That is such a cool trick!! I know of atleast 3 times I could have used this in the past!! I am going to try it out. Thanks for sharing this Jody. Awesome little tips and tricks like this is why you are the best one out there!!
Thanks Jody. There are too many people posting crap videos. I am glad you put disclaimers in your videos. I have not missed 1 video in 8 years. I am a ACTIVE welder that will admit, I can still learn something new.
I have actually done a repair exactly like this with tig and stick rod on a cheap air compressor housing. It was messy as hell as expected. It was meant as a temp job to get my friend by until he could replace the compressor. We figured the vibrations would break it fast. Surprisingly it has worked well enough that it has over 8 years of use since, plus the compressor is wearing out before the weld is giving up.
I’ve been trying to learn all I can about stick welding aluminum before attempting a repair on my car’s transmission housing. This tip about using a TIG gun with the stick electrode may be the trick that makes this actually work. Thank you!
Many years ago, a welding tech supplied me with aluminum stick rod and told me that it could also be used with a gas welding torch. It seemed counter-intuitive, but it worked; and it worked well. Like you, I wasn't too impressed with my results with the stick welder (weld by feel, not by sight), but I have used it with a gas torch to get some pretty nice aluminum "braze" type joints. I even welded two air conditioning lines together (tough job) for my son's car and saved $150 that the dealer wanted for a factory hose with the right ends on it.
I've welded aluminum many times with the first primitive TIGs you could use a lomg time ago in a country far far away. That works also with OA torches in a hurry, but the adequate fluoride flux works better with OA. But I kept the trick with the cheap chinese DC TIGs, that makes pretty decent welds if you preheat the alu. Two tricks. For cleaning the slag a stainless steel brush for cleaning pools and hot water. The slag dissolves in water...And you neutralize with hot water and 5% muriatic acid, the flux is very corrosive if left. For seeing better, buy blue lenses shade 5 for OA welding. It is pretty cheap. Put them, put the the electronic hood and adjust the shade to 7 or 8. The blue colored lenses will filter the orange hue of the flux and you¡ll see the puddle.
Wow! You may have just got me out of a future jam. I always thought you needed an AC welder to do aluminum. I think that just gave me an excuse to crank up the Miller Trailblazer and have some fun this weekend!!!!
When I was on my first ship I had to do a major repair on an antenna. It was aluminum I did not have any aluminum filler rod so I tig'd it with the aluminum rod. I did not even think of knocking off the flux I did not want the rod to break. Also used a torch to heat it up before. When we got into port they where planning to have it repaired by the dock workers. But they told them they could not do a better job. I ended up getting a medal for it.
I have done quite a bit of this, years ago, but I used a torch and stick rod, with the flux on it. The only problem is, you cannot see when the aluminum starts to melt, no color change. You have to go by feel. Keep tapping the electrode in there, until you feel it soften. Purple lenses help, a lot!
Been watching your stuff for years now and you've always had good info and advice. Ive also bought stuff from your online store. Thanks for the helpful stuff.
Aluminum welding rods are meant to be pushed rather than dragged. Eliminates most of the bubbles. Combine this with pre heat and welds get better looking
wow. I did not even know that there were techneques for stick welding aluminum let alone stick electrodes made specifically for aluminum. Thanks a lot jody.
Thanks for a great though brief video. I'm keen to practice these techniques as I don't have an AC tig, just a scratch dc inverter tig. I'm liking these short videos, Thanks.
what's up Jody my name is Shane I'm a huge fan of your videos and find them very informative. one thing I've been wondering about is mig welding tips for welding 1/4 inch plate to say 14 to 18 gauge metal like a truck frame any advice would be much appreciated
after i saw this video ,i went and bought some aluminium stick welding rod to try to weld aluminium with my dc tig welding machine.. since the flux was going every where just like in you vidéo ,i decided to remove the flux from the rod before welding with it ,because i have an argon gas coverage ...the result where perfect,,,with almost no cleaning to do ....you should try this...you will get good result !
You ran flux rod with TIG - that is new to me -- but no one asked and you didn't mention - did you also run the argon GAS? (I'm thinking not.) And if not - how did your electrode hold up?
