# Aluminum flux core welding rods



## ericc (Oct 5, 2020)

Hi.  I recently did an Ebay search for aluminum welding flux, and instead of hitting the usual small bottle of flux, usually made by Forney, but occasionnally by tinman tech, these welding rods came up.  There are a huge number of vendors that look like those export companies that sell everything.  Does this stuff work?  Does it have a chance to displace the bare rods with bottled flux?  There don't seem to b any instructions, just some marketing verbiage in Chinglish.


----------



## DavidR8 (Oct 5, 2020)

Hey Eric was it these by chance?







Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Downunder Bob (Oct 5, 2020)

I have used a few of these with mixed results, I think it's all about clean, Apparently you have to wire brush the parts (New stainless steel brush only ever used on aluminium), and then lots of practice. but yes it works. The rods I used are unbranded chinese with no instructions, but dirt cheap. I'll just keep practicing. The parts I welded looked ugly, but they were strong enough. There is a place in my kit for these I just have to get better at it.

I stared with oxy acetylene but it's too hot for thin parts, then I used BBQ gas, but it was not quite hot enough, I need a bigger burner, I have ordered a bigger gas burner so we
ll see what happens when it arrives.

I just realised that the sticks you show are actually electrodes, not sticks for gas welding, sorry my mistake.


----------



## NortonDommi (Oct 5, 2020)

Hi Eric,
            You are Oxy/Acet. welding?  The coated rods are more convenience than anything else.  They are a lot dearer than bare rod and flux. You ca buy bare rods for TIG welding and use them with flux just like with Brazing.  Are you welding or Brazing? If Brazing you will need Aluminium Brazing rods.  Two videos here


----------



## C-Bag (Oct 5, 2020)

OA aluminum welding can be very tough without the proper tools, equipment and supplies. Tinman’s stuff isn’t cheap but this is a guy who’s worked on exotic cars and airplanes all his life. He knows what it takes. Like the right formula of flux. Rod of known alloy. Like instead of propane a small OA torch made for this. And most of all his patented tinted goggles where you actually see the color change. Welding aluminum is hard enough, especially like 18-20ga, without inducing all kinds of windage of funky rod, flux etc. I’m not trying to be a know it all I’m just saying the technique alone is hard enough. If it’s just for fun of course go for it, but if it’s something irreplaceable or critical don’t be surprised with less than stellar results. Tinman also sells the stuff to solder and braze aluminum. NFI.


----------



## ericc (Oct 5, 2020)

Here is a snap of the first search results for "aluminum welding flux".  This is not aluminum welding flux.


----------



## Diecutter (Oct 5, 2020)

If you look close at the Hobart  aluminum electrode description, it states that they are for DC electrode positive configuration.  Therfore, this is not for melting with a gas torch, but true electric welding. I was not aware of this process, but am going to get some and try it out.  If it works that would be great. The listing says available at Central Tractor, etc.  Thanks for mentioning this product.


----------



## C-Bag (Oct 5, 2020)

No it’s not. It says brazing rod. That’s the problem, who knows exactly what it is. Would you buy welding rod from the dollar store or Kmart? That’s been my experience with eBay Chinese everything stores. You might get a deal because they are ignorant of what they have or junk because they just want to make a buck.


----------



## ericc (Oct 5, 2020)

Diecutter said:


> If you look close at the Hobart  aluminum electrode description, it states that they are for DC electrode positive configuration.  Therfore, this is not for melting with a gas torch, but true electric welding. I was not aware of this process, but am going to get some and try it out.  If it works that would be great. The listing says available at Central Tractor, etc.  Thanks for mentioning this product.



I mentioned the product but did not recommend it.  I hope I didn't mislead anybody.  I just pointed out that it was polluting my search results. 

A web search showed some Amazon reviews.  Most of them said the product was fake.  Another website said that they just throw some TIG rod in the box along with a note that says that some argon may help your results.  Metalworking is tough enough already without all the fake news.  I still am going to try some of that flux.  One of my fellow blacksmiths recommended it to me, even though he admitted to never having tried it.


----------



## aliva (Oct 5, 2020)

I've used aluminum stick with mixed results very tricky, they work much better if you preheat the joint, otherwise the rod has a hard time to form a puddle.


----------



## NortonDommi (Oct 5, 2020)

Ericc,
         Have you visited your local welding supplier? Aluminium welding flux is pretty common.  Check at an airfield or good ships chandlers, plumbing supply store.  The only things you really need with Oxy/Acet. is a Stainless Steel wire scratch brush - that will NEVER, EVER be used for anything but cleaning Aluminium.  I just looked at those Tin Man welding lenses, out of my price league. I use standard gas welding lenses with a gold filter, not as good as the old Cobalt but for small runs fine.  You can also use an auto darkening arc welding helmet if you play with the shade settings.  Clean the rod with a bit of wet'n'dry paper first so it is shiny.
  Think about WWII and the people who were welding up aeroplanes.  Many of them didn't know what a welding torch was until they were put to work. If you can gas weld steel you can gas weld Aluminium.  Drop the gas pressure a bit,(unless using a Henrob/Cobra torch),go up a couple of tip sizes, use a slightly reducing flame and lift the flame off the work regularly.
20 minutes practice on some scrap should see you laughing.


----------



## NortonDommi (Oct 5, 2020)

As I would like some more Cobalt blue lenses I have just had a quick search on Bing and Phillips safety do these: https://www.phillips-safety.com/sho...eyewear/plastic-clip-on-flip-ups-cobalt-blue/  US$30.  They have a multitude of other lenses but I haven't looked at them all.  Weld Aluminium with standard Green lenses is doable, I use a gold filter as well but having used Cobalt blue ones in the past it is much easier with the blue lens.


