Welding Tips and Tricks

I'm looking for a way to clean up my aluminum welds without marring the weld itself or the surrounding material.

I currently use a stainless wire wheel on an angle grinder but this tends to be too abrasive.

I just want, in a way, to "polish up"my weld without actually making it gleam.

Flap discs are out because they're too abrasive. Ditto grinding wheels.

Anyone know of a really soft stainless steel wire wheel that would accomplish this?

I use stainless discs, but you have to use the non-knotted type of wheel. Like this: https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Steel- ... B07Q3654TC

Don’t use this type: https://www.harborfreight.com/4-1-2-hal ... 91282.html

If you have the correct type of machine, these work really well too: https://www.aaabrasives.com/walter-13m4 ... gKl-PD_BwE

cj737 wrote: ↑Sun Aug 25, 2024 8:38 pm If you have the correct type of machine, these work really well too: https://www.aaabrasives.com/walter-13m4 ... gKl-PD_BwE

Would you mind posting a picture of this? I'm interested to see what you are suggesting.

I guess some backyarder did their security as I'm blocked from simply looking.

Sorry, you have been blocked
You are unable to access aaabrasives.com


Thanks
Jack

There you go, Jack

cj737 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 26, 2024 12:59 pm There you go, Jack

Thanks for that. I'll see if I can find a stainless version to try.

Jack

cj737 - Thanks for some solid recommendations. Aside from the one that you said NOT to use, I hadn't seen either of these options. But both look like they'll do the trick. That knotted one that you recommended to not use - ouch! Man, that would scratch the hell out of aluminum!

Ever tried brass by the way? As in brass wire wheels?

Jon

ekbmuts wrote: ↑Tue Aug 27, 2024 4:15 pm cj737 - Thanks for some solid recommendations. Aside from the one that you said NOT to use, I hadn't seen either of these options. But both look like they'll do the trick. That knotted one that you recommended to not use - ouch! Man, that would scratch the hell out of aluminum!

Ever tried brass by the way? As in brass wire wheels?

Jon

I have. I prefer stainless. I find brass wheels throw fibers way too much and they dont really do as nice a job overall as stainless brushes in my opinion.

Another cheap and productive option is the stainless "toothbrushes" youll find in the Local Welding stores. There are carbon steel and stainless versions of both. I only buy the stainless ones because they can be used on stainless welds (removes the color while weld is hot) and for cleaning aluminum. I spend a LOT of time these days with motorsports stuff or marine stuff and it seems I weld more ally and stainless than anything else.

https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Masonr ... aafd5e5f5d

Perfect! Thanks much!

We use orbital sanders. If there is heavy excess, I remove that with an angle grinder.
Then I use an orbital sander, starting with a course grit and finishing with fine grit.
From experience, 120 grit is fine enough for aluminum panels to be sent out to be anodized.
We use wire wheels for stainless. When I've tried to use a wire wheel on aluminum in the past, it tended to etch dirt into the aluminum -- which I removed with an orbital sander.