I have a number of things I was wondering specifically related to aluminum as I get geared up for it.
1) I know most people use acetone to clean their metals, I normally do also, but I hate to say I can't find my Sure-Shot, and I know it has to be in the shop somewhere unless someone walked away with it...my small shop is so crammed I need to start digging...but I do have some denatured alcohol. When I clean some aluminum it seems I continue to get some grey/black on the paper towel no matter how long I seem to keep wiping...same with the filler, is that normal?
2) I have 1 (may have more) grinding disk for aluminum for my angle grinder. I need to experiment but my gut tells me it's gonna chew things up if I use it on a piece of aluminum, and not sure I want to do that. In theory the outer layer is what needs to be burned through when welding alu, and what is the tougher layer, so I don't want to grind that away do I?
3) Do you keep other material separated from alu? Many people keep stainless separated from carbon and only use stainless brushes on stainless and don't get any carbon on it. Is that true of alu as well? IOW, mixing grinding disks, wire brushes, such like that for normal prep?
4) Any good way to determine what a piece of alu is? In most cases I'm gonna assume it's 6061, but I have bought some 7075 in the past. Anyway to tell without trying to prep and weld it? Like looking at clean cut or other?
5) Do any of you use pointed tungsten for aluminum, or in general is it considered better to use the blunt crayon type end. Seems that Jody uses a point in some cases. I understand this may have to do with amps. Most of my work will probably be done on 1/16" - 1/8" material, with occasional 1/4" work. But 1/4" is in the upper range of what I can comfortably do, and I plan to use a CK17 for most work, probably with 1/4" I would use my #26. Let's say for up to 1/8", do you guys get good results with pointed tungsten?
6) This is a beginner alu question, but my first experiments showed that if I left the filler in the gas area it would heat up and ball up. With alu do you pull the filler out of the gas area entirely for each dab? In the past I've thought that was bad to do on carbon as it would allow the filler to get contaminated from the air, but trying that with alu doesn't seem to work. Could be I can't distinguish between the cone and the gas coverage as well on the alu.
I know, a number of basic Qs, just want to make sure I have a good understanding.
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