----------



## C-Bag (Oct 6, 2020)

Since when I first tried it in high school when dinosaurs still roamed the land, OA was my preferred method for sheetmetal.  But OA aluminum was always treated as a lost art and I never knew why until finding Tinman vids on YouTube. I wouldn’t doubt it’s different elsewhere but certain ingredients that were used in the 30’s flux were either not available or just not used because of regulations. It could have also been herd mentality of only old timers OA weld aluminum we moderns TIG.

But the stuff I tried was a disaster until Tinman’s stuff. And I find the same with regular soldering. I was lucky my neighbor had a coffee can full of the old solder flux I used to use and he loaded me up. What a difference!

Besides price, my problem with Tinman is he’s been doing it all his life and he works so fast and makes it look so easy. His vids are fascinating to watch. I got the whole rig and his glasses. I did several practice pieces but have not been back on that track. I hope to return to it soon.


----------



## ericc (Oct 6, 2020)

Sounds good.  I will give the welding store a try the next time I'm there for refilling gas.  The reason I asked is that I recently had a job to repair a cracked brake lever housing from a road bike.  I could have used JB Weld, but I decided to weld it with my Miller Maxstar.  Now, this was hard!  There weren't really any Youtube videos to go by, and I kind of had to make up the process on the way, since my friend did not want me to use his AC TIG welder.  He suggested I find some flux and use that for TIG welding.  Since I have OA and oxy-propane, I could also try that.  He said there were Youtube videos for that, so I should be able to go there.  Interestingly enough, I finished the job with DC and it turned out OK, so the heat's off, but at least it will be nice to have that jar available.  Also, I could wait for the CBA spring conference and hope Jere Kilpatrick shows up from Valley Forge and Welding.


----------



## Diecutter (Oct 6, 2020)

C-Bag said:


> No it’s not. It says brazing rod. That’s the problem, who knows exactly what it is. Would you buy welding rod from the dollar store or Kmart? That’s been my experience with eBay Chinese everything stores. You might get a deal because they are ignorant of what they have or junk because they just want to make a buck.


I was referring to post #2.  I looked up the item shown there on Google and that's where it had a large photo of the package that stated:  

*Product Summary*
These Hobart® Filler Metals Aluminum Stick Welding Electrodes are comprised of 4043 aluminum for flat, horizontal and vertical welding applications. DC only (electrode positive.) Each electrode is 1/8in. dia. x 14in.L. Ideal for arc welding aluminum at 50-80 amps. 10-ct. pkg.  Heres a photo


----------



## NortonDommi (Oct 6, 2020)

ericc said:


> I recently had a job to repair a cracked brake lever housing from a road bike.


  Arc welding small or thin castings is A: Hard work & B: often not successful.  Things like that,while you are at the welding shop, are best done with gas and I use a product called Form-A-Jig which is probably banned by the health police as it contains Asbestos.  
  Many of the castings such as motorcycle brake reservoirs, carburettors are 'pot' metal or Aluminium/Magnesium. I might be showing my age,(C-Bag),but years ago we used to melt down old broken stuff and cast our own rods in a bit of Brass angle.  I was lucky in that Dad had a polishing business so I had a good source of clean pot metal from the local foundry.  The Form-A-Jig is used to make well, a jig/dam and then puddle in the metal.  That stuff called silly Putty does a fair job as a jig/dam if heated and left to cool before welding. Use a Brass stick with a flat end as a spoon to remove any dross.
  Having a fair idea of what you want to weld is a big help as it determines what is the best method and the best filler to use or even IF an item can be welded.
  Well worth spending a bit of time playing with some old broken stuff as you never know when you might need to fix something important/urgently needed or having an unattainable replacement.


----------



## General Zod (Oct 6, 2020)

ericc said:


> Hi.  I recently did an Ebay search for aluminum welding flux, and instead of hitting the usual small bottle of flux, usually made by Forney, but occasionnally by tinman tech, these welding rods came up.  There are a huge number of vendors that look like those export companies that sell everything.  Does this stuff work?  Does it have a chance to displace the bare rods with bottled flux?  There don't seem to b any instructions, just some marketing verbiage in Chinglish.



They look like run-of-the-mill aluminum rods like those from Harbor Freight.  They are not welding rods because there is no electric arc being used.   That's why they show using alternate oxy-fuel heat sources to heat materials and flow the rod into the part.  I would not call that "welding" as I would venture to say that to most people, "welding with rods" usually implies using a source of electricity to create an electric arc.


----------



## NortonDommi (Oct 6, 2020)

So if I weld something with a fuel gas and Oxygen by creating a molten pool in the parent metal then melt some other similar material in so that it mixes with/fuses with the parent metal and it cools into a homogeneous whole I have not 'welded' the metal?


----------



## ericc (Oct 7, 2020)

I successfully repaired both brake lever housings with TIG welding using DCEN and argon.  Since the joint seems to be pretty strong, I'll wait until I need some more gas to check the welding store for aluminum flux.  I had a couple of stubs of 3/32" 4043 that I grabbed from the welding scrap bin at TechShop before it closed.  They worked just great.  I suspect that the brake is 6061-T6.  Other than killing the temper with the heat (unavoidable), I think it came out OK.  I got one crack, which I ground out and rewelded (too much base metal mixture).  I used a consumable backing on the weld since there was room, and that should compensate for the strength.

There might be some confusion about all these products, and the Ebay offerings definitely intentionally add to the confusion.  There are those alumaweld zinc alloy rods that are available at the cheap box stores, there is stick aluminum electrode, there is aluminum brazing rod 88% aluminum 12% silicon which melts at slightly lower temperature, and 4043 rod which is high silicon but melts at about the same temperature.  You cannot use 6061 as filler for 6061, else you get a crack right down the middle of the bead.


----------

