More Al Tig pics from the wading pool.

[Uncle Ed]

While everyone else is working on mills and planes and satellites, I am fixing on doo-dads that even monkeys can fix.

Studded with poor photography and irritating prose - these posts are guaranteed to make you look good. Grab a beer and follow fixes from the shallow end of the gene pool.

*WARNING: This post is a tongue-in-cheek look at what I do to keep occupied and work on my feeble skills. Please take it that way.

An excerpt from The Idiot's Guide To Welding or the more popular title How To Weld Like An Idiot

This is a tool rest from my grinder. After the success of welding the arm I felt I was ready to proceed to the rest plate itself.

*cue He Man music track*

The plate is aluminum, or maybe Jell-O, I get them confused, and has been worn down from years of abuse.


Now, before you get in there and set things on fire, you need to clean the weld area. Since it's aluminum, you must use a stainless steel brush. Set one aside for use on aluminum only so that it does not become contaminated with rust, steel, or marshmallows.


Use the brush on the weld area until nice and shiny.


The welder is set to:
Tig, A/C
Pulse OFF
A/C Frequency 120HZ
A/C Balance 40%
Argon Flow 15 cfh
1/16 tungsten and 1/8 aluminum rod

Chuck the piece into a vice edge up. Tig and add metal along the edge to build it up. If the area turns black with carbon, re-brush the area until clean. Heat the edge with the tig and see if any more carbon appears. If it does, there is some contamination in the metal. Keep heating and brushing until it stops.

[Uncle Ed]

Now to grind off the mess and make it usable.







The pad on the left was squirted with WD-40 before use. The pad on the right wasn't.


Yeah...it's lame. Someday I will get better projects.

[Hamstn]

Only as lame as you make it. Kept you out of trouble today so the way I see it you had a super project. Almost looks good as new and it takes a man of patience to fix all the little things. But see you tought me something, never thought about using WD-40 to keep the pad clean.....Thanks

[junes]

Did you mean 3/32 or 1/16 tungsten? Try to look up Boeing lube. Back in the day Boeing developed this lube for grinding wheels specifically for grinding aluminum it really works.

[Uncle Ed]

LOL 1/16 ! Thanks for catching that.

I looked up Boeing lube and it seems a favorite with cyclers and bike shops should carry it. An alternative /similar product seems to be Boeshield T-9. It's a paraffin wax suspended in a liquid carrier. That sounds about right as beeswax is used a lot to prevent pad and wheel loading.

I am going to stop by a bike shop and see if they have any. I also have a bunch of beeswax in the form of toilet seal rings and some stuff I use on my winter boots called Sno-Shield.

Thanks again, Junes

[junes]

No problem

[arandall]

Uncle:

Way to go! It looks good to me. - And thanks for the tip on the WD40.

Cheers,
Art R.

[KHK]

Great JOB!!! I have reard of the WD40 before but have never tried it. Thanks for sharing.