Tig Welder for Alloy Wheel repairs advice

[Tony-D-1976]

Morning Forum I am trying to get into alloy wheel welding repairs and am wondering what used tig welder I should look for?
I'm open to anything to get me started however it needs to be 240v as I do not have 3 phase power and as low budget as possible.

TIA

 

[Puglet1]

I would have thought that alloy wheel repair was quite a specialist process ?
What type of damage repair are you considering - Superficial scratches? Cracked? or Broken rims etc?
Do you have the knowledge required to repair the wheels to a specific safety standard?
Do you have the other type of equipment required such as Crack detection, polishing or x-ray facilities?
Please bear in mind I’m not experienced in this field but would have a concern for customer safety and liability.
I’m sure others on here would be able to help you with your original question.

 

[octo0072000]

Liability insurance needed if deemed your repair caused an accident you would be in a world of hurt
as said buy Puglet1 above

 

[anto44]

Welding alloy wheels is common in Ireland, there's lots of companies here specialising in alloy wheel welding and repair. There doesn't seem to be any regulations around it over here. I think it's a case of it's fine until something happens. To be honest I've welded my fair share of alloy wheels over the years. I use a parweld xtt 202

 

[dholdi]

I wouldnt entertain a welded wheel on my own car, each to their own tho.

 

[hotponyshoes]

You'll want an AC capable tig welder.
Either one with loads of power or you'll also want some way of preheating the wheel.
I wouldn't want to use any other welding process on a wheel as it's only really tig where you can see exactly what rubbish is coming out of the weld and exactly what standard of weld is going back in.

If you have the room the cheapest way to get an AC tig with a decent duty cycle (so you can use it for the preheat as well) would be an old transformer type with an add-on hf box.

As the other guys have said, if I was doing it I'd want some way of checking for cracks afterwards. I'd use xray but that's because I have access to it. A basic xray system will either need a lot of messing about or cost more than the tig welder.

There is probably plenty of work to be found if you go into repairing wheels but that's because most people that can weld Alloy won't touch them.
You get the classic/high end car customers that can't find a replacement or won't pay £5k for one but they'll want to inspect it with a magnifying glass when you're finished.
Then you get everyone else. No one likes to admit they are a bad driver so when someone loses the back end on a roundabout and wangs into a bus stop full of kids they'll see the wheel all broken up on the kerb and say it fell apart on them causing the accident...

If you can get a proper working process and the relevant insurance cover I'd think there would be some good money to be made from it.
Easy enough to go nationwide and offer repairs by post.
Plus probably good profit buying them from the scrap yard, re-doing them and selling them on.

 

[Cheesie]

I weld them now and then, most of the ones i repair are ones thats already been welded, and most times theres a cavity, or they re crack in the haz, i charge enough so its not a steady flow of them but i still get the odd one, there are some bad repair jobs out there,
in my experience you need at least 200 amps and a foot control 220 amps would be better some wheels are heavy, i recomend a proper dust maskffp3, most of the work is grinding/cutting,
a propane torch to preheat the area,
die grinder burrs for aluminium,
some weld nice some don't, some you have one crack to follow some branch out like the roots of a tree, you must and i repeat must make sure to cut the crack right out, you'll know if you have'nt when suit pools in the weld, stop welding and clean out

 

[Munkul]

I have nothing against welded alloys, I've done quite a few myself, never a problem. Similar to Cheesie, some are straightforward cracks, some branch out, I always drill the ends of the cracks with a 4mm drill, and grind the crack right out with discs/burrs. Then use a 200 amp Lorch AC/DC welder with 2.4mm wire.

I do, however, think that you need to a) know what kind of TIG welder you need, b) know how to TIG weld aluminium to a GOOD standard; and c) know how to do all the prep works, which as Cheesie says, most of the work is cutting and dressing back before welding.
That's all before you start welding people's wheels up!!!

