Welding Tips and Tricks

My mentor that has helped along my welding adventures said I would probably be well off to heat these casting to around 200 deg. F before lighting up on it. There is a plug that has to be welded into the opening...moved the intake port. You think the Dynasty 210 w/argon will deliver or do I need to get access to more amps? He has a machine that can go upwards of 300 amps AC. Maybe try and weld a scrap piece....puck is T-6 and head is prolly a356? Have not hardness tested head yet. Some welding was done before I was offered the job here. The puck just needs to stay in the port and not leak.

I've managed welds on 1" aluminum with a 200 amp machine but it took enough preheat to do it that any contact with my glove puffed smoke... You can manage it but you need to be concerned about distortion far more than I did. Trying on scrap is a good start but hit it with some calipers before and after and see if a similar weld has warped it.

-Sandow