Welding Tips and Tricks

Here is something to try. Just like you would do a lay-wire on carbon try it on some Aluminum. I have never heard of anyone doing this. For fun I was playing around with this new 4943 and was trying to lay-wire. It actually worked fairly well. Anyone ever done this before or used it for some specific purpose?

I was just trying it the other day as some practice on 1/8in aluminum doing some fillet welds. I did notice if I didn't push it in hard enough it would melt the rod back farther than I liked.

Different look to the bead all smooth no ripples but as long as you are confident about penetration it seems to work well with the proper sized rod on certain weld types and thicknesses of base metal.

i use it all the time on build up on castings. obviously it has to be really clean for this to work. i find a weave pattern works best.

Off topic;
Do pipe welders weld aluminum with an open root?
We used copper plate backing on a push pull gun for a mig test, But I am clueless to how it is done with TIG. If it is ever feasible to be welded with an open root, Say something 1/4 with a 35 Deg bevel 6061

hacadacalopolis wrote:Off topic;
Do pipe welders weld aluminum with an open root?
We used copper plate backing on a push pull gun for a mig test, But I am clueless to how it is done with TIG. If it is ever feasible to be welded with an open root, Say something 1/4 with a 35 Deg bevel 6061

It can be done open root, easiest on the bench when you can roll the weld. It takes a lot of practice in overhead postions.

However, I built a cold-box (several miles of 6061 T6 in several sizes) that was 10% x-ray sampling, and all the butt joints had backing rings machined to taper-fit the joint. This meant no issue with suck-back or sagging root for out-of-position welds, and frankly made 100% tie-in easier.

Steve S