Welding or Brazing recommendations

CK World-wide makes a slider amperage control for TIG torches, although I haven't tried it. It just clamps around your torch.
 
Gnpenning said:
Having a ankle problem, instead of a foot pedal how do the hand controls compare?
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There are a variety of hand controls available. I've tried the kind with a slider that moves along the same path as the handle and one that had a little wheel that turns perpendicular to the handle. I like the perpendicular wheel better...it has a detent that you pass and the HF arc starts, you turn it to the right for more power, and turn it left to lower power, then past the detent to stop the arc. I can manipulate that with my thumb pretty easily.

The one I want to get is the TIG button that uses pressure to increase/decrease the amperage. I have never seen anything negative posted about it, and mostly rave reviews. The only downside is it requires a separate power supply...like a normal 115V wall wart. Here's a link:

 
PK1 said:
I would appreciate some advice from those of you who have experience welding or brazing aluminum: I have made a side mount license plate for my motorcycle, and I am looking to assemble the pieces together. I would either need to weld the pieces together or braze them. I have made the small brackets for reinforcement otherwise vibration and wind forces can fatigue and brake the main bracket from the license plate holder. I have both a brand new mig welder with a spool gun, and a torch with aluminum brazing rods. Problem is, I have never welded anything nor brazed aliminum!

Brazing the main bracket to the license plate holder would be easy. I have machined a ~1mm groove in the plate so that bracket will stand on its own for either welding or brazing. I am trying to figure out how to fixture the two small reinforcement brackets to weld or braze. I suppose I could tack weld them in place and then weld, but brazing may be more complicated since heating the assembly up may melt the braze in other places while I work to braze the pieces in stages.

The main plate (largest piece) is 1/8" think (~3mm) and the brackets are 3/16" (~5mm). Any recommendations on the best approach considering I am a complete novice to both methods?

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You typically TIG weld aluminum. I never seen or heard anyone MIG those. Aluminum is tricky to weld and IMHO if you can make the same part out of steel I'd do that. At least you can weld steel.
 
taiwanluthiers said:
You typically TIG weld aluminum. I never seen or heard anyone MIG those. Aluminum is tricky to weld and IMHO if you can make the same part out of steel I'd do that. At least you can weld steel.
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MIG is a very common process for use on aluminum. Pretty much every aluminum trailer, truck body, boat, etc is welded using some form of MIG since TIG would be terribly slow. You have to use 100% aluminum rather than Co2 or Co2/Argon blends. Some MIG welders will feed aluminum wire with their normal wire feed system, but many/most won't and require either a spool gun or a push/pull gun to work well.

MIG for aluminum is always a spray transfer process so you get really good penetration, and you can cover a lot of ground very quickly. The better machines offer pulse and even pulse-on-pulse to minimize heat input and offer some bead appearance benefits as well.

I have a Millermatic 350P with an XR-Aluma-Pro push/pull gun and it's a heck of a lot of machine that can handle very thick aluminum easily. I've actually had a couple of identical machines...traded up to one slightly newer. This is the one I had just before the current machine...which is why I took the pic with no bottle on it for the listing. The XR has wire feed speed control built into the handle, which is really handy for fine-tuning in position. It's a heck of a lot more than I need, so I don't have any excuses!

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for those that like tinkering, I think probing for hot spots, and add cooler, such as extra powerful fan, remove and upgrade heat sink (manufacturer don't like adding metal, cost them material and shipping). Going more extreme with liquid cooling, using PC's solution may also work.

I think doing those will improve the service cycle.

I really like adding aluminum mig option to my list. Tig welding aluminum is nice, but it is very hot. Maybe I need to keep my hand father, but it's hard.
 
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