 

[minimutly]

I've spent dozens of hours recently correcting and welding my stash of 10 inch mini alloy wheels, getting them right is harder than you'd think, you need a lathe or something to spin them on to check concentricity - I set up a cv joint and drive flange, ideally could do with a small hydraulic jack to get in there as well. I kerbed a 17 inch MG wheel a couple of years ago, put a slightest wobble into it, the fix was to skim the flange face on the vertical mill - are you going to buy one of those too?

 

[bricol]

Plenty of people do welded repairs to wheels - I had them done by people who have been around and proven, had no problems.

One of them was repairing wheels for a big well known competition car company - a massive stock of really mangled wheels, some being used to donate sections to be welded into others.

 

[tom2207]

After having done ndt in an alloy wheel factory ,,,, I wont touch them ,,, and I wouldnt drive on a welded wheel either ,,,, if you have actually seen the heat treating that goes into a wheel when its made , you wouldnt start into one either .

 

[tom2207]

Morning Forum I am trying to get into alloy wheel welding repairs and am wondering what used tig welder I should look for?
I'm open to anything to get me started however it needs to be 240v as I do not have 3 phase power and as low budget as possible.

TIA

do you have a background in tig welding aluminium alloys ?
or welding safety critical components
when you say you want as cheap as possible , do you actually mean something that will do the job as well as possible at a reasonable cost . or just something that will do the job at the lowest price.

 

[anto44]

Welding and alloy wheel removes it's type approval for road use. If I was going to offer alloy wheel Welding as a professional service I'd be issuing invoices stating that the wheel is no longer approved for highway use and is for show or display purposes only and if the customer decides to use it on the road and there's an issue you told them not to use it on the road.

 

[tom2207]

Welding and alloy wheel removes it's type approval for road use. If I was going to offer alloy wheel Welding as a professional service I'd be issuing invoices stating that the wheel is no longer approved for highway use and is for show or display purposes only and if the customer decides to use it on the road and there's an issue you told them not to use it on the road.

I dread to think how fast a big company lawyer would have your house away in legal costs after the accident ,,,

 

[premmington]

I dread to think how fast a big company lawyer would have your house away in legal costs after the accident ,,,

I got an AC TIG welder - I got a car repair garage - but I don't weld alloy wheels up.

I doubt my liability insurance would cover welding up alloy wheels - I doubt it very much.

----

A few garages have been caught out fitting customer supplied parts as well and when it all goes wrong - there insurers won't play....

 

[bricol]

Welding and alloy wheel removes it's type approval for road use.

And where does that particular nugget of info come from?

By implication then, any welding to anything else on the vehicle removes it's type approval too?

I guess an immediate application of this new rule will at least create a lot more room on the roads . . .

 

[bricol]

MOT book says a welding defect on a wheel is fail. That isn't the same thing as a welded wheel. It's a defect in a weld to a wheel, so if a welded wheel looks unsafe, it can be failed. Nothing about properly welded wheels being a problem.

 

[premmington]

MOT book says a welding defect on a wheel is fail. That isn't the same thing as a welded wheel. It's a defect in a weld to a wheel, so if a welded wheel looks unsafe, it can be failed. Nothing about properly welded wheels being a problem.

Welded alloy wheel is not an MOT failure. Poorly welded alloy wheel would be a failure.

But there is talk this will go the same way as "subframes" - if it can be removed and replaced - no welding.

 

[bricol]

Welded alloy wheel is not an MOT failure. Poorly welded alloy wheel would be a failure.

But there is talk this will go the same way as "subframes" - if it can be removed and replaced - no welding.

But like a properly repaired subframe, including it's finish, you'd not be able to tell at time of test that it had been.

Stick a wheel trim over the poor weld - as far as I'm aware, like cill covers, you can't remove them to look?

 

[Munkul]

I dread to think how fast a big company lawyer would have your house away in legal costs after the accident ,,,

This is the thing that everyone thinks.
The reality is, WHO is going to sue someone with less than a few million in assets? Complete waste of time. Rule no.1 of lawyering is, you sue the guys with lots of money.

On the other hand, if you do something very silly that leads to someone being killed, then the HSE will chase you and your company and assets no matter how big or little.

Ultimately, do a job right, it won't come back on you and you won't get sued. Simple.