Roo Man aluminum welding question

[wideopen231]

As you know Im working on chute body a lot like the one you built Glen.
I have it all welded up and starting to suface grind the welds some,I do ok at aluminumwleding not best by real long shot.
 
 I have almost zero warpage,lots of tacks. Do have some buildup spots and  some blow thru. Do you just grind bottom side some and leave  or do some weldover(underside) and surface grind them. I would like to say botom is all nice and smooth and pretty,but I'm not running for office and not taking liar class'. Any pics of process on any of your might be cool.

I was thinking a Roo Man's fabricating video series would be cool and once word got out site might pic up some activity.  Yea probably huge pain. Plus no reason to give away hard learned trade secrets,right.

[rooman]

I quite often make a no filler pass over the inside with the torch to level out the bead. If there are any big lumps on the inside it might pay to knock them down with a grinder or carbide cutter before making the leveling pass.

Roo

[wideopen231]

Thanks a lot Roo man Same as I was thinking but never hurts to ask someone with more experiance. Again thanks.

[225digger]

what tungsten are you using ?  i have been using purple lately , its been working very well with thin aluminum .

[wideopen231]

using green pure. I tried the fits everything orange and wasn't real happy with it. The gree has been working fine,better than guy using it.I have gotten plnty perfect welds with it and good amount of screwups that the guy using it.

  I will say I'm pretty please with how ell its going on the aluminum stuff so far.Lot better than intake went,but there I broke the golden rule of aluminum welding.Old material even with sanding and cleaning new stuff would have been lot better.

[225digger]

i use green to . and gold , and red . all of them .   but i got attached to the purple a few months ago and like it alot .   it holds a point and doesnt ball up like green does .  if you can get some give it a try ..... im not the best aluminum tig welder , but the purple really helped me out alot .

[wideopen231]

Actually I just thought about the little torch deal my bother bought at drag race show last year. I think it was call cobra or something and seems there another namr for it starts with H can not  remember. The guy using it did awsome job welding thin aluminum and when he was some the aluminum was still very workable and had ZERo warpage. This would have been perfect to try it out on.

[225digger]

i seen the cobra torches , been out for awhile , id like to try one out one day but id have to dig out my OA bottles ... to used to using the tigs for welding , and plasma for cutting .

[wideopen231]

I have not used his yet.Watching the guy selling them I would have bought one but did not have the 350.00 extra to spend. Its cutting was best part of it. He did some awsome cutting of evrything up to 1/2".
  Switched tips and did awsome weld on some really thin aluminum and the weld area was same as rest of the material flex and workablity wise. Kicking myself(12D) for not thinking about it sooner.

[rooman]

That pistol grip style torch has been sold in the US under the Henrob and Cobra names but the original source is Australia where it was developed by a guy named Dillon. He started out making new mixing tips for the locally available torches in the mid-late 70's and later developed the pistol grip style deal. When he started out he was driving around to all the body shops etc in Adelaide selling them out of his trunk (or "boot" for the Aussies). I had a set of the original mixing tips but have not tried the pistol grip deal.

Roo

[hotrodpete]

We bought  a Henrob two years ago at the Metal Meet in Oblong . The salesman had my wife welding alum. better than I could.(she listened to his instructions ). I have used it to cut plate steel when the plasma fritzed. Welded cast iron  sheet metal and alum plate. I find it too bulky and heavy after a long while but it is a nice piece of equipment.   The most use it has had is for precise soldering of copper flowers my wife makes.  Like anything else, practise ,practise practise.