welding cast aluminium

Yes but it's boringly tricky on thin aluminium

Argon/helium gas & aluminium wire. & practice on a scrap bit , thin aluminium welds quite differently to steel.

Ally wire can be quite tricky to feed through a normal mig set as it's fairly soft and so tends to crumple up on it's way to the gun, you're far better using a torch with a built in spooler that pulls the ally wire through rather than the usualy pushing. Either that or invest in a TIG set :)

Keep the power down and practice on some scrap, you should manage but the weld will probably be ugly as hell.

If it's part of the 'bodywork' and not structural, could you use some sort of glue to just stick the bust bit back on?

If it was me I'd just get the Duct tape out ;-)

Thanks folks. I think it's going to be a pop rivetting job.

Way quicker :-)

Very difficult, though not impossible. I always swear by JB Weld, a tube of stuff that you mix with hardener. I've even used this to repair a main bearing housing on a tractor diesel engine which had become worn away due to break up of the crankshaft thrust washer. Been OK for the last 6 years. I'm not sure how well it works on aluminium. Could be perfectly OK, though.

Rob Graham

Erm, what about Lumiweld?

The message from Chris Bacon contains these words:

What, that blue brie substitute the Milk Marketing Board tried to fob off on us a few years ago?

I don't think so, this stuff is for joining various Al alloys. Perhaps someone else on this froup knows of Lumiweld?

I've never heard of Lumiweld but with a name like that maybe it's made for luminium and might be better.

Rob

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Chris Bacon saying something like:

Works ok, afaik.

Excellent stuff! I have repaired motorcycle engine casings with this. It's a sort of aluminium solder and usually advertised in car & bike mags.

Guy King ( snipped-for-privacy@zetnet.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

No, but I hear that Wensleydale is quite good if ever you need to protect wires from chafing in a hole through a steel panel.

I've used the same stuff I think but it's marketed as Technoweld, pretty good actually and surprisingly strong too. Snap on stock it on their vans usually. cheers Chris

Same thing happend me. I used that fibreglass body repair stuff. Still going great two years later.

John

What ever seems to work best or easiest for you but if you want to weld it right. first make sure the weld edges are very clean (impurities in alum. welds really show up) you can use the mig it isn't the best but will work. I would use an arc welder. they actually sell specific rod for welding alum./cast. but some good 6011 will work. You have to heat up the metal w/ a torch first then weld it. also do not cool it down. i mean w/ water. if it cools to rapidly it will just crack the weld. let it cool by air. I have welded alot of this specific metal in many diff. applications and never had a problem. take your time and it works just fine. good luck

p.s. duct tape fixes all =)

The message from "storby" contains these words:

Beware of the dark side though.

yes we know the darkside is not sticky as the sticky is on the lighter side of the duct tape