.

New aluminum gets a quick dress with a flap-wheel.

I've done aluminum pipe to code, with x-ray, and I can tell you the whole "surgical clean" thing is overkill in most cases.

That said, the cleaner you have it, the fewer issues you'll have, especially if aluminum is new for you, and you'll not be distracted by the issues from crud.

Steve S

Otto Nobedder wrote:I barely clean aluminum anymore.

Badly abused aluminum (10 years behind a semi-tractor) gets a grind and a wipe with laquer thinner.

New aluminum gets a quick dress with a flap-wheel.

I've done aluminum pipe to code, with x-ray, and I can tell you the whole "surgical clean" thing is overkill in most cases.

That said, the cleaner you have it, the fewer issues you'll have, especially if aluminum is new for you, and you'll not be distracted by the issues from crud.

Steve S

But Steve, I want my welds to drop panties! You can't drop panties with icky crud floating in your weld bead

Seriously though, I still brush mine to eliminate as many variables as possible. I found out the hard way today that sometimes too much frequency is just as bad as not enough cleaning. Dialed it back from 120 to 75hz or so and boom, no more problems manipulating the bead. I even whined to Jonathan about it lol. I'll post some before and after pics.... I'm going to 'clean' it on the lathe Monday more than likely lol

Well its not new to me but I do like to have my work look as good as possible. Being a one man weld shop/portable service means I gotta have my game face on with every job I do. And that includes doing a "panty dropping" job tigging or migging aluminum. So I'm just looking to hear what works good for everyone and try new things myself to get as good of results as I can.

Nick,
I too like Steve have had to deal with Aluminum that's been exposed to road salt and grime for many years. We both have also had to deal with Aluminum that has been in cryogenic service and that adds another layer of complexity to it with the years of extreme thermal cycling.

I've tried a few different Acids made for cleaning Aluminum for welding and most don't work all that well. Zep made an Aluminum brightner for Acid washing trailers that worked fairly well if used before welding. I've also used an Oxy /Act torch a time or two to boil out oils and diesel out of the pours in the metal. I've never wiped any down with acetone, but I have used Oxygen service cleaners because they were at hand, they work well on anything Hydrocarbon based.

I've never welded anything that needed to be show quality, just functional and leak free, so I never get too crazy on cleaning unless it's cast and or oily or both. Sometimes with oily cast you'll have to weld and grind a few times to cook out all the garbage even if you think it's clean.

I also like to use a finer grit grinding wheel or flap disc so it doesn't raise a bunch of rough edges up where I'm going to weld, but that's neither here or there I guess.

There's about the extent of what I do.

Len

Thanks Len for the info. Nothing seems to be far fetched from what I do already. I tend to end up with pulling truck and pulling tractor parts to fix. I guess cuz I'm the only one in our area that will do it. That stuff can be nasty. I had an egr manifold from a ford truck today that welded like peanut butter and pepper but we got er together. Just always looking to improve my trade.

Repairing pulling parts is good, them guys always braking stuff.
Should've told him to delete that dang power robbing EGR. Lol

Sent from my SM-G900R4 using Tapatalk

Nick,
I would guess in your area of the world that both a pulling truck and a pulling tractor both look like a Belgium draft horse. Last time I was through Sugarcreek I was heading to Baltic in the fog and when I saw eyes shining in my headlights I thought I was off the road and here it was just a workhorse in a field and the road made a sharp left in front of him. The fence posts were a dead give away. That will wake you up at 2 in the morning.

Len

Hahaha that's great! Yeah we actually have all of them around here. You would be surprised what the Amish get into. What had your interest out our way? Furniture?

He drove for Air Products (still works for them running a Hydrogen plant) which I would guess he is talking about because I don't really remember if he worked nights when he was driving for his buddy before that lol.

I see. Our little back roads can make for issues for bigger trucks. Been there done that. His area is no better though. Southeast ohio, southwest PA and about all of West Virginia seem to be that way and I drove a lot of those road at one time or another. Not alwaysin a big truck but pulling any kind of a trailer still keeps it all in perspective. I lived in the Lima area for a couple years while at trade school too.

Where did you go to school out here? I'm originally from just north of Pittsburgh, and am out here attending UNOH.

UNOH. Graduated in 05 but my last class was summer of 04. I have been there to see some of the new additions. But I was part of the original campus. Lived in NP then in vaugnsville. Did auto/diesel and HP. Still have contract with a few of the guys out there.

I gotcha man. Yeah, I actually live in Delphos now, but I am studying Auto/HP. I don't know if Mike Streicher and Andy Pohlman were teaching there then, but they were who I had for HPWelding and then HPFab. Two class acts in their own right.

I had pohlman for something. The other guy wasnt there. I rented from Todd hunt but I think he quit for farming. Aaron Roth is the other guy I kept in touch with. They have vastly expanded things since I was there. Talk had just started of all the expansion west of the NP dorms and their curriculum nearly doubled in classes too. There was only 5 HP specific classes and 5 diesel specific classes. Everybody else got lumped into the auto classes. Now everybody has their own building and then some. I actually helped Bob Marshall design the cdl class. Hope you are having fun with it man. Learn all you can just keep a level head.

Nick,
I was delivering Nitrogen to Baltic Rubber and I worked all nights back then. Plenty of fog and Amish buggies in your area and that in addition to winding skinny roads makes for a bad combination for truck drivers.

I remember you commenting last year that you went to UNOH when Sam lost his leg. Seems like a good program for people who want to work with their hands as well as their head, we need more of that in the world.

Len

Yeah its a great school run by good guys that all have years of experience in the industry. The problem there gets to be its mostly an all guys campus. Guys outnumber girls at least 100:1 but I'm sure its more than that. And you put all those stupid teenage to early 20s guys in an environment like that there gets to be stupid compounded by stupid. But if you keep your head on straight you can learn things well beyond what they will actually teach you. I'd recommend UNOH to anybody.

Yeah I recommend it to anybody who asks, and laugh at the kids who say they didn't learn anything. Even if you don't learn anything from the class, if you didn't learn how to do it on your own, or ask a different teacher for help, that's on you.

We know have 13 buildings, plus they bought the Office Depot across the street and turned it into an indoor athletic complex. They always are trying to buy up everything they can.

And on the stupid note, that would be an understatement. Ricers and Dicers are the worst, followed shortly after by most of the kids on the motorsports team lol. And you are right, the stupid compounds the stupid, which is then compunded again by stupid. It's a never ending cycle, and it wears on the students like myself who care to learn as much as it does the teachers.