TIG Welding Tips for Cast Aluminum | TIG Time

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TIG Welding Tips for Cast Aluminum: an employee from a neighboring shop brought us a weld repair off his YZF 250 dirt bike. The repair is on a cast aluminum rear brake caliper mount that was broken during a day of riding.

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[dannywtt]

Ive been a welder for 25 years and I am still learning new techniques from you. Great stuff you explain things in an easy way. As they say you never stop learning when it comes to welding.
Cheers
Danny from star weld ltd uk

[Welddotcom]

ARCSTREAMS,

The part that you see here only had a limited amount of mass. Once the heat thoroughly saturated the part, penetration wasn't a problem. In fact, too much penetration was the concern, that is to say, the entire region gets liquid & literally falls to the ground. This material was early identified as cast aluminum and we decided not to v-prep b/c the original location was critical. We will be covering cast steels and cast irons/pot metals soon. Thanks for the question

Mr. Tig

[Airguy]

So i'm not sure that i learned any thing about welding CAST aluminum, all you did was show us some welding on aluminum said use 4043 and let it cool. in most cases it is the prep that is the most important in welding on cast and you did not show us any of that and some pore arc shots :(

[TheEdc]

Thank you Mr Tig! Going to find me some 4043 filler rod in the shop and fix my 2005 honda shadow cast aluminum timing cover cap on the side crankcase cover. First time using the tig, but I need my bike running!

[tigdepot]

Edson, Sometimes cast aluminum is pitted and contaminated so badly that you need to make a root pass run at your weld and merely watch all the "crud" bubble and float to the surface. Then you will need to grind or file to remove all the surface oxides. Eventually, it will try to clean up and especially as you add clean filler... Usually er4043.. good luck Mr. TIg

[floh]

hey! I really like you videos and your tips! I was welding an old volkswagen oilsump yesterday and it was one of the worst experiences I have had in my time of welding, so I really started to doubt my skills. I also had big trouble with the heat I brought into to piece causing more cracks right after a few mm of welding. good to see that also you don't enjoy cast aluminum. all the best from austria

[tonheibbenson]

I have this machine in my shop at school and i love to lean about welding cast materials. I need to weld my transmission casing since i have a 5 inch crack in it.

[spelunkerd]

This video is inspiring, a real world example that just walked in the door. It also speaks to my greatest difficulty, which is knowing what kind of alloy I'm working with. Would you consider doing a video showing different kinds of metal, so I can get more of a feel for how to distinguish common alloys?

I didn't understand what you meant when you said that the metal was heavy and dense. Do you mean it was more dense than typical cast aluminum? How do you distinguish cast from forged aluminum?

[gamble]

How much argon flow were you using? How many amps? Why did you not bevel or V the edges? Why only 1 pass?

[DavidBrown-cfkw]

Am i right in saying you held the touch on for longer to gouge before adding the rod to fill it?

[kevlar_]

Great welding tips, thanks! I noticed that your tungsten looks very sharp, not balled or rounded as often seen when welding aluminum alloy with pure tungsten. What type of tungsten were you using? Thoriated, lanthanated, ceriated? 

[scottlawhon]

What heat do u recommend for 1/4 cast aluminum

[randallobrien]

So I am learning how to tig weld in general but I've been doing aluminum to start seems like it's the most used tig I will do. I welded a transfer case housing the other day it's I believe a cast aluminum. The weld looked great good tie ins everything. The problem I had was after it cooled about an hour later it cracked back out same spot so I did it again a couple more times same result. It was a practice situation so I wasn't super stressed on if it cracked. My question is why would it keep cracking? I'd there a pre heat I should do or a type of cool down period? Is it similar to cast iron welding? Anyhow any advice is good to know.

[SuperKwame]

Thanks for this video, Mr. Tig. My question is With TIG, weather it is aluminum or still they do not require shielded Gas. I'm asking this because I have never welded and Just purchased Millermatic 211. Planing to take some few welding classes.

[tinman]

When I saw your clip for cast aluminum it was not what I was looking for I came across some cast alu. and it was a total nightmare allot of crud and stuff keep comming to the surface of the weld can you tell me how to work around this.

[mandolinman]

I have a repair that might stump you. I have a Briggs and Stratton engine from the early 80's that threw a rod. The rod hit the cam shaft, bending it and causing the walls of the holes on the block the cam goes into to crack.  It's fairly thin cast aluminum. Is this fixable?

[randyshiao]

What kind of the casting material of this caliper mount? Is it A356? What kind of material for using on welding? Is it 4043?

[Carlmiel]

i would like to watch you welding some cast iron

[SteveRone]

all the welding equipment you test and sell, you couldn't hook him up with a helmet

[seriffidanci]

Hi.Great video.I just sent a question to your mail Mr Tig.Hope you answer.Thank you in advance!Best regards Umit