Anyone been to the Harrogate show yet ?

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

If it was alloy solder wire, as distinct from welding, then it works ok, but I wouldn't use it for anything stressed.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

> There was a guy demoing and selling very expensive alluminium welding wire.

It is! I've already welded a stiffening plate to my tripod (which being a stiff extrusion was certainbloy a different alloy to his plate) and it was easy-peasy, although not quite as pretty as his welds. And yes, you can melt it and reform the weld.

He said that most of the wire out there was pure zinc and pretty much useless while his is some sort of alloy.

He also asked me to try and break the joint I made at the show, using two big pairs of pliers. The aluminium sheet bent, but no-matter how hard I tried I couldn't get the welded joint to distort, so I'm pretty much convinced.

Neil

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Found the datasheet. It claims:

• Tensile strength 'up to' 120 newton/mm^2
• Hardness Rockwell B 55-62

Also, it is welding (as it fuses and alloys with the substrate completely, not a solder that just diffuses into the surface.

He claimed that it melts at 380C and forms a new alloy that melts at over 500C. Adding more wire can help melt an existing weld at lower temperature.

One caveat – I had to do a lot of scratching to get a weld through light anodising. I think it will be better to prep anodised surfaces.

Neil

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Mea Culpa… obviously forgot to refer back to the long thread what with other things on my mind..

Neil / Jesse thanks for the feedback re HSS temperature range… wasn't sure about that… seem to be getting brain fade…

George

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

I saw a film at one time a long time ago showing HSS tooling on a big lathe glowing red and still cutting. I also made some HSS lathe tools and it was hard to get the metal hot enough to do bends and form offset ends.

Clive

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

I've posted a comment about ally weld material on Stevo's Shrink fit Aluminium tubing thread.

HTH,

Rod

[MalcBParticipant @malcb52554]

Interesting stuff on the alloy and yes it did look like it was welding the way it pooled and fused the metal.

[BowberParticipant @bowber]

I had a job to do that required removing a lot of steel and ended up abusing a HSS tool and had it glowing, still cut fine and then when I ground a new edge on it to finish the job it kept it's edge as normal.

Steve

[Author]

Posts