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Old 09-29-2009, 11:31 AM
Kerry Pinkerton's Avatar
Kerry Pinkerton Kerry Pinkerton is offline
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Join Date: May 2009
Location: Near Huntsville, Alabama. Just south of the Tennessee line off I65
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Originally Posted by preston View Post
Interesting that you say annealing is not necessary because the 3003 is so nice, and only needed if you are deep forming, when it seems to me half the panels on your car could be considered "deep forming".

Also, I am interested in your thoughts on gas welding. I spent a lot of time and effort buying a TIG and teaching myself to weld alum before I realized gas welding was an option. I don't like working with a torch or flux. I'm encouraged that you can do plenty of work on your TIG seams and that it doesn't seem to interfere with your forming,even on those deep reverses.

Do you have any comments on the ductility of the TIG welds or comparing it to gas welds ? Have you tried gas welding and compared the differences ?
Actually while the roadster has lots of complex shapes, as individual sub panels, they're basically simple. I'l probably do some annealing in Oblong for the headlights and some other tight areas but basically unless I really need to move the metal a LOT, I haven't found it necessary and I'm cautious of making the panel any softer than it needs to be.

This and 5 more aluminum cars will make an even half dozen I've built...

Preston, I'm a novice aluminum welder. I have a REALLY high end TIG (Miller Dynasty) and more or less know how to use it but I tend to have much more bead than someone who really knows their stuff. This means I take a LOT longer finishing the weld. I'm using 1100 rod. Since that is dead soft, coupled with the annealing properties of the heat affected zone, I rarely see any weld cracks and when I do, it's probably because of my crappy welding.

If I were 30, I'd invest the time in learning how to gas weld. As it is, I'm 60, half blind, and wear trifocals. Even with high dollar TM2000 lenses, I simply CAN'T SEE the puddle during a flux gas weld. (I can gas weld steel perfectly fine.) I can see the puddle fine with the TIG so I'm sticking with what works for me. I don't doubt that gas welding is at least as good if not better but I gotta do what works for me.

While there are plenty of old world craftsmen and also U.S. pros that swear by gas welding, there are quite a few that only TIG and still manage to produce quality work.

For me, the 1100 rod is KEY. When I was using the 4000 series rod I had all sorts of cracking problems.
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