Newbie question, I have to ask, was the tig torch running shielding gas? The reason why I ask is because if you had tig torch wouldn't you run this process as a true TIG weld without a aluminum stick welding electrode? So thats why i'm supposing with this trick we are implying we don't need shield gas am I right?
hey Jody. why did you say the fluxed rod tig was only good for a pinch ? it looked like a good weld nice blend no undercut etch looked good too. what didn't you like ? Steve
weldingtipsandtricks Just wanted to say how much your videos have helped me. Going for iron workers welder soon and from vertical 7018 to open root 6010 I've been glued to your videos. Even got a few tig fingers for when I do tig. thanks a ton
I usually just watch videos now and then and move on but I wanted to say that this was a very interesting video. I haven't done a lot of aluminum welding, but with what little I have, I have noticed a huge improvement with zirconiated tungsten for the ac process. Seeing stick welding with aluminum .... I didn't know it existed. Can you AC stick weld on aluminum? Adjusting the pos/neg percentages. That would be interesting to see also. Thanks again for all your valuable info.
Why would stick weld on AC ?! You still need argon to shield your thungsten/pool even with this stick TIG DC method. Therefore if you got AC TIG you have got all the components to make a proper Ali weld
Make sure you seal the packet up nice and airtight, the flux on alu stick rods is very hygroscopic and can turn the pack into a congealed gooey mess after only a few weeks.
that's what I like about, honest about where and who you buy from. I'm thinking about buying the lincoln k5126, everyone say the blue box. but the pice on lincoln is 1400.00 or less. what do you think?
Heard of guys using nickle arc rod for TIG welding cast iron...knock the flux of and go to town....MAYBE to TIG with the aluminum arc rod , knock the flux off...less garbage in the weld...you are using a shielding gas too with the TIG deal???
Interesting idea using the stick rod as TIG filler. Heard of doing similar with a gas torch for aluminum brazing. Maybe you could do a video on that in the future?
Was there also still gas coming from the tig torch? Btw i need to repair something really important i broke a piece from a solar screen from a high paying customers house while actually the job is via a good friends company so i dont want to ruin his good name so i really need to fix this, but this piece that broke is something like cast aluminium..... I tried gas welding it but my burner is not strong enough..... Only thing i have is a stick welder.... I do got some aluminium rods. But have not tried them... I first want to know if welding cast aluminium is possible with rods......
Will this work on welding aluminum bicycle tubing frames. My machine is a 225 amp dc inverter 110 volt machine. The aluminum tubing is roughly 1 to 2mm thick.
I have a Hobart Champion Elite 225 amp DC welder could I stick weld aluminum with my welder however my welder doesn't have the ability to switch polarity
I tried to stick weld aluminum , few times. The welds never look good. One repair i did that way held for 1 1/2 year before broke again, it was on one the machine they use ever day where i work at. I tried get work buy a tig welder, no luck in that.
I may have told this story on an older video, but years ago, I tried to get a welding job at SpaceX and the test was to weld a 1/4" test plate DC positive (heat going to the test piece I think) and all I know is the test was 1 hour long, it took me about that long to make the test piece, set the machine and start the welding...well I destroyed the test piece and blew the test. I was never taught that welding process in school and from what I was told not many people can weld aluminum DC positive.
Ulf, my brother lives in Germany, he used his feet every day he says 😂😂😂😂 But i know what you mean .... here the professionals dont use it that much either ..,, they do everything in thousands of an inch so 1/4" thick (6,35mm) is now .250 ( pronounced : two hundred fifty thou) And than they can go up or down with that number, everything is base 10 no more fractions .... Crazy!
We still have some remenence of the inch and feet still here. Mostly when we buy lumber and some in tools, specially when one uses socket wrenches. Its the male fitting is still in inches :). But there is only 3 countries in the world who still uses inch's and feet. Its USA 'cept NASA and two more (Myanmar and Liberia) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication. It helps me when you ppl from the states talks both mm and inches when you talk in your videos.
