Stick Welding Aluminum

Stick welding aluminum: Check out this video as Bob shows you how to stick weld aluminum.

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[hogtownhenry]

My Dad used to stick weld aluminium. The best I saw was when he did a 360 degree complete weld on a Ferguson tractor which broke in half from hitting a stump with a plough. This was welded in situ. ( didn't disassemble ) He ground out cleaned up, realigned and completely welded while still on the trailer. Didn't leak, didn't break. He was a self taught country engineer/mechanic. Old school. Proud of my Dad.

[robertforster]

From Manitoba Canada here. We led aluminum for many years. I found that stick welding requires more heat and faster travel with tight arc. A fillet weld like that I would make 3 passes switching direction of travel. I have used tig and mig alot, but in some field work repairs, stick had to be used. I found good results with preheat, clean with stainless brush then heat and clean again. I think the key is to get the oxidation, oil etc completely off. I enjoy your videos. Am retired after 30 years in the trade. My motto was to make every weld a good one. I just loved to tig stainless. By watching your videos, I know that you took alot of pride in your work 👍

[tommccarron]

With the little bit of experience I have with stick welding aluminum, we had great success by having a second person applying heat with a torch. Having them heat the piece before the weld starts, during the Weld and for a little bit after the weld. We also found a lot easier start by heating the rod with the torch also.

[evolvedego]

I went to Ark City Cowley College in 2017-2018, was in the Automotive Program so I saw Bob quite a bit! Great welder, he is smart!

[xtal]

Your aluminium welds look better then my steel ones.

[carlsullivan]

Thanks guys. I work on aluminium punts in salt water. Our boats / trailers are ally as well as pretty much all of our tools. In the past we've had to travel 60km to fix even the smallest issues. When it's a boat issue it becomes a pain dragging 5m wide boats up the highway. thanks to this I am able to do some of the smaller jobs. saving time and money. cheers. Carl from Mooka oysters

[SouthernGround]

As a HT in the Navy on a big sub tender I and my shop friend was ordered to climb the tallest mast (about 100 plus feet straight up a little ladder attached to the mast to this little platform) we had to weld a aluminum bracket to the aluminum mast, neither of us had been that high up and nobody in the repair shop had ever stick welded aluminum. So here we are both practicing in the shop with rod given to us by the ship yard people (no clue what the rod was) we were able to do it in the shop now to climb up and do it out in the open in the real world, imagine two 19 year old scared shitless sailors humping welding cables and tools free hand straight up, the most dangerous welding job I had ever done without safety gear in my life, we did it, we got the bracket welded on, prep work was a complete bitch and the weld wasn't much better but we both felt confident it would hold, we didn't want to go back and do that again. that experience broke me of my fear of heights, which served me well later in life. Think of the welders hanging iron on bridges, buildings ect everyday, it ain't a job it's an adventure 😉👍

[prebaned]

When a experienced welder makes a weld that looks like poop in a controlled environment, you know that's the best that can be done with stick aluminum. TIG is where it's at for me.

[terryfromsouthcarolina]

One day one of my shop hands and I had to weld a broken piece back onto a 32inch diameter by 1 inch thick cast aluminum plate. We were going to use the mini spool gun but the tank had been left on and it was empty. No worries, get a new tank. Spin one in, go to clear the valve....nothing! Great! The supplier stiffed us with an empty tank! We looked at each other and said now what? The plate was needed my cabinet from a previous shop supervisor was aluminum arc welding rods. I asked my hand if he had ever used it before and in his 30 plus years of welding said no. I hadn't either, so I got on the computer and looked it up. Mostly worried about shelf life, it was fine as long as kept dry. So we screwed up our courage and gave it a shot. I had some high helix rotary files that really got. A workout. We spent a lot of time digging out our mistakes but in the end made a passable repair and put the part back into production. Over our welding table we had a very large exhaust fan so through extensive air quality tests our underwriters determined that we did not need respirators, in fact the fan was a pain when using shielding gas as it would pull it off the welds. We kept the fan on as the rod was real smoky. Danged if the next day the floor crew broke another disk so we went at it again. The next day I felt like crap! Hard breathing, nausea and headache. My hand called in sick. Several weeks later we had another one come in and our minigun was already in use. We reluctantly got that rod a nd wen t for it again. The next day we were both sick but both of us made it to work. We started comparing notes and realized we both had the same symptoms and had been doing the same thing and got sick before. I looked at him and told him we weren't going to use that stuff again as long as I ran the shop. I put in a request for a second mini and welder that day. From that I must say if you are e going to use aluminum arc rod make sure you have valid MSDS and know what you need to protect your health. This rod we used was likely around before the data was even thought of. Thinking back on it it was stupid we even thought of using it, it could have cost us our lives. Please be careful out there. We both were very experienced not with that.
Be safe and have fun!
Terry from South Carolina

[gateway]

The more I watch your vedios the more I realize I don't know. Thank you for making us smarter.

[panther]

I never thought you could stick weld aluminum. Learning so much valuable stuff from you guys...

[bigjohn]

Would have loved to see bend test on that piece. Bob is one of the best welders living today !!!
He can weld a snuff can to a piece of railroad track and it will hold water !!!!

[accelwell]

Somehow I managed to pass a weld test with this exact same process back in the 1980s.it was quite possibly the most horrific test piece that I have ever turned in . I just about through the thing in the trash and walked out but I decided to give it to the wi he told me it looked great I started in that plant Monday and never welded a piece of aluminum again.

[billbauer]

Dudes all like had a bit of a rough start..lol.. holy crap that is the first time i have ever seen that crap go in and remotely look like a weld... you sir are a damn ninja, good on ya

[stevemccrea]

You are one of the best teachers I’ve ever had to listen to you explain things clearly thanks

[Mudsuitable]

i usually have to stick weld aluminum once or twice a month on car trailers and roll backs, someone is always rough and breaking our equipment and I have to run wherever the equipment is and "fix" it to get it home I learned how to weld aluminum this way when I was about nine years old and I like doing it my welds rarely fail and it's just easier for me to make field repairs although not as pretty as tig I can make consistent good looking and structurally sound weld beads but that's only because I've been doing it so long.. I was also taught by my mentors growing up to use carburizing flame to coat sheet aluminum and burn it off before hand forming the aluminum to make air cleaners, fenders, racing seat backs and buckets or just about anything else I've made. it works great to anneal the metal, please forgive my spelling.. don't get me wrong tig can be gorgeous and spool guns are lightening fast and very pretty I can do all I just prefer the quick n dirty and lack of all the extra equipment the other methods require when I gotta load up with tools and run n gun

[altonhenderson]

Years ago I had to pass an aluminum welding test using stick electrodes . It was a 1/4 coupon butt weld test using 1/8” electrodes . I used starting tabs and runoff tabs that could be broken off after welding . That way you eliminate the problem of porosity at the start and the crater cracks at the end .

[toddt]

Been welding for 20+ years and NEVER had a aluminum stick rod turn out looking good.

[johnfitzpatrick]

Thanks for the demonstration. G, day from Sydney Australia.
The key points;
* Flame soot cover 200°c
* Heat 400°c
Specific Aluminium welding rod (remove flux from end).
🌏🇦🇺

[IrvinGreene]

Mr. Moffatt, you are the "Earnest Hemingway" of welding. I really enjoy watching you teach. Your tone of voice is nice to listen to as well as the way you explain things. I feel more like I can attempt more welding projects.