I've been looking at online welding courses, and there are a bunch. Even free ones. What I personally think would be very helpful that I haven't seen, and could make yours unique, is some sort of actual interaction with a student. Like a package that includes a couple 15 min video chats. The problem I, and I imagine others, run into is that videos are great when everything goes perfect, but usually at some point something doesn't go perfect or I have questions. For example my weld looks substantially different than your weld even though I think I did things the exact same. Then I spend hours googling trying to figure out what happened. But I bet you could look at and probably know immediately "oh looks like you went to fast here, try slowing down a little" or whatever it may be
I used this product several years back and made a ladder frame for lights for a saltwater aquarium. I had outstanding results. The joints were very strong, and when I sold my set-up, the rack was still going strong. This was after sitting above a 125g tank for almost 10 years. It's a great product for limited/specific uses I feel.
I won't be selling my tig welders anytime soon but this stuff actually looks useful for small diy jobs. How it travels under the oxide layer was really neat to see.
I'm now a follower, love that you get right to it without telling me your back story for the first 10 minutes, what's your favorite food or color, the name of your dog and his favorite food, etc. . Most vids like this I gotta jump ahead 15 minutes and half the time they still talking about, I don't know, losing weight after Christmas.
I have used this to repair small engine carburetor fuel bowls that have gotten pin holes from water inside from poor winter storage. Worked awesome no leaks and it has been going strong for years now. This stuff does have it's applications.
Actually the Alumiweld fillet was strong enough for practical applications where loading doesn't produce ridiculous 90-degree part deformations, which is just about all the joints that people need in the real world. I'm glad you put the video out, Alumiweld is definitely going into my bag o'tricks.
same with any welding process on aluminium. Yes ac should clean it a bit. But if you prep your material properly, that includes brushing with a stainless brush and then its recommended to clean with aceton as wel.
@@gabbermaikel yes, it definitely helps to scratch the oxides a bit to help the arc start. When doing fresh sheet metal (just sheared) it usually isn't needed unless doing a Tee joint. Open corners work great without it, as the oxides on the sides keep the weld focused on the cut edge.
Yea in their documentation they say to use a stainless brush on the parts beforehand, so if dude did that (and also heated the metals and wetted properly without the torch melting the rods) it would probably even stronger...
Yeah the whole time I was like hey, I know this might sound like blasphemy but like imagine if you prepped the surface with a wire brush first, like with brazing or welding.
@@666hobart yes you've got a good point also. Would you torch your solder before trying to lay it in? No. Would you take a torch to a welding rob before welding? No. Why was he heating the rods first?!?
I did a repair on my poll screen enclosure. The aluminum upright started to tear a hole where the door closer attaches after the door blew open in a storm. I removed the door closer bracket, applied the Alumiweld, filled the hole, ground it down even with the support, reinstalled the door closer, and that was probably seven or more years age. It is still holding and you cannot see where I did the repair and painted it over. It cannot be used for everything but it works great for some things.
I first used alumaweld 35 years ago on a 4" aluminum irrigation pipe that I nicked with a rototiller... the repair was done in the field and worked like a champ. You just need to use less heat than you think you do so as to not have the aluminum you are repairing melt.
@@jayryan7473 It's a crucial bit of information specific to using this product on thin aluminum that any newbie would do well to observe, as it's not obvious to someone whose never dealt with repairing thin aluminum. Obviously, an Einstein like yourself assumes everyone was born knowing this and it didn't need to be mentioned... get over yourself, little man.
I've found out that there is a very narrow range of hot enough and too hot (for these rods). Inside that window it works fairly well. The key is a good understanding of the right range of temperature.
I have a lot of experience with soldering, and one thing I know is that flux is the secret weapon for dealing with oxidation. I Googled to see if there is such a thing as aluminum flux - and apparently there is. So I would be very interested in knowing if flux is effective in improving the process.
@@brandonknight7240 Flux works for lead solder. Yes after Flux and a torch it will reoxidize but if you do minimal torch work and work quickly and the rod has Flux I think it will help
Wow. Nice. I think for aesthetic joints, or low stress situations, this is an awesome option. Never going to replace tig for aluminum, but it is nice to have it available.
Interesting, and good to see the strength of the dual sides solder in particular. OTOH, and for the lap joint especially, I would think that having cleaned the surface very well first to minimize the oxide layer may have helped a lot with the Alumiweld. Brushing hard with stainless steel for example. It didn't seem like you did that. Might have made a significant difference.
I've posted a very similar comment to you about the getting a successful lap joint. Stainless scratch brush and 'tin' both inside faces with lumiweld before mating the lap together.
That's my only gripe about this video. I understand you can "burn" through some impurities when welding, but soldering almost always requires some surface prep. When soldering copper pipe, I always found the key to a good solder joint was prep.
I used the Alumiweld rods and some scrap alumInum flat bar to build a license plate bracket for my Volvo. It saved me $20 and a long shipping time for a new bracket. Work within its capabilities and it does pretty well. Of course, use a stainless steel wire brush to prep the surface first.
I really appreciate the fairness of this video. I don't think anyone's surprised that welding is stronger, but I was surprised at how strong the "brazing" could be. I have a project where I want to replace a big bulky plastic trim on an aquarium with a slimmer angle-aluminum frame, and I was hoping I could find a way to put it together without fasteners and without a welder (besides, it's been about a decade since I welded anything in community college, lol). This seems like it should do the trick. the forces that the trim is subjected to are quite minor, just a few pounds of force, but that stress taken off of the glass is what's important. Wonderfully helpful video
First saw these on a Project Farm comparison. Pretty cool stuff, means I didn't have to jump right to TIG or get an old or expensive AC-capable stick or mig machine. Crazy to see how it interacts with the oxide layer. Almost looks easier than sweating copper pipes, though that lap joint was disappointing. Thanks for the vid!
Lap joints are probably feasible if you wet the surface before attempting to bond, like how you typically solder electronics and wires, bond the braze to the material first, then remelt the braze to join the pieces. Proper surface prep would help a bit as well. Except there's not much you can do about the oxide layer itself during prep as the oxide layer reforms extremely quickly, which is why welding with shield gas and brazing products that interfere with the oxide layer are needed, and why you can't just 'get rid' of the oxide layer like you can with irons and steels.
@rpavlik1 it's as easy as sweating copper. I had great success with Alumirods. Just a little different torching technique as the aluminum cools much faster than copper
I fabricated a device to relocate my start key on my motorcycle back in early 2000s using the soldering aluminum. The switch was still in place in perfect condition after 20+k miles when I sold it last year. The only thing I did different was to clean up the joints before soldering with a stainless wire brush. It really worked well however I have since purchased a Tig welder and haven't used that device in several years.
How do you know if it's quality? Get name brand? Anything else to watch out for when sourcing this stuff? I've been curious about it for awhile but have yet to bite the bullet lol.
@@johnny0454 watch “the project farm” channel. He did and amazing head to head to head challenge with this stuff that explains everything as well as it can be 👍🏼👍🏼
@@Thewatson77 I watched it. However, he preferred Hobart which had a higher melt temperature. My problem so far has been that I have been attempting to use a $30 Coleman head with map gas. Even with Blue Devil Triple Play, I have been only able to solder shut a tiny area after blasting it for 10 minutes, so long as my torch does extinguish. So, since I really need to solder angles to a large 2x2 foot sheet of 1/8 the inch aluminum, 5052 or 3003, my main concern is a low melt temperature and a hotter turbo head. I am still unsure if this is possible. I spent several hours trying to heat up and do a few welds last Sunday. Getting the area heated up enough was a challenge. I am also wondering if I bought copper Flux, if this would make anything work better. I do not recall which one melted at the lowest temperature on project farm . Muggy weld looks like the best solution, however I would spend.more money on the rods than the entire project. I would rather invest in Gold than their rods.
