I want one piece bumpers for my Triumph Herald as the originals are made in 3 pieces and they are made from some type of aluminium alloy.
I've got a Clarke 151TE and made a V grooved roller as recommended for aluminium (next to a serated standard one)
and changed from a steel liner to a ptfe liner. I've been getting round to trying to mig aluminium for a while, so my torch lead has both liners in it
so equipped 0.8mm wire (cant remember the grade) and argon at 10lpm and the highest power setting I was ready to give it a try. with a wire speed of 7.5 burnback wasn't an issue and I had no problems with bird nesting, and I was getting spray transfer
unfortunately the alloy that the alloy bumpers are made from were a bit too thin, so the there was no time between being ok and then instantly blowing holes in the alloy......
so here for amusements are my efforts, there were a range of power settings and wire feed rates here
and here is a comparison of my first ever attempt at mig welding aluminium with a Clarke Pro Mig 90 several years ago. I think they should remove the reference to aluminium welding from its instructions as its too underpowered to do it. can you guess which of the welds were done with the 151TE (150 amp max) and which one were done with the Pro Mig 90 (90 amp max)
I also tried to weld this with DC Tig reverse polarity with 3.2mm elelctrodes at 40 amps and whilst just about being able to run a bead would not be able to do a but weld with it.
my plan C will be to try one of the low melt alloys with a blowtorch, if that doesn't work I wont be having any bumpers
I've got a Clarke 151TE and made a V grooved roller as recommended for aluminium (next to a serated standard one)
and changed from a steel liner to a ptfe liner. I've been getting round to trying to mig aluminium for a while, so my torch lead has both liners in it
so equipped 0.8mm wire (cant remember the grade) and argon at 10lpm and the highest power setting I was ready to give it a try. with a wire speed of 7.5 burnback wasn't an issue and I had no problems with bird nesting, and I was getting spray transfer
unfortunately the alloy that the alloy bumpers are made from were a bit too thin, so the there was no time between being ok and then instantly blowing holes in the alloy......
so here for amusements are my efforts, there were a range of power settings and wire feed rates here
and here is a comparison of my first ever attempt at mig welding aluminium with a Clarke Pro Mig 90 several years ago. I think they should remove the reference to aluminium welding from its instructions as its too underpowered to do it. can you guess which of the welds were done with the 151TE (150 amp max) and which one were done with the Pro Mig 90 (90 amp max)
I also tried to weld this with DC Tig reverse polarity with 3.2mm elelctrodes at 40 amps and whilst just about being able to run a bead would not be able to do a but weld with it.
my plan C will be to try one of the low melt alloys with a blowtorch, if that doesn't work I wont be having any bumpers