Welding Tips and Tricks

Nice older couple needed an antique sewing machine base repaired.
(Shipping company broke it and super-glued without telling them)

After standard google searching and watching Jody's brazing video with AC tig, and texts to friend Steve - I was ready.

Experimented with balance (on scrap) at 10, 9 and 8 on the syncro 350 set to 200 amps. Balance set to 8 was good. The upper 2 settings behaved strangely.

Running a linear regression puts that balance at 63.5% electrode negative.

Only took a few pics, it brazed very nicely after I learned how to see it wet out without actually puddling the cast.

This particular filler rod is ER-CuAl-A2
Quick test on scrap to see how brazing works. Brazed a little on the front, clamped and ground the back deep. Starting the blending process. Start blending the front.

A little more blending. Blend and paint. Delivered and reassembled. What I found when I researched A2 Alum.Bronze

Great work Dave! I just repaired a cast hypoid gear on an 6 wheeled offroad vehicle and used ALBr and it worked awesome. Very handy stuff to have around. Again...really nice!

Nice job Dave, I'm sure the customer was happy.

exnailpounder wrote:Great work Dave! I just repaired a cast hypoid gear on an 6 wheeled offroad vehicle and used ALBr and it worked awesome. Very handy stuff to have around. Again...really nice!

Jeff how would you compare the ALbrz to SilBrz for cast repair?

I also have to say that looks fantastic. Good paint match too. Great work.

Thanks guys It was my first tig braze and was pretty interesting.

That is absolutely beautiful!

I had the same sewing machine (probably, based on the cabinet), but it had been updated to electric in the 40's, so the treadle was just decoration. I actually bought it at a yard sale for $5. (The cabinet was in crappy condition.) Two hours with solvents, oil, and patience, and it sewed like a brand new machine.

Steve S

Otto Nobedder wrote:That is absolutely beautiful!

I had the same sewing machine (probably, based on the cabinet), but it had been updated to electric in the 40's, so the treadle was just decoration. I actually bought it at a yard sale for $5. (The cabinet was in crappy condition.) Two hours with solvents, oil, and patience, and it sewed like a brand new machine.

Steve S

Thanks Steve

My sewing machine is an old Swiss made Elna with fold down cabinet. Works very good.

LtBadd wrote:

exnailpounder wrote:Great work Dave! I just repaired a cast hypoid gear on an 6 wheeled offroad vehicle and used ALBr and it worked awesome. Very handy stuff to have around. Again...really nice!

Jeff how would you compare the ALbrz to SilBrz for cast repair?

I would say as far as brazing characteristics, there was no difference...both "welded" the same but I used ALBr on this repair because of the strength advantage. I bought some ALBr on a whim when I was at the welders candy store and was itching to try it. I have used SilBr with great results and no problems but I can definitely see the merit in using ALBr for certain things. What did you use on that lathe shipswheels again?

exnailpounder wrote: I would say as far as brazing characteristics, there was no difference...both "welded" the same but I used ALBr on this repair because of the strength advantage. I bought some ALBr on a whim when I was at the welders candy store and was itching to try it. I have used SilBr with great results and no problems but I can definitely see the merit in using ALBr for certain things. What did you use on that lathe shipswheels again?

per your recommendation it was SilBrz

Great job on both weld & finishing hope customer was impressed - quick question - why do you guys use aluminum bronze over " normal " nickel ? - I tried finding some here just to try but so far have not found any - I've always used nickel on cast where it can't be fusion welded with great results in terms of strength & machine ability - we do have bronze of that type in the UK but have only ever seen it in round bar & flat stock form - never welding rod.

Man, your to good for your own good !!! that looks awesome.

creek

noddybrian wrote:Great job on both weld & finishing hope customer was impressed - quick question - why do you guys use aluminum bronze over " normal " nickel ? - I tried finding some here just to try but so far have not found any - I've always used nickel on cast where it can't be fusion welded with great results in terms of strength & machine ability - we do have bronze of that type in the UK but have only ever seen it in round bar & flat stock form - never welding rod.

If I remember correctly, a lot of times bronze is used because it doesn't have any cracking issues like nickel does. A lot of times it is a last resort if your nickel welds have failed and cracked.

noddybrian wrote:Great job on both weld & finishing hope customer was impressed - quick question - why do you guys use aluminum bronze over " normal " nickel ? - I tried finding some here just to try but so far have not found any - I've always used nickel on cast where it can't be fusion welded with great results in terms of strength & machine ability - we do have bronze of that type in the UK but have only ever seen it in round bar & flat stock form - never welding rod.

Thanks
Like normal, the customer said "that's looks great" and then really didn't look at it again.
I guess people who don't do metal work don't realize it's often difficult to do

I can't say why others use it, I did a little reading and it had good qualities while being easy to get - only about US-$15 per pound.

