Need some Welding Advice.

[BOOSTDEF]

Hi fellas.

A mate of mine has gone overseas and has let me use his welder for the duration of his stay.

It is one of these http://www.wim.com.my/product.asp?id=42

I have done quite a bit of welding with a stick welder, but thats just horrible lol

Anyhow, Im looking at welding some cast/aluminium, just wondering if this is up for it?(Intake manifold, and some stainless)

Any help would be great.

Cheers.

[Racecraft]

stainless ,, yes that is no drama.. just get some 316 grade SS filler wire

Cast Ally .. no it doesn't read to be high freq :(

[BOOSTDEF]

oh ok... so shes of a smaller range.. cheers mate.

Just looking to save a bit by modifying the AU sump to fit it to my new car. Dont want to touch the K frame again.

what specs in a welder should i be after in order to weld cast Alloy?

[bigjim]

When you're welding the ally, make sure it its super clean- even the slightest contamination and you'll get black crap all through your weld. Also make sure you are using the right type of electrode for ally and stainless, I think that thoriated is the type that you want but it would be worth asking a welder or someone at BOC or similar. Most important thing for tig welding is fitup- filling gaps is a real pain

[Blue Ice]

Thats a TIG machine. Done any TIG welding before? Its pretty easy once you've been shown and had a go. Use the right filler rod for the material your welding.

If your thinking of welding cast iron, its best to leave that to someone with experience as its pretty sensitive to cracking, it needs preheat and post heat treatment otherwise it'll end up with a dirty big crack through the weld bead/heat affected zone.

Hope this helps, any more questions, fire me a PM. I've done an apprenticeship in boilermaking/welding and I got most of my welding tickets including pressure ones.

[Racecraft]

mate I can't remember the specs and my TAFE books are long gone...

[BOOSTDEF]

Ok fellas. Thanks.

No i cant say ive done any tig welding before no.. But the welders free to use and im pretty handy with the stick welder so i thought id give something a go. I will anyway as ive got some stainless piping to weld, just wanted to modify sump and maybe one of the EF intake manifolds. Grandfathers done it all before he says hed swing by and have a look.

Is there any other material an intake manifold can be made of which doesnt require heating? Just looking at making a box manifold for a turbo project(yes another one). Similar to the nizpro xr6t design.

Anyhow, thanks again fellas.

[Racecraft]

you can make a plenum out of some stainless

[XR Martin]

Look up Tig Welding on your favourite search engine, and it should show you the basics, theres a few certain things that need to be done a particular way for everything to work properly.
Its not like stick welding where you can turn it on and go.

Stainless will be a lot easier to Tig weld for a beginner than aluminium.

[BOOSTDEF]

Could a MIG do aluminium/Stainless? Ive got a few mates :P

[Blue Ice]

MIG's can do stainless and aluminium for sure

[S3SR]

you just have to change the welding wire and gas i think to use it on stainless / aluminium

[Blue Ice]

Whatever grade stainless your welding (309, 316) use Stainshield gas and the same grade wire, for aluminium, use the same grade wire and Alushield gas.

[BOOSTDEF]

oh ok... so an aluminium plennum possible? Just get some aluminium sheeting?

Whats the difference betwen gas and gassless? I see you can get stainless wire, mild wire, what else?

Id have to use the flanges from the stock cast manifold, is there any way in joining say stock cast manifold flanges to the aluminium(Or whatever material is best for a plennum) ??

Cheers.

[Jason[98.EL]]

you need to change the wire to suit what you are welding also the gas only needs to be changed if you are welding alluminium then you need pure argon

hope this helps

jason

[BOOSTDEF]

what ampage would i be looking at in order to weld plate aluminium about 3-5mm thick? into a box shape?

Cheers.