cornflakeMini
Member
- Messages
- 33
- Location
- Bedfordshire, UK
Hi all!
Following on from advice in this thread, I phoned round some local fabricators with no joy. I then discovered I could hire an AC TIG machine for a reasonable cost so decided to have a try myself.
I've never welded Alu before and only have a little TIG experience on mild steel so I'm curious to see what you all think of the results
I'm making excuses now but I didn't have a foot pedal so I found the travel speed tended to get a little uncomfortable towards the end of longer welds. I also had issues getting the intercooler and bracket clean enough no matter how much scrubbing I did.
These are some initial beads I ran on 3mm plate just as practice. I was doing this outside so the shielding gas got blown away on a couple of these!
An outside corner and very dodgy fillet attempt!
After a bit more practice, I moved onto the intercooler. First I ran some beads along the section to be repaired in order to build up the wall thickness and close the gap to the mounting bracket after grinding the old weld back:
Mounting bracket tacked in place. I'd appreciate advice on tacking as I struggled quite a lot to get the puddles to join without using filler rod:
Bracket re-attached (same as it was prior to cracking previously):
Gussets added. Hopefully it'll last longer this time:
Following on from advice in this thread, I phoned round some local fabricators with no joy. I then discovered I could hire an AC TIG machine for a reasonable cost so decided to have a try myself.
I've never welded Alu before and only have a little TIG experience on mild steel so I'm curious to see what you all think of the results
I'm making excuses now but I didn't have a foot pedal so I found the travel speed tended to get a little uncomfortable towards the end of longer welds. I also had issues getting the intercooler and bracket clean enough no matter how much scrubbing I did.
These are some initial beads I ran on 3mm plate just as practice. I was doing this outside so the shielding gas got blown away on a couple of these!
An outside corner and very dodgy fillet attempt!
After a bit more practice, I moved onto the intercooler. First I ran some beads along the section to be repaired in order to build up the wall thickness and close the gap to the mounting bracket after grinding the old weld back:
Mounting bracket tacked in place. I'd appreciate advice on tacking as I struggled quite a lot to get the puddles to join without using filler rod:
Bracket re-attached (same as it was prior to cracking previously):
Gussets added. Hopefully it'll last longer this time: