Aluminum flux core welding rods

[ericc]

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]

Hey Eric was it these by chance?

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[Downunder Bob]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[Diecutter]

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]

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]

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]

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.