@@dennisgarber with such a large surface area I'd personally just have it welded up. Be it GTAW or GMAW though if they had oxy/acetylene it could be an option though I'd still prefer GTAW.
As a kid in the sixties, I remember, after our 16 foot aluminum boat had gotten beat-up on coral, when the tide went out, my dad used aluminum rod with an acetylene torch to repair the damage. After the repair, we used the boat for years without any problems.
This video is really impressive. The alumaweld rod product is obviously very high quality, despite seeming like a gimmick. I do know that commercial pipe fitters, they spend the majority of their time cleaning the surfaces before soldering and brazing. Most of their labor is spent "prepping" the metal. They clean way above and beyond what is required, to get absolutely perfect soldering and brazing with no air gaps or dead spots. I was trained the same way in silver brazing. You actually clean the silver braze rod, you clean the material you're brazing, and you always use flux. I suspect that cleaning the aluminum oxide off completely, on both the rod, and the material, would lead to an even better bond. I know from experience that the number #1 problem in the home garage, is not being clean enough, and not doing the proper surface preparation on projects.
I always always always clean my TIG rods with acetone before using. Use a white rag with some acetone or brake parts cleaner on it and you wouldn't believe how dirty the aluminum filler Rod is usually it's just the drawing Lube to choose though.
You can't clean aluminum oxide off. It forms in a fraction of a second. This is why we use AC for aluminum TIG welding, as the back current repeatedly burns up through the oxide layer, continually breaking it up. We still use shielding gas to keep it protected as well.
@@MAINTMAN73Careful with brake cleaner containing chlorine. You'll make phosgene gas if any of it is still there when you weld on it. I stick to acetone, and just fill lab wash bottles with it for easy dispensing.
I have used this stuff with a small brazing torch tip and brazing technique, a more concentrated pinpoint heat helps control puddle,.. a clean weld surface (wire brush) before welding works best!!!
Good job on the solder. I used that stuff several times to repair gm door handles and fill in pits and holes in damaged or rough pieces. I was amazed due to it being one of those as seen on tv deals
Perfect application, very good to know. I have used it to repair window regulators, intake manifolds, small engine brackets, and muscle-car-era emblems- many in the field or late Sunday night driveway repairs when other options are not available. As I recall, it fills and grinds away nicely, but it’s quite hard and is not suitable for tapping. For busted threaded holes, go with JB weld or a helicoil. Using a MAP gas plumbers torch on a hose with trigger ignition, one could easily reach inside of a door cavity or tight engine bay to carry out an emergency repair. Standard bonding practices apply, de-oxidized surfaces work better. Using a carbide or stainless steel brush first, maybe a shot of brake cleaner or isopropyl alcohol, can make a huge difference. No electricity or welder skills needed. It has been a tool box necessity for more than 20 years.
@@mrbreakit6063 my best friend is a jeweler. If you do small repairs and have a natural gas and o2 tank its a wonderful thing. If not you can still do oxy acetylene. The hoses and tips arent very much and youll be freaking amazed at the difference in your overall repair. As good as it may look with a map gas tank yhe other is a game changer. You can get B tanks relatively affoedable if you keep an eye out. While sharing cheats. If you have any hard to fix plastic repairs get Q bond. Its amazing. Works on metal and plastics pp pe abs/pc it repairs fills voids makes molds cracked dash board? Sprinkle the powder in the crack and wet it with the adgesive. In 10 seconds the crack is filled. Sand cut melt mold drill. Repairs aluminum , cast, Q B 2 anywhere from 9.00 to 60. Online. Can be used without the powders as well.
I'm glad you called this soldering and not welding because that's what it is. However, I have used multiple brands of aluminum weld sticks with Mapp gas and it simply does not work. Mapp gas won't get the aluminum hot enough to melt the sticks. I performed several tests with a variety of torch tips and could not get the aluminum above 450 degrees with Mapp gas. The required melt point for Alumi-weld sticks is 720 degrees Fahrenheit.
This surprises me…I heated a steel 3/8th x 2 inch bolt on my makeshift firebrick hearth with Mapp and a Rothenburger torch. It became bright orange in about a minute. Were you heating a large area of 1/4 inch thick sheet or something?
I was able to successfully repair an A/C line on my car where it had rubbed a hole in it against the frame using the Bernzomatic brand aluminum rod. Been working good so far for a few years already. One of the keys is to clean the repair area with acetone to remove any impurities. Thanks for the video.
Alumaweld is a Zinc alloy with just a little bit of Aluminum in it. It melts at a temperature substantially lower than Aluminum. I have tried it and the main problem that I have with it is that the results were inconsistent. That is one T joint I could bend 90 degrees without failure but the next one would fail before I even bent it 45 degrees. To be fair, this was my first time using it. My recommendation is that if you have a MIG welder, get a spool of .030" E5356 and use an .035" contact tip and you will get much better and more consistent results. Keep your MIG gun cable as straight as possible and use just enough tension to feed the wire. And don't forget, it is DCEP and about 20 CFH Argon. As far as the Alumaweld goes, I would use it on thin parts that need a small repair. There are also other aluminum brazing rods that have a flux core. For these, try Lucas-Milhaupt and Harris.
I had a vehicle with a crack in the aluminum oil pan it was leaking oil real bad. I cleaned the crack inside and over the surface of it really well and I tried the alumiweld rods. It worked and the pan has been holding oil for 2 years now. It saved me about 10 hours of Labor and $200 for a new pan.
This works better than I expected. I think a strong lap joint might be possible by covering the mating/overlapping surfaces with alumiweld then carefully heating bith surfaces before bringing them together. Definitely a good thing to have in your emergency tool kit.
On a lap joint, wet both sides of the parts to be joined then reflow the solder while positioning the parts together squishing out excess solder. Much stronger bond.
I've been TIG welding for 45 years. I might try this stuff. It might be useful if you had some long joints that needed to be air or water or light tight. Maybe such a joint could be tack welded and have adequate strength but then go back over the complete joint to seal it with a whole lot less heat input. Not a miracle but possibly another tool in the drawer.
I'm still partial to the welder myself, but after playing with it, I do think it has it's place for simple repairs. As far as heat input goes, though, I had to get those samples way hotter than I would have cruising over them with the TIG or MIG. Definitely another tool in the drawer, though. Thanks for watching and for the comment!
@@TimWelds Why not simply use a cheap mig or tig to apply these aluminum weld sticks? I had a hard time heating up my part to get this stuff to melt. At least 9 minutes blasting with map gas to get a half inch line hot enough. I was using a 30 buck head, maybe I should use a turbo head. I ditched the idea of doing more than threadlocking bolts with it. I epoxies my 7 inch angles to the large sheet. Of course I would feel better if I could epoxy the center and aluminum weld the perimeter, but I wonder if the heat would cook all of the wet epoxy before it crosslinks.
For the lap weld, have you tried whetting both the surfaces to be joined with alumiweld and then joining them while they are still liquid, much like gluing them together after applying glue to both pieces?
I tried working with those rods and similar rods. The problem is the amount of heat that needed to be applied would remove any temper the aluminum had. The whole piece would lose stiffness after it cooled, and couldn't resist bending before the heat was applied. The temperature at which aluminum starts to lose its tempering is about the same as the melting point of the rod. I eventually invested in a TIG welder.
You can rearden the temper by baking the AL in an oven around 350 degrees for a few hours. The AL will also reharden on its own over time, AL age hardens
That oxide layer is no joke to get through without melting the aluminum under it. Takes twice the heat and really needs the AC to break though without overheating. The AC balance on modern TIG inverters is a game changer.
You can clearly see the saving grace for alumiweld in all of your experiments. The aluminum parent material yielded long before the joint does so for light duty aluminum brackets or something along those lines it works as a great alternative to an expensive aluminum capable tig welder.
@@TimWelds I think it does as well. The argument I hear against alumiweld is always "it isn't as strong as a tig joint" but as you show in this video the parent aluminum is all kinds of twisted before it actually breaks off.