My father claimed that he saw a guy welding a very thick (3/4-1") aluminum forging with a carbon electrode for heat and a aluminum filler rod. This would have been late '40s at the Martin (later Martin-Marietta) aircraft plant.
works for steel too when you are welding thin steel an warping is not a problem, use the carbon torch like a tig torch and use your fluxed arc rods braze style, but it takes a lot of amps and eats carbon rods up. its more a proof of concept show off thing, like welding bean tins together with flux core mig wire and an arc welder (low amps).
One thing I have never seen on youtube is someone pushing the limits... how thin can you go with Arc Electrodes on Aluminum, assuming E4043, say 3/32, could you do .040" thick material with a DC welder? (obviously with a FAST travel speed)
Aluminum is hard to judge when stick welding. I found the flux doesn't burn off as fast as the rod does. You really need to jam the rod in the puddles.
That is such a cool trick!! I know of atleast 3 times I could have used this in the past!! I am going to try it out. Thanks for sharing this Jody. Awesome little tips and tricks like this is why you are the best one out there!!
I've got to try this out with my little everlast stick welder. I've never heard of this before.
Thanks Jody. There are too many people posting crap videos. I am glad you put disclaimers in your videos. I have not missed 1 video in 8 years. I am a ACTIVE welder that will admit, I can still learn something new.
I have actually done a repair exactly like this with tig and stick rod on a cheap air compressor housing. It was messy as hell as expected. It was meant as a temp job to get my friend by until he could replace the compressor. We figured the vibrations would break it fast. Surprisingly it has worked well enough that it has over 8 years of use since, plus the compressor is wearing out before the weld is giving up.
Classic, Just going to patch it until the replacement never arrives.
@@another1commenter770 The good old temporary, permanent fix.
I’ve been trying to learn all I can about stick welding aluminum before attempting a repair on my car’s transmission housing. This tip about using a TIG gun with the stick electrode may be the trick that makes this actually work. Thank you!
"Kinda ugly, but it's stuck together"
Describes most of my welds.
it also describes my neighbors marriages
@@jpmking9635 Was JUST about to type this when I saw your comment.
My welds generally aren't pretty, but they'll pass every kind of inspection. I only work on vehicles/farm equipment so pretty doesn't really matter.
Many years ago, a welding tech supplied me with aluminum stick rod and told me that it could also be used with a gas welding torch. It seemed counter-intuitive, but it worked; and it worked well. Like you, I wasn't too impressed with my results with the stick welder (weld by feel, not by sight), but I have used it with a gas torch to get some pretty nice aluminum "braze" type joints. I even welded two air conditioning lines together (tough job) for my son's car and saved $150 that the dealer wanted for a factory hose with the right ends on it.
I've welded aluminum many times with the first primitive TIGs you could use a lomg time ago in a country far far away. That works also with OA torches in a hurry, but the adequate fluoride flux works better with OA. But I kept the trick with the cheap chinese DC TIGs, that makes pretty decent welds if you preheat the alu.
Two tricks.
For cleaning the slag a stainless steel brush for cleaning pools and hot water. The slag dissolves in water...And you neutralize with hot water and 5% muriatic acid, the flux is very corrosive if left.
For seeing better, buy blue lenses shade 5 for OA welding. It is pretty cheap. Put them, put the the electronic hood and adjust the shade to 7 or 8. The blue colored lenses will filter the orange hue of the flux and you¡ll see the puddle.
Years ago we had a radiator repair shop in town and he used those rods with oxy/ acetylene torch and used blue lenses to weld radiators.
Wow! You may have just got me out of a future jam. I always thought you needed an AC welder to do aluminum. I think that just gave me an excuse to crank up the Miller Trailblazer and have some fun this weekend!!!!
survivalguy fyi
Same
When I was on my first ship I had to do a major repair on an antenna. It was aluminum I did not have any aluminum filler rod so I tig'd it with the aluminum rod. I did not even think of knocking off the flux I did not want the rod to break. Also used a torch to heat it up before. When we got into port they where planning to have it repaired by the dock workers. But they told them they could not do a better job. I ended up getting a medal for it.
dang ,they gave out participation trophys back then too ?...lol...jk
I saved the ship a lot of money and I was a DC not an HT so it was not my trade
They let you on a ship with the name Sanker? Lol
At least I am not afraid to use my real name and have to hide a fake name. yewtoob08
holy hell that is some funny shit....good catch!!!!
