aluminum welding help!!??

[dirtrider69]

i have made myself an aluminum exhaust pipe and i cant get it to stay on to theexhaust moiunt....ive tried soldering and welding but the solder dident stick very well and i couldent get an arc with the welder.....any ideas????!!!:mad2:

[jr dragster Tyler]

Aluminum needs to be cleaned extremely well. It can be difficult to MIG weld are you using the Lincoln electric spool gun? Cause you cant run aluminum wire and steel wire in the same liner.

[kibble]

You can't just solder aluminum and welding it requires gas. There was a thread here (http://www.diygokarts.com/vb/showthread.php?t=261) where we were talking about it.

[robertdjung]

aluminum needs 100% argon gas, and aluminum wire.

[dirtrider69]

i might put some JB weld on it do you think it would stand up to the heat.....because right now i have a 1/2 inch peice of conduet (sp) and i wanna get a full inch peice to get the exhaust out faster...is it ok to run a cart with 1/2 inch round peice of tube??? it sticks put just pat the gas tank

[jr dragster Tyler]

you cant jb weld that heat turns it into play dough

[dirtrider69]

ok thanks alot, but i got a peice of 3/4 in steel tubing from my shop class its got a 1/8 inch wall and im gonna try to weld that to a exhaust mount.....im using a stick welder
Thnkas for the help everyone

[jr dragster Tyler]

No wonder you cant weld alumium buddy your arc welding.

[robertdjung]

Yes, even with my mig, running aluminum wire and 75% argon mix I can't weld aluminum. I was told I needed 100% argon, but I decided to try it anyway. :) Doesn't work.

[jr dragster Tyler]

Yeah we have 100% argon and 75/25 and the 100% argon is great its amazing what 25% more argon does ehh.

[ironman]

has any one on here used aluminum and build them a frame for there kart would be super light

[kibble]

I tried to weld aluminum today and it was completely different than welding steel, well sorta. I picked up a 27" cylinder of 100% Argon for $120, FULL!!! I tried to weld some aluminum when I got home and found out what it's like. It's so much different than welding steel, you can't see the aluminum wire touching the surface, all you see it what looks like stuff vaporizing onto the surface, makes a funky noise too.

[kibble]

Well, for the past few days I have been playing around with trying to weld aluminum with different settings on my welder and I came to the conclusion that I can't weld it for CRAP! :mad:

Luckily, I found some great information online about welding aluminum. I'll try some of these tips next time I try to weld the stuff again.

Here's a great link for those of you interested in welding aluminum also:

http://www.millerwelds.com/education/articles/articles10.html

[redcali]

yea here is one aswell. pretty good info!

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/aluminium-welding.htm

instead of jb weld, there is stuff called 'muffler putty' which sounds like its exactly what you are after. is made for filling gaps and holes in exhaust systems