I'd never use it for anything structural, but for everything else, especially guys in need of an aluminum repair for low stress or cosmetic problems this is absolutely a godsend.
The best way to use those rods is to clean the aluminum with a stainless steel brush and clean it with a solvant. Then, when you want something very strong (relative) you coat both parts with a thin layer of the filler. you then join the parts together and reflow the filler and add as required. When done right, it IS actually a strong solder.
I used something similar to build antennas with aluminum arrow shafts about 25 years ago. It didn't weather well and was awfully brittle. The stuff I used was almost pure Zinc with a few percent Aluminum added. I see varying amounts of Tin are used in Aluminum solders now. I also see some with Copper and Silver. I expect the cheap stuff is almost all Zinc and Aluminum. The stuff worked fine for me if I reinforced the repair with gussets or patches to reduce the load by 50 to 67%. and protected from moisture. The stuff I use wouldn't take vibration or repeated stress.
It's not as strong as a good Tig weld, but it has its uses where the Tig would be very difficult like on a thin casting. I have repaired thin model engine crankcases (cash damaged) with this stuff many years ago and it holds up fine. The rods I had back then recommended 'scratching' the puddle with a bit of stainless wire to break the oxide film. It's useful stuff.... and easy to use... Cleaning the surfaces is of course essential...a stainless steel wire brush is the tool for that for best results....
I'm 53, never welded & now on disability so no money to invest in the equipment & learning process. I saw a vid. comparing these to one another but this is great education on the difference between these & the real deal. Thank you.
So for all those interested, these rods are made of Zinc. One interesting thing that can be done with these is the ability to join aluminium to copper, I understand it is difficult, but doable.
That plus high heat sounds bit dangerous. I remember guys forge welding galvanized pipe and tig tacking washers together commenting on how dangerous/toxic the fumes were.
@@randomidiot8142 I would have zero concern using these rods, if you heat the work hot enough to burn the zinc, you will melt your work piece. Remember the dangers everyone keeps talking about from welding galvanised materials comes from buring zinc, when you burn zinc you will essentially inhale zinc oxides this gives you something called metal fume fever. It sucks, but I do not believe I have ever heard of someone dying from it. It will give you bad flu like symptoms, but I understand that is the extent of it...
I have never welded anything deliberately but this Alumiweld is great for small works. I have soldered all my life and this alumiweld is a great addition.
One is not a substitute for the other, i was using aluminium brazing rods 45 years ago on refrigeration cases, you needed a flux to make them run, they were excellent for what they were intended for and you could even build a bead if you wanted but no where near as strong as tig, the rods were a lot more expensive than tig rods.
I have always wanted to use it to TIG with. The original advertisement showed repairing transmission ears. Transmissions can exceed the melting point of alumiweld. I used it years ago to repair mounting holes on an ATVs skid plate.
I used a product like this years ago and I remember they supplied a tungston, I think, wire to scrape the alloy surface under the pool to remove the oxide and expose the clean metal, worked really well as I recall.
I had a rototiller setting out and the wind blew down a tree and the tiller got hit knocking off the carburetor...ugh I used alumnaweld to repair the carb. and it worked beautifully, made a very nice repair and I got many more years out of the motor without failure
Thanks for the demonstration on the differences. For lap joints with brazing, specifically, is there a means of sweat soldering the two pieces, or some sort of flux that can be added to assist with the capillary action?
It would be interesting to see if there would be a difference if you aimed the torch on both metal pieces on the lap join. As it was now, you aimed it at the upper metal piece. Maybe the heat travelled so well since alu is a good heat transporter.. i just got curious.
Very useful. Had a small hole (3mm) in a carburetor chamber bowl on a 92 Suzuki. Hard to find parts for that bike and when you can find parts they're ridiculous $$. I used this stuff to fix it. No more leaks.
I used this to make a outboard motor bracket For my kayak . I do not see any cracks or signs of fatigue nor do I see any corrosion. But to be fair I did paint the structure as it's in salt water
I love those dimes on your tig weld. Very nice. I had an old aluminum boat on a fishing trip, Fortunately, I always bring my mapp torch to start camp fires. After launching my boat, I realized a pop rivet had fallen out of the bottom of the boat. I went to Lowes and purchased an brand of stick Al solder, and it fixed the hole there at the camp site, no problem. Saved the trip.
You can clean and flux Al to keep the oxide from forming and make very strong lap joints; while you may be able to use this as a one and done solution material preparation is important.
May not replace welding, but for a guy like me who just wants a couple custom tanks for a couple projects it's probably going to be amazing. I can't really justify the expense of TIG for a radiator overflow and oil catch can. And I don't think either of those would be more stress than the solder could handle.
Oxide layer is why the instructions say rough up the area you plan to apply filler using a brass bristle brush , sand paper, or steel wool. Try that in the middle of that lap joint and see it flow into a proper bond. Do not take any more time than necessary after abrading the surface, as aluminum starts to reoxidize in minutes.
A stainless steel scratch brush does a great job of providing and abraded keyed surface. The problem with abrasive papers is they tend to leave a contaminating deposit on the surfaces.
I've been struggling to DIY a repair on my transmission. I accidentally broke its corner mounting bolt out sideways and the piece that broke off unfortunately penetrated through to the inside causing a transmission oil leak. I tried JB Weld first, that was an absolute disaster of a failure. Even three weeks later the JB Weld was still soft enough to deform with my fingernail and it peeled off like rubber. Today I cleaned it all back up and tried Alumiweld hoping for a better repair that would at least hold up enough for me to get the car back on the road. Nope. I spent nearly 30 minutes heating the transmission case and used up almost an entire stick of the Alumiweld sealing and reinforcing the crack. Then I spent another hour or so filing it down at the mating surface and tapping the bolt hole. As soon as the bolt snugged up the Alumiweld cracked, almost like it wasn't even there. I don't have the money to invest in a complete TIG setup right now. Bottom line, the Alumiweld may be ok for fresh aluminum like you see in this video but for an actual repair in the real world it is useless.
Do a video on Muggy Weld Super alloys numbers 1 and 5. Try 20 to 30,000 lb shear strength. Propane, MAP, oxyacetylene or even as a TIG rod. Their flux is the key.
It works if you have a small piece to work on. If you have a large piece of aluminum, you can't heat it up as the aluminum wicks away the heat. I tried using aluminum flux to fix a broken tab on a transmission bell housing. I could not heat the bell housing enough using Map gas to melt the rod. After 20 min, I gave up.
I’ve been using these rods for 20+ years now and it works if your prep the surface properly …you won’t be able to break the joint…used it in firearms, furniture, automotive, boats, aircrafts, etc
It all comes down to the right tool for the right job. I can see this material being very useful for a certain set of specific applications and completely useless for other applications.
when you sweat solder joints you're supposed to 'tin' the surface first. It looks like if you wipe off the bubble and then place the but together you are going to have a really strong joint. Thanks for the video it was very educational.
I read through all of the comments. Based on the the best comments many questions come up : 1. What kind of Flux? And do you Flux before heating or after heating it up to near 800? 2. What kind of torch? I had very little success with a Coleman head, Rd triple play, and map gas, unless heating same 1 inch joint for 10 to 20 minutes before the stick melted is success. I am thinking I need a turbo head, but fear it will only cut my heating time to 70%. 3. What is the comment about rod diameter? Are you saying to buy a thinner diameter rod because it melts quicker? 4. How fast is this compared to a tig? How fast did you get? 5. Did you try different brands? 6. Can a cheap tig that is not supposedly do aluminum be used? It seems to me that a cheap $170 Tig, any gas to protect titanium rod, 100 amps, frequency 200?, and this rod would work on large parts, where the blow torch would not. The advantage would be that you don't need to invest a ton of money into a tig and a fortune in helium. The joint hold strength should be 700 to 1400, according to project farm. Flux might increase this, or at least the wicking depth?
