Welding Tips and Tricks

I've been using a die grinder to grind out some welds on these aluminum parts for some logging equipment. The parts had a lot of oil in the cracks so the first welds were porous. My question is do you guys use anything to keep aluminum from gumming up your flap discs or die bits? I've heard of using a product called Xylene but if you guys know something better I'd be glad to hear it.

Xylene is not your best choice strictly from your health standpoint. The gurus around me suggest a shot of WD-40 - that should kill the clogs, if they start to return hit it again. WD-40 may not work as well but it won't kill you either.

Thanks Zondfive. I didn't know Xylene was that dangerous. I've never used it though. It was an old timer that gave me that advice. Just thought I'd try to get another voice on it.

jroark wrote:Thanks Zondfive. I didn't know Xylene was that dangerous. I've never used it though. It was an old timer that gave me that advice. Just thought I'd try to get another voice on it.

I'll send you a picture of the wax we use tomorrow when I get to work.

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I'm no pro by any means but I've had good results using beeswax or even candle wax on sanding discs and I often use WD0-40 on die grinder burrs.

I find the WD cleans up pretty well with Acetone, but I'm always sure to wipe off any excess that gets into the area to be welded as soon as I possibly can.



Kym

For aluminium use coarse fluted bits in your die grinder like these:



The normal ones for steel have much smaller ridges and will load up pretty fast even when soaked in WD40 or alike.

Bye, Arno.

Thanks for the replies. I'll definitely give those a try.

Do a search on zylene msds and become educated.
Will work on any other substances you want to know about as well.
Your body, you only got 1, look after it.
Cheers

Plain old paraffin wax works wonders on aluminum too. Cleans up easy too.

When I went to the 3 day school on welding aluminum cylinder heads, they had us using ATF on the
open flute burrs pictured above. I wondered about putting "oil" on something you're going to weld on?
One of Jody's videos he used wax on flap discs- but didnt elaborate.

Aluminum is an absolute sponge for oils. I would NEVER use any oil based product to prep any AL I was going to weld.

exnailpounder wrote:Aluminum is an absolute sponge for oils. I would NEVER use any oil based product to prep any AL I was going to weld.

Thats what I thought to, but when you preheat a casting to 450 to weld it, it must cook out, because it seemed to work.
Personally, when I came home, I used chalk

Done lots of aluminum grinding.

When not welding I turn up the oiler for the die grinder and use wax when cutting or sanding with electric.

When prepping for welding I use water, water and soap or windshield washing fluid if some is around as a lubricant. Then, hot soapy water bath, then super hot waterbath, then the part goes in the barby at about 250F to boil out the water. I do the last part in the winter regardless.

Thing about aluminum, no matter which burr or disc, is the correct speed. Different aluminum takes different speeds too. You see the chips flying or you mud up the tool. Variable speed tools are your friend with aluminum.