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Aluminum Gas Welding - Instruction
Just an FYI for resource information on using the torch for gas welding aluminum sheet. TM Tech has been a supplier of aluminum gas welding materials and instruction since 1990.
A handy little tool-box booklet with troubleshooting, setup info, tip selection chart, and filler metal chart - like using 5356 for joining a machined 6061 bung onto a 5052 tank, for instance .... https://www.tinmantech.com/products/...as-welding.php And, our first basic film showing how to set the bottles, the torch, mix the flux, apply the flux, and hold the torch for welding. Including through-the-TM2000-welding- lens footage showing the weld pool and adding the filler. https://www.tinmantech.com/products/...g-aluminum.php Our second film on welding aluminum is from ALCOA, 1942, and shows O/H welding and O/A welding of aluminum, from .063" thickness to .50" thickness, using preheat. Also covers stick-arc welding, atomic hydrogen welding, carbon arc welding and spot welding of aluminum sheet. https://www.tinmantech.com/products/...ng-methods.php Our third film on aluminum gas welding covers welding 6061 and 5052, as well as soldering and brazing of aluminum parts. Also has through-the-TM2000-lens viewing .... 2DVD set. https://www.tinmantech.com/products/...-difficult.php If you want to also torch weld 4130 chromoly tubing, we have a 2DVD set for that aviation process: https://www.tinmantech.com/products/...nstruction.php This film also shows the through-the-TM2000=lens welding process .... Our workshop trainings cover 8 full hours of torch welding of aluminum: DSC00386c.jpg DSC00411c.jpg P1080965c.jpg P1010076c.jpg welding class San Antonio 2014_b c.jpg P1070010.jpg P1070014c.jpg On rare occasions I give a gold star for substantial improvement. Some students become professional metalmen, like George Schroeder, here below. He has been a student of mine for a few years now and decided to build his own car. After a lot of going back and forth and then doing research on his fave cars ... he chose an old Ford to make an accurate copy of. Abbey Panels had made 3 in aluminum, so he chose to make one of those: P1140075c.jpg He is a careful accurate craftsman, with a lot of patience. GS.5.jpg And he is almost finished with his old Ford, after starting out in 2013. P1140129.jpg His welds are really nice and even - good for bare aluminum jobs. Hammerman welds a long stretch.jpg
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Kent http://www.tinmantech.com "All it takes is a little practical experience to blow the he!! out of a perfectly good theory." --- Lloyd Rosenquist, charter member AWS, 1919. Last edited by crystallographic; 01-18-2019 at 02:48 PM. |
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I have read all but one of the above mentioned videos and while I have found them to very informative, I would recommend that if given an opportunity to attend a class by Kent for metal welding of all types, that you jump on it with both feet. I have recently had an opportunity to attend a four day welding class here in Rock Hill by Kent, and can tell you that his welding/soldering/brazing instruction is much easier to comprehend as he is extremely knowledgeable about metallurgy and he can explain not only how something works, but why. (1200 degrees Will... ) Acquiring those videos in advance of attending one of his classes would seem to be a prudent move.
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Will |
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I have all the videos and it was enough for me to learn on my own. I had never run a torch before. I made up a bunch of coupons and the early attempts were comical but I eventually got it. Key was getting cheaters of the right diopter and getting reading glasses as I have -9.5 myopia. Yes, I could start a forest fire with my glasses quite easily, and in fact murder small rodents - forget ants. Also I think my glasses would deflect a 7.62mm slug. I got the TM2000 lense, which is absolutely necessary to see anything. I got the meco which I love and Kent's flux. It all works.
There has been lots of debate about tig vs torch. I have both. I have not really figured out how to weld aluminum with the tig, mainly because I have no need. Also, if I were starting again I would go the same way because there are just so many other things you can do with the torch - bend stuff, free rusted fasteners, heat your tea etc. It is just a must have tool and you can weld and braze anything with it. After learning aluminum welding, going to steel where the color changes was very easy. the first video was enough to get going, but the 2 dvd set is really comprehensive and I go back to it again and again, especially when I haven't done it for a while.