On the lap joint you should have heated from underneath as well. The bottom layer was not hot enough to bond properly.. Alumiweld is great for light projects but is not for heavy load structural uses. Fix that storm door? |That camper top? Leaky seam in aluminum boat?
If you put a 45 degree chamfer on both sides of the vertical aluminum sheet & if you used a grinding cutting wheel to put a slot into the horizontal aluminum sheet before butting them up together & welding then the weld would become almost as strong as a TIG weld.
If you use Flux with it, it will work better, I've played around with the Aluma-rods for a while. Plus the biggest mistake people make is size the rod for the application.
1. What kind of Flux? And do you Flux before heating or after heating it up to near 800? 2. What kind of torch? I had very little success with a Coleman head, Rd triple play, and map gas, unless heating same 1 inch joint for 10 to 20 minutes before the stick melted is success. I am thinking I need a turbo head, but fear it will only cut my heating time to 70%. 3. What is the comment about rod diameter? Are you saying to buy a thinner diameter rod because it melts quicker? 4. How fast is this compared to a tig? How fast did you get? 5. Did you try different brands?
@@dennisgarber wow, OK, I use map gas, on the smaller/thinner projects, and on the the bigger/thicker projects I use acetylene torch but you have to watch that you can mess up easily. The Flux is just to make it flow better. I don't use it all the time. Just on certain jobs. Check out Project farm he gets in to the different brands and tests. I've tried a few different brands. Hobart is what I like. Keep in mind the size of the rod for the job. That's were most have trouble at. Plus heating up the surface practice makes a difference.
@@225grasshopper225 Thank you very much for the information! I have many stools to make. Basically a 4 square foot 1/8 th aluminum and some 1 inch L brackets for stiffness butt covering and some 16 inch bolts I want to weld and fix on the holes. I think an $800 tig and expensive helium gas would work. Farming it out would be too expensive in the long run. However, a cheap $175 tig and cheap gas might work with these rods. Or maybe an acetylene torch set up for $100? The acetylene would be a lot faster than messing around with a $60 turbo head and map gas, I take it?
@@dennisgarber just be careful using acetylene you can mess things up quickly. I use it on bigger jobs like when fixing toons on pontoons. And I use map gas on little jobs like the rails or filling in small holes. Just practice first. I get the cost. Tigs are $$$ out sources are even more $$$$. I'm on a fixed income. So I do this on the side for fishin money. Lol
Hello, I've seen you're clip. I'm a welder myself, and I saw you forget one important thing, the oxidelayer can be removed before welding. If you clean the surface with a steel brush, it makes all the difference. Give it a try. Good luck
I needed to repair pressure and gravity die cast vintage model aircraft engine crankcases. Most are made out of aluminium but some from die cast magnesium so a fire risk. Most are repairs needed to the engine mounting lugs which have either broken out or have been drilled over size. What I found with alumiweld and similar aluminium solders is that they have quite low adhesion to diecast aluminium and unsatisfactory for model aero engine crankcase repairs, so now get my aluminium crankcase repairs TIG welded with 4043 welding alloy. The aluminium solders I found are either based on zinc or on tin. The zinc based ones are a distinctly blue colour against the diecast aluminium and over time the zinc turns black so as well as not being strong enough is aesthetically unacceptable. The tin based ones have a better colour match but even less adhesion than the zinc based ones. Worse, on cleaning up the repair the tin based solder ends up standing proud of the surrounding aluminium so again unsuitable for a crankcase repair. TIG welded 4043 al. alloy works well on gravity die cast crankcases which can be milled, drilled and filed back to the original profile and are extremely strong. Never had one fail on subsequent engine test. Minimal porosity, if at all. Pressure diecast aluminium ALWAYS ends up with porosity, usually minor which does not affect the joint's function, but leaves an unsightly repair. Plan is to buy an AC TIG welder so I can weld up crankcases myself. I also plan to experiment with other alloys and other techniques to eliminate porosity in welds on diecast aluminium. Maybe have done over 1,000 hrs. with oxy acetylene welding on steel and dabbled with others TIG welding equipment, so believe I can learn TIG welding fairly quickly.
I order and used this stuff. The project I used it on was just too contaminated for not using a TIG machine. I did try it. So, I recommend using it on new material but not on materials that are heavily contaminated.
I found it very difficult to get enough heat into the metal. I was joining 2 pieces of 1 x 2 tubing, 1/8 inch wall. I preheated the parts in my kitchen oven at 450 for a while, but had no luck with either propane or mapp. I ended up using a mapp/oxygen torch to get the parts together.
On the lap weld, did you try 'tinning' the face of the plates first with alumiweld first and clearing the oxide layers before joining the two? I'd be curious to see how strong the bond would be if the joined faces would have been stronger if that oxide was removed from the process, and whether it would work better than sanding/wire brushing.
I've been stumped on my custom lightsaber build with no machining, milling, or welding experience. I have my designs worked out and have been very close to just buying a stick welder... but tonight I watched your video, as well as a couple others. Especially for a smaller project, I think I would be way better off just buying some MAP gas and these soldering/brazing rods. I was legitimately going to just learn my way through stick welding with the project but this will save me a lot of money, effort, and time.
I turned a register recess slightly oversized in my lathe, I built it up with this stuff and turned it back to the correct size, it's not cheap to buy though.
You can learn to weld. I'll show you exactly what to do in my affordable online welding courses at courses.timwelds.com.
I've been looking at online welding courses, and there are a bunch. Even free ones. What I personally think would be very helpful that I haven't seen, and could make yours unique, is some sort of actual interaction with a student. Like a package that includes a couple 15 min video chats.
The problem I, and I imagine others, run into is that videos are great when everything goes perfect, but usually at some point something doesn't go perfect or I have questions. For example my weld looks substantially different than your weld even though I think I did things the exact same. Then I spend hours googling trying to figure out what happened. But I bet you could look at and probably know immediately "oh looks like you went to fast here, try slowing down a little" or whatever it may be
Great video 👍
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I used this product several years back and made a ladder frame for lights for a saltwater aquarium. I had outstanding results. The joints were very strong, and when I sold my set-up, the rack was still going strong. This was after sitting above a 125g tank for almost 10 years. It's a great product for limited/specific uses I feel.
I won't be selling my tig welders anytime soon but this stuff actually looks useful for small diy jobs. How it travels under the oxide layer was really neat to see.
I'm now a follower, love that you get right to it without telling me your back story for the first 10 minutes, what's your favorite food or color, the name of your dog and his favorite food, etc. . Most vids like this I gotta jump ahead 15 minutes and half the time they still talking about, I don't know, losing weight after Christmas.
Amen!
I have used this to repair small engine carburetor fuel bowls that have gotten pin holes from water inside from poor winter storage. Worked awesome no leaks and it has been going strong for years now. This stuff does have it's applications.
Actually the Alumiweld fillet was strong enough for practical applications where loading doesn't produce ridiculous 90-degree part deformations, which is just about all the joints that people need in the real world. I'm glad you put the video out, Alumiweld is definitely going into my bag o'tricks.
I have tons of soldering experience, no welding experience, and a giant CNC that can cut aluminum...I'm gonna order some alumiweld, thanks!
how'd it go?
Yeah how'd it go?
A stainless wire brush goes a long way to prep the metal for a good bond with alumaweld and similar products.
same with any welding process on aluminium. Yes ac should clean it a bit. But if you prep your material properly, that includes brushing with a stainless brush and then its recommended to clean with aceton as wel.
@@gabbermaikel yes, it definitely helps to scratch the oxides a bit to help the arc start. When doing fresh sheet metal (just sheared) it usually isn't needed unless doing a Tee joint. Open corners work great without it, as the oxides on the sides keep the weld focused on the cut edge.
Yea in their documentation they say to use a stainless brush on the parts beforehand, so if dude did that (and also heated the metals and wetted properly without the torch melting the rods) it would probably even stronger...
