Putting this in the tools & materials section, as its about material...
I bought two plates of alloy 700x250x8mm what was spec'd at by the supplier as 2017a sheet for a job (belt cover), but I'd screwed up on a measurement and needed one 800 long.
I've just lain the two end to end with a small root gap and welded them together with some almg5 filler rods. The weld has gone well, it looks neat with good penetration and no visible cracking. I've read up on welding 2017 and I can find quite a few places saying its only fricton stir weldable, and a single thread somewhere saying you can tig it but its awkward. The only thing I noticed was that it was hard to get it to puddle initially but once a pool/bead had formed it was fine.
Ive pushed it flat with the press to remove warpage caused by the welding & looked at it carefully by naked eye etc and it all seems ok. Is it likely to be something else mislabeled as 2017 or have I just been lucky/its going to fall apart and be brittle as anything when I think its ok?
I've managed to repeat the same on some 2017 tube I sourced elsewhere as a test, so I'd be interest in experiences if I can use this method again and whats likely to go wrong.
I bought two plates of alloy 700x250x8mm what was spec'd at by the supplier as 2017a sheet for a job (belt cover), but I'd screwed up on a measurement and needed one 800 long.
I've just lain the two end to end with a small root gap and welded them together with some almg5 filler rods. The weld has gone well, it looks neat with good penetration and no visible cracking. I've read up on welding 2017 and I can find quite a few places saying its only fricton stir weldable, and a single thread somewhere saying you can tig it but its awkward. The only thing I noticed was that it was hard to get it to puddle initially but once a pool/bead had formed it was fine.
Ive pushed it flat with the press to remove warpage caused by the welding & looked at it carefully by naked eye etc and it all seems ok. Is it likely to be something else mislabeled as 2017 or have I just been lucky/its going to fall apart and be brittle as anything when I think its ok?
I've managed to repeat the same on some 2017 tube I sourced elsewhere as a test, so I'd be interest in experiences if I can use this method again and whats likely to go wrong.