Probably wont get an answer now, but where you running gas when tig welding with the electrode
With the tig and flux rod are you using gas or no
I have done quite a bit of this, years ago, but I used a torch and stick rod, with the flux on it. The only problem is, you cannot see when the aluminum starts to melt, no color change. You have to go by feel. Keep tapping the electrode in there, until you feel it soften. Purple lenses help, a lot!
Was the guy using the DC Tig with stick electrodes to fix the pump housing using Argon or did the flux on the rods replace that. Thanks
Can you please give suggestions for welding aluminium using oxy acetylene gas
Been watching your stuff for years now and you've always had good info and advice. Ive also bought stuff from your online store. Thanks for the helpful stuff.
I enjoyed that Jody! Very cool!
Aluminum welding rods are meant to be pushed rather than dragged. Eliminates most of the bubbles. Combine this with pre heat and welds get better looking
I probably learned these things from Jodi. :)
@@TonaldDrump686 Jodi the serial killer?! o.O
I've been working on teaching myself how to arc weld aluminum & how to arc weld in general.
Thank you. Have used the technique with dc and a rod it worked great years ago for a repair of mining equipment in the middle of the night.
wow. I did not even know that there were techneques for stick welding aluminum let alone stick electrodes made specifically for aluminum. Thanks a lot jody.
Tig aluminum with stick rod.... did you slso use argon shielding gas besides the flux?
When you are doing the trick with a flux rod do you have the argon gas running as well
Thanks
Thanks for a great though brief video. I'm keen to practice these techniques as I don't have an AC tig, just a scratch dc inverter tig. I'm liking these short videos, Thanks.
I found myself doing a lot of aluminium stick welding once and the secret to it is simple : "Preheat!"
Don't tell em the main ingredients. Lol
I know it's a 4 year comment,but im curious, can you weld 4mm aluminum with stick welding? Or it's only for thicker material?
What do you use to preheat
@@Josephine894 a gas welding torch but at that point you may as well grow a pair and weld it with that😂
Jody got serious skills. Didn't know this was possible.
what's up Jody my name is Shane I'm a huge fan of your videos and find them very informative. one thing I've been wondering about is mig welding tips for welding 1/4 inch plate to say 14 to 18 gauge metal like a truck frame any advice would be much appreciated
When you used the tig dcen where you running argon?
after i saw this video ,i went and bought some aluminium stick welding rod to try to weld aluminium with my dc tig welding machine..
since the flux was going every where just like in you vidéo ,i decided to remove the flux from the rod before welding with it ,because i have an argon gas coverage ...the result where perfect,,,with almost no cleaning to do ....you should try this...you will get good result !
You ran flux rod with TIG - that is new to me -- but no one asked and you didn't mention - did you also run the argon GAS? (I'm thinking not.) And if not - how did your electrode hold up?
Newbie question, I have to ask, was the tig torch running shielding gas? The reason why I ask is because if you had tig torch wouldn't you run this process as a true TIG weld without a aluminum stick welding electrode? So thats why i'm supposing with this trick we are implying we don't need shield gas am I right?
Thank you for making this video! I thought I had to buy a different tig welder but not so!
hey Jody.
why did you say the fluxed rod tig was only good for a pinch ?
it looked like a good weld nice blend
no undercut
etch looked good too.
what didn't you like ?
Steve
I guess I'm just spoiled to tig welding on AC where no cleanup is needed. that slag is gummy and hard to remove and fumes are rough
weldingtipsandtricks Just wanted to say how much your videos have helped me. Going for iron workers welder soon and from vertical 7018 to open root 6010 I've been glued to your videos. Even got a few tig fingers for when I do tig. thanks a ton
David Gomez I am a local union ironworker forget open root passes and any 60 serieries rod in ironworking its all 7018 and nr 232 flux core welding
great video Jody . another handy little trick i will remember .thanks
One thing i did learn stick welding aluminum in overhead. Is you better be fast you better jam the rod in
Did you use argon or helium to tig with the flux rod? Thanks for the video.
Do you even need a shielding gas, and if so what lpm setting?
Ola, you used process tig dc, tanks!