Yeah the whole time I was like hey, I know this might sound like blasphemy but like imagine if you prepped the surface with a wire brush first, like with brazing or welding.
@@666hobart yes you've got a good point also. Would you torch your solder before trying to lay it in? No. Would you take a torch to a welding rob before welding? No. Why was he heating the rods first?!?
I did a repair on my poll screen enclosure. The aluminum upright started to tear a hole where the door closer attaches after the door blew open in a storm. I removed the door closer bracket, applied the Alumiweld, filled the hole, ground it down even with the support, reinstalled the door closer, and that was probably seven or more years age. It is still holding and you cannot see where I did the repair and painted it over. It cannot be used for everything but it works great for some things.
I install pool cages, always wondered if these would work on extrusion
Thanks for your comment, that's exactly what I'm researching to repair.
I first used alumaweld 35 years ago on a 4" aluminum irrigation pipe that I nicked with a rototiller... the repair was done in the field and worked like a champ. You just need to use less heat than you think you do so as to not have the aluminum you are repairing melt.
Yes. Propane > MAP Gas as Propane's max burning temp is less than Aluminum's melting temp.
Hot tip!
@IAMSatisfied You're saying don't melt the parts you're repairing? Holy hell man you're quite the genius 😆
@@jayryan7473 It's a crucial bit of information specific to using this product on thin aluminum that any newbie would do well to observe, as it's not obvious to someone whose never dealt with repairing thin aluminum. Obviously, an Einstein like yourself assumes everyone was born knowing this and it didn't need to be mentioned... get over yourself, little man.
I've found out that there is a very narrow range of hot enough and too hot (for these rods). Inside that window it works fairly well. The key is a good understanding of the right range of temperature.
thanks for actually knowing and explaining the difference between welding, brazing and soldering....very few youtube experts seem to understand this
I have a lot of experience with soldering, and one thing I know is that flux is the secret weapon for dealing with oxidation. I Googled to see if there is such a thing as aluminum flux - and apparently there is. So I would be very interested in knowing if flux is effective in improving the process.
Harbor Freight stuff I got was made in USA It;s great. I plan to try bees wax and Rosin flux just to experiment.
Aluminum stick rod has a Flux coating that creates a glassy coating on the finished weld.
Aluminum stick rod has a Flux coating that creates a glassy coating on the finished weld.
Come on man are u talking about swiping flux? Seems like the torch heating it up would burn all that off
@@brandonknight7240 Flux works for lead solder. Yes after Flux and a torch it will reoxidize but if you do minimal torch work and work quickly and the rod has Flux I think it will help
Wow. Nice. I think for aesthetic joints, or low stress situations, this is an awesome option.
Never going to replace tig for aluminum, but it is nice to have it available.
I agree, not for structural, but I can definitely see it being useful. I wonder if it would hold up on a cracked head on a mower or something.
Interesting, and good to see the strength of the dual sides solder in particular. OTOH, and for the lap joint especially, I would think that having cleaned the surface very well first to minimize the oxide layer may have helped a lot with the Alumiweld. Brushing hard with stainless steel for example. It didn't seem like you did that. Might have made a significant difference.
I've posted a very similar comment to you about the getting a successful lap joint. Stainless scratch brush and 'tin' both inside faces with lumiweld before mating the lap together.
That's my only gripe about this video. I understand you can "burn" through some impurities when welding, but soldering almost always requires some surface prep. When soldering copper pipe, I always found the key to a good solder joint was prep.
I used the Alumiweld rods and some scrap alumInum flat bar to build a license plate bracket for my Volvo. It saved me $20 and a long shipping time for a new bracket. Work within its capabilities and it does pretty well. Of course, use a stainless steel wire brush to prep the surface first.
That's incredibly strong for what it's designed for. I'm very impressed.
I really appreciate the fairness of this video. I don't think anyone's surprised that welding is stronger, but I was surprised at how strong the "brazing" could be. I have a project where I want to replace a big bulky plastic trim on an aquarium with a slimmer angle-aluminum frame, and I was hoping I could find a way to put it together without fasteners and without a welder (besides, it's been about a decade since I welded anything in community college, lol). This seems like it should do the trick. the forces that the trim is subjected to are quite minor, just a few pounds of force, but that stress taken off of the glass is what's important. Wonderfully helpful video
Interesting! In all the brazing videos I've watched, nobody has ever shown "the oxide layer" in such detail. I appreciate it.
First saw these on a Project Farm comparison. Pretty cool stuff, means I didn't have to jump right to TIG or get an old or expensive AC-capable stick or mig machine. Crazy to see how it interacts with the oxide layer. Almost looks easier than sweating copper pipes, though that lap joint was disappointing.
Thanks for the vid!
Maybe disappointing but if it was wire brushed or properly prepped to first get rid of the oxide layer the outcome would have been better..
Lap joints are probably feasible if you wet the surface before attempting to bond, like how you typically solder electronics and wires, bond the braze to the material first, then remelt the braze to join the pieces. Proper surface prep would help a bit as well. Except there's not much you can do about the oxide layer itself during prep as the oxide layer reforms extremely quickly, which is why welding with shield gas and brazing products that interfere with the oxide layer are needed, and why you can't just 'get rid' of the oxide layer like you can with irons and steels.
@rpavlik1 it's as easy as sweating copper. I had great success with Alumirods. Just a little different torching technique as the aluminum cools much faster than copper
I fabricated a device to relocate my start key on my motorcycle back in early 2000s using the soldering aluminum. The switch was still in place in perfect condition after 20+k miles when I sold it last year. The only thing I did different was to clean up the joints before soldering with a stainless wire brush. It really worked well however I have since purchased a Tig welder and haven't used that device in several years.
Okay but what kind of wear and tear does a switch bracket take anyway...
@@dangerous8333 It likely doesn't but it shows there are projects where it will work fine.
This stuff is actually quite impressive honestly. As long as you get the quality stuff. I’ve been nothing but impressed with it personally.
How do you know if it's quality? Get name brand? Anything else to watch out for when sourcing this stuff? I've been curious about it for awhile but have yet to bite the bullet lol.
@@johnny0454 watch “the project farm” channel. He did and amazing head to head to head challenge with this stuff that explains everything as well as it can be 👍🏼👍🏼
@@Thewatson77 I watched it. However, he preferred Hobart which had a higher melt temperature. My problem so far has been that I have been attempting to use a $30 Coleman head with map gas. Even with Blue Devil Triple Play, I have been only able to solder shut a tiny area after blasting it for 10 minutes, so long as my torch does extinguish. So, since I really need to solder angles to a large 2x2 foot sheet of 1/8 the inch aluminum, 5052 or 3003, my main concern is a low melt temperature and a hotter turbo head. I am still unsure if this is possible.
I spent several hours trying to heat up and do a few welds last Sunday. Getting the area heated up enough was a challenge.
I am also wondering if I bought copper Flux, if this would make anything work better.
I do not recall which one melted at the lowest temperature on project farm .
Muggy weld looks like the best solution, however I would spend.more money on the rods than the entire project. I would rather invest in Gold than their rods.
@@johnny0454 Aladdin 3 in 1
@@dennisgarber with such a large surface area I'd personally just have it welded up. Be it GTAW or GMAW though if they had oxy/acetylene it could be an option though I'd still prefer GTAW.
As a kid in the sixties, I remember, after our 16 foot aluminum boat had gotten beat-up on coral, when the tide went out, my dad used aluminum rod with an acetylene torch to repair the damage. After the repair, we used the boat for years without any problems.
Your dad is very good. Especially for sheet metal repair.
He may have known his flux.