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Scott in Montreal |
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I have all the videos and it was enough for me to learn on my own. I had never run a torch before. I made up a bunch of coupons and the early attempts were comical but I eventually got it. Key was getting cheaters of the right diopter and getting reading glasses as I have -9.5 myopia. Yes, I could start a forest fire with my glasses quite easily, and in fact murder small rodents - forget ants. Also I think my glasses would deflect a 7.62mm slug. I got the TM2000 lense, which is absolutely necessary to see anything. I got the meco which I love and Kent's flux. It all works.
There has been lots of debate about tig vs torch. I have both. I have not really figured out how to weld aluminum with the tig, mainly because I have no need. Also, if I were starting again I would go the same way because there are just so many other things you can do with the torch - bend stuff, free rusted fasteners, heat your tea etc. It is just a must have tool and you can weld and braze anything with it. After learning aluminum welding, going to steel where the color changes was very easy. the first video was enough to get going, but the 2 dvd set is really comprehensive and I go back to it again and again, especially when I haven't done it for a while. I would love to take a class with Kent, but I am in the frozen eastern north. When I finish my airplane I will fly down there and do one, likely the PH. I think for the airplane stuff I do there really is nobody else that can do what he does.
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Scott in Montreal |
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Thank you, Will and Scott, for your kind words about our trainings and training materials.
I have sought to offer the best aluminum gas welding materials available, even working with the major flux companies to offer the best formulas. It's been a long saga since first patenting the TM2000, back in 1990, and then one thing led to another ....
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Kent http://www.tinmantech.com "All it takes is a little practical experience to blow the he!! out of a perfectly good theory." --- Lloyd Rosenquist, charter member AWS, 1919. |
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I will add that once I got the hang of it, the rhythm and right speed for a given torch setting, it was pretty easy actually (in a comfortable position). Don't ask me to do vertical, or upside down. That would take more practice. But you don't have to be a super skilled magician to do it or have xray vision. My vision is horrible and I muddle through. But when I tell people that I can weld 0.040 aluminum with a torch they gasp in amazement I'm sure Kent has taught kids to do it. Once you have the right materials and settings it is simply a motor skill. If I could teach myself, then, in the words of Les Grossman (Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder), a nutless monkey could do it.
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Scott in Montreal |
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Gas welding in the U.K.
As we seem to opt for the TIG welder when welding Aluminum .... are there any Fans of this older style here in the U.K.
when l did some work on a 1958 Aston Martin we tried some Gas welding because it is a Softer weld and is easy to work with and Grind and finish etc. Cheers Matt.
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Precision Panel Craft |
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I bought your dvd a couple years ago and found it very informative and a great help! Thanks Kent...and I love the Midget!
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Phil |
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Dittos with all the others on the value of the Videos
But I have had the privilege of attending two of Kent's Workshops. I am an unabashed fan of the Man from San Juan (CA) The ability to explore the length and breath of his knowledge is well worth the opportunity. If you have a particular project, sharing it with Kent at the workshop would be worth a library of videos. If you wonder about being "lost in the crowd" at a workshop, I repeat an earlier observation made here where Kent was demonstrating an aluminum welding technique to 3 students, his back to the rest of the work shop. In the middle of a sentence, without a glance, he called out a student's name and asked him "What are you doing wrong". Us three and the 6 or so in between stopped and watched and listened. The guy had ignored one the the last things Kent had emphasized in the last "class session". The ability to give personal instruction, yet "monitor" and analyze what other students still causes my head to shake in amazement. FWIW
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Marc |
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Quote:
When I did the wheeling course with Geoff at MPH panels part of it was gas welding aluminium. He used an off cut of the aluminium sheet for filler rod but rarely used it. It was easy to get the idea and was many times quicker than tig. He tacked it up, had the torch angle very low and just flew up the panel. He was Aston Martin trained coach builder and his work is a thing of beauty. His lightweight E Type bonnets are made in 9 pieces if I recall correctly and all welded with gas. He uses the same technique as David Gardiner (who frequents this very forum) shows on steel in his excellent DVD, which was the best £30 I ever spent.
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Damian |
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