Nickel tig rod wasn't as easy to get so I just went with Al-Bronze-A2

Granddaddy wrote:Man, your to good for your own good !!! that looks awesome.

creek

Thanks granddaddy - love your signature line

It's a shame when people don't appreciate the effort & attention to detail involved in repairs such as yours - at least you get professional pride in a job well done - funny on the rods - over here nickel has been used for as long as I can remember & is easy to get & not too expensive - aluminum bronze is unheard of - last time I asked I got " that look " much like when I asked when 4943 might be available ! give it another 10 years or so people may have heard of it - we always seem a long way behind on welding related things.

noddybrian wrote:It's a shame when people don't appreciate the effort & attention to detail involved in repairs such as yours - at least you get professional pride in a job well done - funny on the rods - over here nickel has been used for as long as I can remember & is easy to get & not too expensive - aluminum bronze is unheard of - last time I asked I got " that look " much like when I asked when 4943 might be available ! give it another 10 years or so people may have heard of it - we always seem a long way behind on welding related things.

I should be more specific - the stick welding rods, nickel 99 and 55, are easily found at the local hardware store.

They are common enough that they're sitting on the open shelf so a person can buy a handful by the pound like the other rods.

Some people have said that knocking off the flux makes them a tig rod - but I have no first-hand experience with that, so I decided against trying it for a customer project.

Alum.Bronze tig rod was listed to work so I figured that way was the safest route.

noddybrian wrote:It's a shame when people don't appreciate the effort & attention to detail involved in repairs such as yours - at least you get professional pride in a job well done - funny on the rods - over here nickel has been used for as long as I can remember & is easy to get & not too expensive - aluminum bronze is unheard of - last time I asked I got " that look " much like when I asked when 4943 might be available ! give it another 10 years or so people may have heard of it - we always seem a long way behind on welding related things.

I got "that look" when I asked for 4943 at a new LWS about 2 weeks ago.. The wise guy salesman said there is no such thing and kind of smiled. There was another guy standing in line next to me who told the guy he was wrong and told me about another store about 3 miles away that had it so I walked out and went to the other store and got it. Gosh that felt good.

exnailpounder wrote:

noddybrian wrote:It's a shame when people don't appreciate the effort & attention to detail involved in repairs such as yours - at least you get professional pride in a job well done - funny on the rods - over here nickel has been used for as long as I can remember & is easy to get & not too expensive - aluminum bronze is unheard of - last time I asked I got " that look " much like when I asked when 4943 might be available ! give it another 10 years or so people may have heard of it - we always seem a long way behind on welding related things.

I got "that look" when I asked for 4943 at a new LWS about 2 weeks ago.. The wise guy salesman said there is no such thing and kind of smiled. There was another guy standing in line next to me who told the guy he was wrong and told me about another store about 3 miles away that had it so I walked out and went to the other store and got it. Gosh that felt good.

I hear you - I had to explain 4943 to the guys at my local store too.

They are pretty nice to me though and assumed I might know what I was saying

I read on here recently that Bakers Welding and Gas had great prices on tig filler (I think they were discussing 4943) so I called them about some aluminum bronze A2 (ALBA2) for a price on 10 pounds as they only have 1 lb tubes shown. He said just order 10 and we will ship it in a 10 lb box. So I asked what the price would be and he said the $21.00 per lb times 10. So I guess they are not the best place to buy ALBA2 but they beat out of AirGas at $239 for 10 pounds. And Fastenal has it for $275 for 10 pounds. I already have a box of 3/32 but wanted to get some 1/16 and that leads me to ask why is 1/16 always (or most always) more expensive than 3/32 or 1/8 for 10 pounds? I guess it's because you get more rods.
Thanks

electrode wrote:why is 1/16 always (or most always) more expensive than 3/32 or 1/8 for 10 pounds? I guess it's because you get more rods.
Thanks

Well 10 lbs is 10lbs, the smaller diameter wire is more expensive to make, I priced .030" 316L recently it was $12.90 and .035" was $8.82 per lb

LtBadd wrote:

electrode wrote:why is 1/16 always (or most always) more expensive than 3/32 or 1/8 for 10 pounds? I guess it's because you get more rods.
Thanks

Well 10 lbs is 10lbs, the smaller diameter wire is more expensive to make, I priced .030" 316L recently it was $12.90 and .035" was $8.82 per lb

Well I knew there must have been a reason...I guess cutting a bunch more and stamping them etc must cost a little more. Anyhow, I scored and got 10 pounds 1/16 ALBA2 for $123 cause I found a 10% coupon in my mail from October and it was still valid from Weldfabulous.

You must have alot of brazing to do or is it for your collection?...I mean hoard

electrode wrote:Well I knew there must have been a reason...I guess cutting a bunch more and stamping them etc must cost a little more. Anyhow, I scored and got 10 pounds 1/16 ALBA2 for $123 cause I found a 10% coupon in my mail from October and it was still valid from Weldfabulous.

I don't recall ever seeing .035" and smaller wire stamped, could be wrong about that, either they're flagged tagged or just not marked.
At an aerospace shop I worked many years ago the wire was colored coded to the customer spec.