This video is really impressive. The alumaweld rod product is obviously very high quality, despite seeming like a gimmick. I do know that commercial pipe fitters, they spend the majority of their time cleaning the surfaces before soldering and brazing. Most of their labor is spent "prepping" the metal. They clean way above and beyond what is required, to get absolutely perfect soldering and brazing with no air gaps or dead spots. I was trained the same way in silver brazing. You actually clean the silver braze rod, you clean the material you're brazing, and you always use flux. I suspect that cleaning the aluminum oxide off completely, on both the rod, and the material, would lead to an even better bond. I know from experience that the number #1 problem in the home garage, is not being clean enough, and not doing the proper surface preparation on projects.
I always always always clean my TIG rods with acetone before using. Use a white rag with some acetone or brake parts cleaner on it and you wouldn't believe how dirty the aluminum filler Rod is usually it's just the drawing Lube to choose though.
You can't clean aluminum oxide off. It forms in a fraction of a second. This is why we use AC for aluminum TIG welding, as the back current repeatedly burns up through the oxide layer, continually breaking it up. We still use shielding gas to keep it protected as well.
@@MAINTMAN73Careful with brake cleaner containing chlorine. You'll make phosgene gas if any of it is still there when you weld on it. I stick to acetone, and just fill lab wash bottles with it for easy dispensing.
I have used this stuff with a small brazing torch tip and brazing technique, a more concentrated pinpoint heat helps control puddle,.. a clean weld surface (wire brush) before welding works best!!!
Good job on the solder. I used that stuff several times to repair gm door handles and fill in pits and holes in damaged or rough pieces. I was amazed due to it being one of those as seen on tv deals
Perfect application, very good to know. I have used it to repair window regulators, intake manifolds, small engine brackets, and muscle-car-era emblems- many in the field or late Sunday night driveway repairs when other options are not available. As I recall, it fills and grinds away nicely, but it’s quite hard and is not suitable for tapping. For busted threaded holes, go with JB weld or a helicoil.
Using a MAP gas plumbers torch on a hose with trigger ignition, one could easily reach inside of a door cavity or tight engine bay to carry out an emergency repair. Standard bonding practices apply, de-oxidized surfaces work better. Using a carbide or stainless steel brush first, maybe a shot of brake cleaner or isopropyl alcohol, can make a huge difference. No electricity or welder skills needed. It has been a tool box necessity for more than 20 years.
@@mrbreakit6063 my best friend is a jeweler. If you do small repairs and have a natural gas and o2 tank its a wonderful thing. If not you can still do oxy acetylene. The hoses and tips arent very much and youll be freaking amazed at the difference in your overall repair. As good as it may look with a map gas tank yhe other is a game changer. You can get B tanks relatively affoedable if you keep an eye out. While sharing cheats. If you have any hard to fix plastic repairs get Q bond. Its amazing. Works on metal and plastics pp pe abs/pc it repairs fills voids makes molds cracked dash board? Sprinkle the powder in the crack and wet it with the adgesive. In 10 seconds the crack is filled. Sand cut melt mold drill. Repairs aluminum , cast, Q B 2 anywhere from 9.00 to 60. Online. Can be used without the powders as well.
The way it wets the aluminium reminds me of how gallium interacts with it in a similar fashion.
I'm glad you called this soldering and not welding because that's what it is.
However, I have used multiple brands of aluminum weld sticks with Mapp gas and it simply does not work.
Mapp gas won't get the aluminum hot enough to melt the sticks.
I performed several tests with a variety of torch tips and could not get the aluminum above 450 degrees with Mapp gas. The required melt point for Alumi-weld sticks is 720 degrees Fahrenheit.
This surprises me…I heated a steel 3/8th x 2 inch bolt on my makeshift firebrick hearth with Mapp and a Rothenburger torch. It became bright orange in about a minute. Were you heating a large area of 1/4 inch thick sheet or something?
Brazing.
I was able to successfully repair an A/C line on my car where it had rubbed a hole in it against the frame using the Bernzomatic brand aluminum rod. Been working good so far for a few years already. One of the keys is to clean the repair area with acetone to remove any impurities. Thanks for the video.
I also used those rods for mine too. You must have a 2004 Ford Explorer 🤣
@@mikewithers299 Lol close. It's a 2004 Mazda MPV with a Ford 3.0L Duratec in it. So basically a Ford.
@@chilimax21 that's funny. I had to ask. I've never had that happen to any other vehicle, but it worked when I needed it to
Alumaweld is a Zinc alloy with just a little bit of Aluminum in it. It melts at a temperature substantially lower than Aluminum. I have tried it and the main problem that I have with it is that the results were inconsistent. That is one T joint I could bend 90 degrees without failure but the next one would fail before I even bent it 45 degrees. To be fair, this was my first time using it. My recommendation is that if you have a MIG welder, get a spool of .030" E5356 and use an .035" contact tip and you will get much better and more consistent results. Keep your MIG gun cable as straight as possible and use just enough tension to feed the wire. And don't forget, it is DCEP and about 20 CFH Argon. As far as the Alumaweld goes, I would use it on thin parts that need a small repair. There are also other aluminum brazing rods that have a flux core. For these, try Lucas-Milhaupt and Harris.
I'm impressed, I didn't think it was gonna work at all.
This is something I have been pondering for months. Thank you so much for taking the time to make this video
I have used this to weld up cracks on an aluminum boat. Seems to work ok. Just had to wire brush real good with a stainless steel brush.
I had a vehicle with a crack in the aluminum oil pan it was leaking oil real bad. I cleaned the crack inside and over the surface of it really well and I tried the alumiweld rods. It worked and the pan has been holding oil for 2 years now. It saved me about 10 hours of Labor and $200 for a new pan.
This works better than I expected. I think a strong lap joint might be possible by covering the mating/overlapping surfaces with alumiweld then carefully heating bith surfaces before bringing them together. Definitely a good thing to have in your emergency tool kit.
On a lap joint, wet both sides of the parts to be joined then reflow the solder while positioning the parts together squishing out excess solder. Much stronger bond.
High temp soldering. Same thing you do in freon lines and thick ridgid copper.
Thanks for showing us this! I will try this for some small not too heavy stuff.
Way way better than I was expecting , great video.
I've been TIG welding for 45 years. I might try this stuff. It might be useful if you had some long joints that needed to be air or water or light tight. Maybe such a joint could be tack welded and have adequate strength but then go back over the complete joint to seal it with a whole lot less heat input. Not a miracle but possibly another tool in the drawer.
I'm still partial to the welder myself, but after playing with it, I do think it has it's place for simple repairs. As far as heat input goes, though, I had to get those samples way hotter than I would have cruising over them with the TIG or MIG. Definitely another tool in the drawer, though. Thanks for watching and for the comment!
@@TimWelds Why not simply use a cheap mig or tig to apply these aluminum weld sticks?
I had a hard time heating up my part to get this stuff to melt. At least 9 minutes blasting with map gas to get a half inch line hot enough. I was using a 30 buck head, maybe I should use a turbo head.
I ditched the idea of doing more than threadlocking bolts with it. I epoxies my 7 inch angles to the large sheet. Of course I would feel better if I could epoxy the center and aluminum weld the perimeter, but I wonder if the heat would cook all of the wet epoxy before it crosslinks.
For the lap weld, have you tried whetting both the surfaces to be joined with alumiweld and then joining them while they are still liquid, much like gluing them together after applying glue to both pieces?
I tried working with those rods and similar rods. The problem is the amount of heat that needed to be applied would remove any temper the aluminum had. The whole piece would lose stiffness after it cooled, and couldn't resist bending before the heat was applied.
The temperature at which aluminum starts to lose its tempering is about the same as the melting point of the rod.
I eventually invested in a TIG welder.
You can rearden the temper by baking the AL in an oven around 350 degrees for a few hours. The AL will also reharden on its own over time, AL age hardens
looks like you had the can buttoned up until the last dab and you can see the hole (I think)
thanks for the video
Yeah..I saw it too...
That oxide layer is no joke to get through without melting the aluminum under it. Takes twice the heat and really needs the AC to break though without overheating. The AC balance on modern TIG inverters is a game changer.