Stick welding aluminum is like machining aluminum with a chainsaw..it works...😊
Hello Jodi I have a ring here that is a spoon ring that needs welding was wondering if you would do a video of it being welded.
great video !I bought a ac/dc arc welder ,just to mess around with alum welding .
gary mathews nn
What you think. If it is totally doomed idea weld aluminium pipe (wall thickness 1.5mm) with stick?
Very insightful and impressive, thanks for the knowledge
I usually just watch videos now and then and move on but I wanted to say that this was a very interesting video. I haven't done a lot of aluminum welding, but with what little I have, I have noticed a huge improvement with zirconiated tungsten for the ac process. Seeing stick welding with aluminum .... I didn't know it existed. Can you AC stick weld on aluminum? Adjusting the pos/neg percentages. That would be interesting to see also. Thanks again for all your valuable info.
Why would stick weld on AC ?! You still need argon to shield your thungsten/pool even with this stick TIG DC method. Therefore if you got AC TIG you have got all the components to make a proper Ali weld
Since you are using Tig you can peel the flux off the rod right?
Awesome video, short and sweet, cool trick!
I got a mini DC160A normal stick welder so can I use it for aluminum DC stick ?thank u Sir
First thank you for all the great videos, do not understand if you use tig dc or ac ?? i suppose DC
Great, do you still use argon, as alum stick has coating?
Make sure you seal the packet up nice and airtight, the flux on alu stick rods is very hygroscopic and can turn the pack into a congealed gooey mess after only a few weeks.
that's what I like about, honest about where and who you buy from. I'm thinking about buying the lincoln k5126, everyone say the blue box. but the pice on lincoln is 1400.00 or less. what do you think?
Heard of guys using nickle arc rod for TIG welding cast iron...knock the flux of and go to town....MAYBE to TIG with the aluminum arc rod , knock the flux off...less garbage in the weld...you are using a shielding gas too with the TIG deal???
Interesting idea using the stick rod as TIG filler. Heard of doing similar with a gas torch for aluminum brazing. Maybe you could do a video on that in the future?
excellent video . what gas did you use on the tis weld ?
I saw someone heated the steel before they weld the aluminum. Is there any different between weld cold aluminum and heated aluminum
Perfect. You have taught me a lot.
I noticed when welding with aluminun rod u have to push the rod alot more and still maintain the arc.
Was there also still gas coming from the tig torch?
Btw i need to repair something really important i broke a piece from a solar screen from a high paying customers house while actually the job is via a good friends company so i dont want to ruin his good name so i really need to fix this, but this piece that broke is something like cast aluminium..... I tried gas welding it but my burner is not strong enough..... Only thing i have is a stick welder.... I do got some aluminium rods. But have not tried them... I first want to know if welding cast aluminium is possible with rods......
Did you use any gas with the tig method?
the science behind it really makes sense too awesome trick!
Can you stick weld aluminum with a cheap Chinese DC stick welder? Like 180amp or so?
I follow your channel and enjoy your videos. Have you made any videos of gas welding aluminum?
What's a decent stick welder available that I can TRY aluminum welding with?
Great video , mainly because it seems I always find myself in a pinch, awesome
about the tig welding part, could you do this without the gas coming out of the torch, just the protection of the flux?
Nope. The tungsten needs the shielding gas to keep from burning up.
Excellent info! Thanks Jody
Will this work on welding aluminum bicycle tubing frames. My machine is a 225 amp dc inverter 110 volt machine. The aluminum tubing is roughly 1 to 2mm thick.
I am wondering if I could use these rods with my mp210. If that assumption is correct do I chose 70xx or 60xx setup on the screen?
interesting little technique thanks Jody :-)
So do you have to change your welder
Actually I have seen same video what you mentioned. It looked pretty weird at first, but sometimes you just have to fix something fast.
Could you break off the flux and still weld the rod with dcen?
Thanks! Good to know!
i had to use some of those stick rods welding alum cable tray ,what a mess
Thanks for the video Jody...
Is He using argon when doing the Tig + stick method ?
Nice trick if you're in a pinch. Good to have alternatives like this too just in case.
can you purge with helium and preheat? would that work?
