Welding Tips and Tricks

I was just trying to collect some aluminum pieces that I could practice on, later. Sometimes I see kids aluminum baseball bats for sale, maybe an aluminum stove top pressure cooker, or crappy old golf clubs. I don't even know what kind of metal that is. Maybe some of this is stainless? Anyway, I would like to collect some cheap stuff to practice on and I was just looking for ideas. I don't have shops that will let me go dumpster diving and I don't feel like getting arrested.

I was thinking I could make a lot of beads making circles around an aluminum baseball bat. Sure, it has paint or lacquer on it, but couldn't I just burn that off with an acetylene torch or something and use sandpaper and wipe it down with acetone?

Is there a big piece of aluminum I could buy from a auto salvage place that I could use for a lot of practice? I already have about 50 aluminum cans, but it's hard to remember not to crush them, since it's tradition. It was a lot harder in the old days.

Well, other than maybe the pressure cooker, you couldn't have picked two worse things to practice on. Ballbats and golf clubs are usually made of 7000 or 8000 series Aluminum and neither take too well to welding. Don't you have a local scrap yard, say the one where you take those crushed cans? Most scrap yards don't care who they sell their scrap to, so see if you can buy some peices of thin sheets or maybe some stampings.

Len

Local steel/aluminum yard will usually have drops in the 1/8" range.

$35 will buy a pretty big sheet of 11 gauge (1/8" approx) aluminum here - usually diamond plate.

In my opinion, 1/8" steel and aluminum are the easiest thicknesses to cut your teeth on for tig.

It's all about many many hours of practice - I usually say after the first 100 hours tig gets much easier.
(That's several 330 cubic ft tanks of argon)

If I was close I have a 2'x4' piece of 1/8" aluminum you could have but I can't mail it I agree with the scrap yard idea, I know a few people who got great finds at the scrap yard for cheap.

A very good source is machine shops. While you probably won't get sheet, they will have a lot of cut offs and billets you can light up on. Don't expect them for free but it never hurts to ask.
-Jonathan

The scrap yard across from where I work has aluminum extrusions set aside for resale. Bleacher step material, pipe, I-beam etc etc. So, what you do is, buy that and then return it along with the weight you add to it in filler rod for part of your money back. Dicker with them and make the case that you will be returning it with added weight and what it is for and see if you can get it for somewhere closer to scrap price. Things like odd drops and extrusions that they won't be reselling easily. Might as well grab some busted aluminum bell housings and other car parts and practice on cast while you are at it.

Companies who do screen pool enclosures and porches will have a lot of cutoffs. Offer them the current or above the current scrap price and make the case of saving them the trip.

You just saved me from buying 3 aluminum baseball bats.
I am going to look for one of these scrap yards. I've just never been to one, but there has to be one I could visit across the Mississippi River in Port Allen, LA. I'll have to ask about this drop shipment of 1/8" diamond plate or something.

Anyone know what this bottle of Argon is worth?
I am thinking of making an offer, just for the Argon Bottle in the package, if they would be willing to sell it separately.
http://neworleans.craigslist.org/tls/4600196130.html

It would be a 3hr round trip for such an acquisition.

Braehill wrote:Well, other than maybe the pressure cooker, you couldn't have picked two worse things to practice on. Ballbats and golf clubs are usually made of 7000 or 8000 series Aluminum and neither take too well to welding. Don't you have a local scrap yard, say the one where you take those crushed cans? Most scrap yards don't care who they sell their scrap to, so see if you can buy some peices of thin sheets or maybe some stampings.

Len

mbmalone wrote:You just saved me from buying 3 aluminum baseball bats.
I am going to look for one of these scrap yards. I've just never been to one, but there has to be one I could visit across the Mississippi River in Port Allen, LA. I'll have to ask about this drop shipment of 1/8" diamond plate or something.

"Drops" are the unused ends after cutting btw

Your local scrap metal recycling place is where I got a lot of ally to make projects for my race car yrs back.
Things like radiator overflow bottle and oil catch can and even a fuel surge tank.
I used to just make a cardboard dummy and then cut the ally and bend to shape and then found a guy to weld it for me.
When at Tafe reicently I had some left over from these projects, I then made 2" x 2" x 4" open top box to the "teachers" to sit their pens in.