Try it on patching a hole in an aluminum canoe. I’m curious how it holds up.
You can clearly see the saving grace for alumiweld in all of your experiments. The aluminum parent material yielded long before the joint does so for light duty aluminum brackets or something along those lines it works as a great alternative to an expensive aluminum capable tig welder.
I actually thought it worked pretty well.
@@TimWelds I think it does as well. The argument I hear against alumiweld is always "it isn't as strong as a tig joint" but as you show in this video the parent aluminum is all kinds of twisted before it actually breaks off.
I'd never use it for anything structural, but for everything else, especially guys in need of an aluminum repair for low stress or cosmetic problems this is absolutely a godsend.
i do a lot of welding , but aluminium only with mig , so wirefeed , the trick with tig alu , is helium , and a ton of practice
The best way to use those rods is to clean the aluminum with a stainless steel brush and clean it with a solvant. Then, when you want something very strong (relative) you coat both parts with a thin layer of the filler. you then join the parts together and reflow the filler and add as required. When done right, it IS actually a strong solder.
Excellent, concise presentation.
I used something similar to build antennas with aluminum arrow shafts about 25 years ago. It didn't weather well and was awfully brittle. The stuff I used was almost pure Zinc with a few percent Aluminum added. I see varying amounts of Tin are used in Aluminum solders now. I also see some with Copper and Silver. I expect the cheap stuff is almost all Zinc and Aluminum.
The stuff worked fine for me if I reinforced the repair with gussets or patches to reduce the load by 50 to 67%. and protected from moisture. The stuff I use wouldn't take vibration or repeated stress.
It's not as strong as a good Tig weld, but it has its uses where the Tig would be very difficult like on a thin casting. I have repaired thin model engine crankcases (cash damaged) with this stuff many years ago and it holds up fine. The rods I had back then recommended 'scratching' the puddle with a bit of stainless wire to break the oxide film. It's useful stuff.... and easy to use... Cleaning the surfaces is of course essential...a stainless steel wire brush is the tool for that for best results....
With proper cleaning aluminum brazing rods have a strength of 33kpsi. So it really depends on how much "strength" you need.
I'm 53, never welded & now on disability so no money to invest in the equipment & learning process. I saw a vid. comparing these to one another but this is great education on the difference between these & the real deal. Thank you.
So for all those interested, these rods are made of Zinc. One interesting thing that can be done with these is the ability to join aluminium to copper, I understand it is difficult, but doable.
That plus high heat sounds bit dangerous. I remember guys forge welding galvanized pipe and tig tacking washers together commenting on how dangerous/toxic the fumes were.
@@randomidiot8142 I would have zero concern using these rods, if you heat the work hot enough to burn the zinc, you will melt your work piece. Remember the dangers everyone keeps talking about from welding galvanised materials comes from buring zinc, when you burn zinc you will essentially inhale zinc oxides this gives you something called metal fume fever. It sucks, but I do not believe I have ever heard of someone dying from it. It will give you bad flu like symptoms, but I understand that is the extent of it...
I have never welded anything deliberately but this Alumiweld is great for small works. I have soldered all my life and this alumiweld is a great addition.
One is not a substitute for the other, i was using aluminium brazing rods 45 years ago on refrigeration cases, you needed a flux to make them run, they were excellent for what they were intended for and you could even build a bead if you wanted but no where near as strong as tig, the rods were a lot more expensive than tig rods.
I have always wanted to use it to TIG with.
The original advertisement showed repairing transmission ears. Transmissions can exceed the melting point of alumiweld. I used it years ago to repair mounting holes on an ATVs skid plate.
I used a product like this years ago and I remember they supplied a tungston, I think, wire to
scrape the alloy surface under the pool to remove the oxide and expose the clean metal, worked
really well as I recall.
I had a rototiller setting out and the wind blew down a tree and the tiller got hit knocking off the carburetor...ugh I used alumnaweld to repair the carb. and it worked beautifully, made a very nice repair and I got many more years out of the motor without failure
I wish I had an instructor and employer like you! I am very glad I found ur channel. Subscribed👍
Thanks for the demonstration on the differences. For lap joints with brazing, specifically, is there a means of sweat soldering the two pieces, or some sort of flux that can be added to assist with the capillary action?
Tinning the mating surfaces
It would be interesting to see if there would be a difference if you aimed the torch on both metal pieces on the lap join. As it was now, you aimed it at the upper metal piece. Maybe the heat travelled so well since alu is a good heat transporter.. i just got curious.
Very useful. Had a small hole (3mm) in a carburetor chamber bowl on a 92 Suzuki. Hard to find parts for that bike and when you can find parts they're ridiculous $$. I used this stuff to fix it. No more leaks.
I used this to make a outboard motor bracket For my kayak . I do not see any cracks or signs of fatigue nor do I see any corrosion. But to be fair I did paint the structure as it's in salt water
I love those dimes on your tig weld. Very nice. I had an old aluminum boat on a fishing trip, Fortunately, I always bring my mapp torch to start camp fires. After launching my boat, I realized a pop rivet had fallen out of the bottom of the boat. I went to Lowes and purchased an brand of stick Al solder, and it fixed the hole there at the camp site, no problem. Saved the trip.
But there is no substitute for tig or mig welding general repairs on Al.
You can clean and flux Al to keep the oxide from forming and make very strong lap joints; while you may be able to use this as a one and done solution material preparation is important.
May not replace welding, but for a guy like me who just wants a couple custom tanks for a couple projects it's probably going to be amazing. I can't really justify the expense of TIG for a radiator overflow and oil catch can. And I don't think either of those would be more stress than the solder could handle.
Oxide layer is why the instructions say rough up the area you plan to apply filler using a brass bristle brush , sand paper, or steel wool. Try that in the middle of that lap joint and see it flow into a proper bond. Do not take any more time than necessary after abrading the surface, as aluminum starts to reoxidize in minutes.
Just curious, if you had lightly sanded that joint; would you have gotten a better harder holding weld?
A stainless steel scratch brush does a great job of providing and abraded keyed surface. The problem with abrasive papers is they tend to leave a contaminating deposit on the surfaces.
I've been struggling to DIY a repair on my transmission. I accidentally broke its corner mounting bolt out sideways and the piece that broke off unfortunately penetrated through to the inside causing a transmission oil leak. I tried JB Weld first, that was an absolute disaster of a failure. Even three weeks later the JB Weld was still soft enough to deform with my fingernail and it peeled off like rubber. Today I cleaned it all back up and tried Alumiweld hoping for a better repair that would at least hold up enough for me to get the car back on the road. Nope. I spent nearly 30 minutes heating the transmission case and used up almost an entire stick of the Alumiweld sealing and reinforcing the crack. Then I spent another hour or so filing it down at the mating surface and tapping the bolt hole. As soon as the bolt snugged up the Alumiweld cracked, almost like it wasn't even there. I don't have the money to invest in a complete TIG setup right now. Bottom line, the Alumiweld may be ok for fresh aluminum like you see in this video but for an actual repair in the real world it is useless.
I thought part of the process was to de-oxidize the surface with a stainless steel brush - apparently helps with penetration.
I'd call it adherence rather than penetration.
Do a video on Muggy Weld Super alloys numbers 1 and 5. Try 20 to 30,000 lb shear strength. Propane, MAP, oxyacetylene or even as a TIG rod. Their flux is the key.
It works if you have a small piece to work on. If you have a large piece of aluminum, you can't heat it up as the aluminum wicks away the heat. I tried using aluminum flux to fix a broken tab on a transmission bell housing. I could not heat the bell housing enough using Map gas to melt the rod. After 20 min, I gave up.
i really like what do you do👍Hi from Russia 🇷🇺
Brazing is a great skill to learn ,used it many times ,makes a really neat joint and fast as long as temperature is correct.