Was that tig run on straight polarity? I can't imagine that tungsten not cooking on ep.
I have a Hobart Champion Elite 225 amp DC welder could I stick weld aluminum with my welder however my welder doesn't have the ability to switch polarity
what shielding gas did you use? or none?
I tried to stick weld aluminum , few times. The welds never look good. One repair i did that way held for 1 1/2 year before broke again, it was on one the machine they use ever day where i work at. I tried get work buy a tig welder, no luck in that.
I may have told this story on an older video, but years ago, I tried to get a welding job at SpaceX and the test was to weld a 1/4" test plate DC positive (heat going to the test piece I think) and all I know is the test was 1 hour long, it took me about that long to make the test piece, set the machine and start the welding...well I destroyed the test piece and blew the test. I was never taught that welding process in school and from what I was told not many people can weld aluminum DC positive.
Hi, How you clean the aluminiun, to see if is correct welding?, thanks
In a pinch or out in the field somewhere while the wind is blowing.
Great video Jody, Like always, Lets stay in touch, Have a great week!
Short, sweet and effective. 👍👍👍
Wait a second, why use aluminum rod with flux on it while using a TIG torch? Doesn't TIG have shielding gas come through it to protect the weld?
Nice i see u got the evosaw380 chop saw.
Thanks alot for using the metrics too!! Its easier for us in EU who mostly dont use inches and feet soo much anymore.
Ulf, my brother lives in Germany, he used his feet every day he says 😂😂😂😂
But i know what you mean .... here the professionals dont use it that much either ..,, they do everything in thousands of an inch so 1/4" thick (6,35mm) is now .250 ( pronounced : two hundred fifty thou)
And than they can go up or down with that number, everything is base 10 no more fractions ....
Crazy!
We still have some remenence of the inch and feet still here. Mostly when we buy lumber and some in tools, specially when one uses socket wrenches. Its the male fitting is still in inches :). But there is only 3 countries in the world who still uses inch's and feet. Its USA 'cept NASA and two more (Myanmar and Liberia) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication.
It helps me when you ppl from the states talks both mm and inches when you talk in your videos.
Being as metric countries usually don't return the favor why should we bother?
What favor?
The common courtesy of converting metric to customary units.
Both joints looked fab to me...i dont make parts for NASA or custom crap for cars and trucks so as long as it holds im happy
Could u aliminumstick (flux on rod) woth a mig welder too?
Is it necessary to preheat the material before welding it ?
Aluminum definitely.
I didn't know you could stick aluminum lol Let alone this awesome tip!!!
Could you try the TIG/stick combo without argon and see what the flux did in that situation? Just curious if the mess was due to the argon.
I'm pretty sure without Argon the torch/tip would overheat and melt away almost instantly.
weld.com's mr tig tried it. His tungsten died. The argon is just as much for your tungsten as it is the weld.
Were you using helium?
My father claimed that he saw a guy welding a very thick (3/4-1") aluminum forging with a carbon electrode for heat and a aluminum filler rod. This would have been late '40s at the Martin (later Martin-Marietta) aircraft plant.
Interesting story
Carbon Arc torches were very popular when I was young,I guess forgotten due to more sophisticated ,modern methods ?
works for steel too when you are welding thin steel an warping is not a problem, use the carbon torch like a tig torch and use your fluxed arc rods braze style, but it takes a lot of amps and eats carbon rods up.
its more a proof of concept show off thing, like welding bean tins together with flux core mig wire and an arc welder (low amps).
One thing I have never seen on youtube is someone pushing the limits... how thin can you go with Arc Electrodes on Aluminum, assuming E4043, say 3/32, could you do .040" thick material with a DC welder? (obviously with a FAST travel speed)
Emergency last resort? Hell, looks good to me!
Question: Can you braze aluminum to steel with aluminum bronze? Ive seen videos of you brazing aluminum bronze to cast iron and it got me thinking.
Alas NO. Aluminum Bronze is a variety of cupro alloy, very little luminum inside. It will braze the only the steel.
Aluminum is hard to judge when stick welding. I found the flux doesn't burn off as fast as the rod does. You really need to jam the rod in the puddles.
What kind of rod are you using ???