I’ve been using these rods for 20+ years now and it works if your prep the surface properly …you won’t be able to break the joint…used it in firearms, furniture, automotive, boats, aircrafts, etc
In germany we call it soldering and we differentiate between Hardsolder (with flame) and Softsolder (with Solderingiron)
can the alumiweld be used to fix a bicycle rim- then anodized?
thanks!
I believe that it should work and TIG welding on any thin metal is usually very hard. Even panelbeaters have a super hard time welding sheet metal.
Does it work any better off you apply flux before attempting to add the alumiweld?
I think that it might. Would be an interesting test. Thanks for watching!
It all comes down to the right tool for the right job. I can see this material being very useful for a certain set of specific applications and completely useless for other applications.
your alumiweld looks like a real weld !!! Great video! Thank you for sharing the knowledge!!! and testing from both sides - was a great idea!!!
when you sweat solder joints you're supposed to 'tin' the surface first.
It looks like if you wipe off the bubble and then place the but together you are going to have a really strong joint. Thanks for the video it was very educational.
I read through all of the comments. Based on the the best comments many questions come up :
1. What kind of Flux? And do you Flux before heating or after heating it up to near 800?
2. What kind of torch? I had very little success with a Coleman head, Rd triple play, and map gas, unless heating same 1 inch joint for 10 to 20 minutes before the stick melted is success. I am thinking I need a turbo head, but fear it will only cut my heating time to 70%.
3. What is the comment about rod diameter? Are you saying to buy a thinner diameter rod because it melts quicker?
4. How fast is this compared to a tig? How fast did you get?
5. Did you try different brands?
6. Can a cheap tig that is not supposedly do aluminum be used? It seems to me that a cheap $170 Tig, any gas to protect titanium rod, 100 amps, frequency 200?, and this rod would work on large parts, where the blow torch would not. The advantage would be that you don't need to invest a ton of money into a tig and a fortune in helium. The joint hold strength should be 700 to 1400, according to project farm. Flux might increase this, or at least the wicking depth?
On the lap joint you should have heated from underneath as well. The bottom layer was not hot enough to bond properly.. Alumiweld is great for light projects but is not for heavy load structural uses. Fix that storm door? |That camper top? Leaky seam in aluminum boat?
What types of Aluminium alloys can be welded with this rods ? can it be PA13 5083 with magnezium ?
Actually You can braze any metal that is non ferrous . Thats what the instructions say. I have'nt tried much except aluminum and copper.
Finally a video that explains aluminum rod correctly
Thanks!
Your TIG welding skills are amazing! Some of the best TIG welding I ever seen in my life! ✌️
If you put a 45 degree chamfer on both sides of the vertical aluminum sheet & if you used a grinding cutting wheel to put a slot into the horizontal aluminum sheet before butting them up together & welding then the weld would become almost as strong as a TIG weld.
Very informative and to the point. Thanks Tim!!!
If you use Flux with it, it will work better, I've played around with the Aluma-rods for a while. Plus the biggest mistake people make is size the rod for the application.
I was wondering whether fluxing would have improved the outcome with the lap joint.
1. What kind of Flux? And do you Flux before heating or after heating it up to near 800?
2. What kind of torch? I had very little success with a Coleman head, Rd triple play, and map gas, unless heating same 1 inch joint for 10 to 20 minutes before the stick melted is success. I am thinking I need a turbo head, but fear it will only cut my heating time to 70%.
3. What is the comment about rod diameter? Are you saying to buy a thinner diameter rod because it melts quicker?
4. How fast is this compared to a tig? How fast did you get?
5. Did you try different brands?
@@dennisgarber wow, OK, I use map gas, on the smaller/thinner projects, and on the the bigger/thicker projects I use acetylene torch but you have to watch that you can mess up easily. The Flux is just to make it flow better. I don't use it all the time. Just on certain jobs. Check out Project farm he gets in to the different brands and tests. I've tried a few different brands. Hobart is what I like. Keep in mind the size of the rod for the job. That's were most have trouble at. Plus heating up the surface practice makes a difference.
@@225grasshopper225 Thank you very much for the information!
I have many stools to make. Basically a 4 square foot 1/8 th aluminum and some 1 inch L brackets for stiffness butt covering and some 16 inch bolts I want to weld and fix on the holes.
I think an $800 tig and expensive helium gas would work. Farming it out would be too expensive in the long run. However, a cheap $175 tig and cheap gas might work with these rods. Or maybe an acetylene torch set up for $100? The acetylene would be a lot faster than messing around with a $60 turbo head and map gas, I take it?
@@dennisgarber just be careful using acetylene you can mess things up quickly. I use it on bigger jobs like when fixing toons on pontoons. And I use map gas on little jobs like the rails or filling in small holes. Just practice first. I get the cost. Tigs are $$$ out sources are even more $$$$. I'm on a fixed income. So I do this on the side for fishin money. Lol
Hello, I've seen you're clip. I'm a welder myself, and I saw you forget one important thing, the oxidelayer can be removed before welding. If you clean the surface with a steel brush, it makes all the difference.
Give it a try.
Good luck
I needed to repair pressure and gravity die cast vintage model aircraft engine crankcases. Most are made out of aluminium but some from die cast magnesium so a fire risk. Most are repairs needed to the engine mounting lugs which have either broken out or have been drilled over size.
What I found with alumiweld and similar aluminium solders is that they have quite low adhesion to diecast aluminium and unsatisfactory for model aero engine crankcase repairs, so now get my aluminium crankcase repairs TIG welded with 4043 welding alloy.
The aluminium solders I found are either based on zinc or on tin. The zinc based ones are a distinctly blue colour against the diecast aluminium and over time the zinc turns black so as well as not being strong enough is aesthetically unacceptable. The tin based ones have a better colour match but even less adhesion than the zinc based ones. Worse, on cleaning up the repair the tin based solder ends up standing proud of the surrounding aluminium so again unsuitable for a crankcase repair.
TIG welded 4043 al. alloy works well on gravity die cast crankcases which can be milled, drilled and filed back to the original profile and are extremely strong. Never had one fail on subsequent engine test. Minimal porosity, if at all.
Pressure diecast aluminium ALWAYS ends up with porosity, usually minor which does not affect the joint's function, but leaves an unsightly repair.
Plan is to buy an AC TIG welder so I can weld up crankcases myself. I also plan to experiment with other alloys and other techniques to eliminate porosity in welds on diecast aluminium. Maybe have done over 1,000 hrs. with oxy acetylene welding on steel and dabbled with others TIG welding equipment, so believe I can learn TIG welding fairly quickly.
I order and used this stuff. The project I used it on was just too contaminated for not using a TIG machine. I did try it. So, I recommend using it on new material but not on materials that are heavily contaminated.
I have seen demonstrations where the corner of an aluminium bloc was broken off and replaced by the rod and then machined.It seemed to work fine.
I found it very difficult to get enough heat into the metal. I was joining 2 pieces of 1 x 2 tubing, 1/8 inch wall. I preheated the parts in my kitchen oven at 450 for a while, but had no luck with either propane or mapp. I ended up using a mapp/oxygen torch to get the parts together.
On the lap weld, did you try 'tinning' the face of the plates first with alumiweld first and clearing the oxide layers before joining the two? I'd be curious to see how strong the bond would be if the joined faces would have been stronger if that oxide was removed from the process, and whether it would work better than sanding/wire brushing.
I didn’t spend much time on the lap joint, but I think what you’re suggesting would work much better.
I've been stumped on my custom lightsaber build with no machining, milling, or welding experience. I have my designs worked out and have been very close to just buying a stick welder... but tonight I watched your video, as well as a couple others. Especially for a smaller project, I think I would be way better off just buying some MAP gas and these soldering/brazing rods. I was legitimately going to just learn my way through stick welding with the project but this will save me a lot of money, effort, and time.
I think I'll stick with the welding too but thanks for being the one to test it honestly
I turned a register recess slightly oversized in my lathe, I built it up with this stuff and turned it back to the correct size, it's not cheap to buy though.