Nice repair. Over fifty years ago a wise man told me, “Son, don’t be Scared; it’s already broke, you can only break it more or Fix it.” “Whichever outcome; you’ll gain knowledge”. Isaac displays a remarkable can-do attitude.
I really appreciate that you show some struggles for the small shop guy. I always hate it when you watch stuff and everything goes smoothly, they have all the right tools, the right rods, the right everything.. Thank you very much
This is why I love your videos they’re real world repairs. Having to deal with old material, painted, oil soaked, hard to position, harder to access, making due with the tools that you have. In the end, it’s fixed. Keep up the good work, keep teaching your young fella the trade that’s not as easy as it looks, and hope to see more great videos in the new year
To me it looked like a new part that had been broken due to a mishap . When the part comes for welding having broken in service the lubricating oil seams to have soaked into the aluminium structure which then gets drawn out with the heat leaving a surface deposit that prevents weld penetration & wetting.
There are lots of excellent videos on TH-cam showing welding under excellent conditions with ideal equipment and, not surprisingly, they get great results. Seeing how you handle an ugly break in an awkward piece of equipment without the right equipment, and how you handle what happens when it goes wrong? That's genuinely valuable.
We all beat ourselves up from time to time expecting excellent results or perfection like we see others do but remember some people are Specialist in certain areas and in other areas you are the specialist so I understand exactly how you feel but even with that being said I was happy with the result.
Nice try Issac, good job. Back around 67, I spent some time in an aluminum foundry learning to repair helicopter engine part casting defects. Using AC High Freq. but the best part was a water cooled torch. That does make a big difference. Someone's son, a youngster just out of welding school for a lot less per hr. replaced me. However it was quite a learning experience, enough to later on briefly work a job shop among other things repairing an endless flow of aluminum lawnmower decks from busy dealer. But they didn't have a water cooled torch. ☹ Always enjoyed the challenge of the job shop though. Last aluminum I did was a broken crane outrigger float. Crunched on a job while moving. Destroyed the piston seat latching area and parts. Laying in multiple stringers with DC stick, (had 3 1/8" rods left of two 5# tubes) I was able to put back enough material so after drilling, the latch assy functioned. Using several 3" fine tooth saw blades 'n flat washers I made something like a dado and was able to reshape some critical areas with a drill motor. One of those floats, think they said was around 3500 bucks. Anyway, trust you 'n your family have a Blessed 'n Safe Happy New Year. Thanks for sharing.
You're a braver man than me Isaac. I suspect that given how the world is going we'll be doing more and more repairs and not simply swapping parts for new ones.
@@aserta don't worry, it's already happening in the background. Also, manufacturing is coming back to the US, slowly but surely. The world has gone crazy again, but we will prevail!
Always enjoyable and educational watching you work. Watching you file on that mating surface was reminiscent of my teen years. I had a 76 Vega and as was typical with them, it warped the cylinder deck and kept blowing head gaskets. Like you, I didn't have a mill and as typical with a teenager, I didn't have the money to pay someone who did. My father had an old linoleum file that was almost 2 feet long, that he gave me and said get to it. Well after several hours of meticulously filing the top of the block, I had new metal consistently showing on the whole deck surface. I put it back together and drove that car for another two years and never had any more trouble with the head gasket. It's surprising what you can do to get by. Would it be better to have a part like that machined? Probably, but as you said, you do what you have to do to get the job done. Another form of sweat equity wins the day.
Great job, Issac! In my computer repair shop I was always amazed to learn how quickly and willingly other shops had told them "That can't be fixed" and sent them out the door. 99% of the time it COULD be fixed, but it was a hassle and not very much fun at all. The looks on the customer's faces were priceless when I told them indeed it was fixed and ready to go. It made it all worth it.
Our Tig welder is a EWM Tetrix 351 AC/DC Comfort FW. It's a 5 - 350 amp water cooled machine that welds so nice. We've owned it since 2017 and it's never let us down.
It's not wasted time seeing how you gouge/grind, etc. Some of us learn from you. You are very meticulous. Please show all the work steps. Great content!
Just did a repair on a cracked cast aluminum wheel the other day. I used my HTP ProPulse 220 MTS set on the .035 4043 program at 224 IPM. Makes short work of these nasty cast aluminum repairs. Works quickly to minimize heat transfer with "MIG like TIG" effect for general aesthetics. I do feel your pain, Isaac!
Issac - You are a master and too humble! I appreciate you showing how "challenging" it is to repair aluminum, especially without having the ideal equipment. The real-world is too often never shown in tutorial videos. I know you always take pride in your work and that the finished result is not up to your usual standards, but trust me, your client should be happy you were willing and able to repair his part. I think it will fail somewhere else before your welds ever give out. We all learned something from watching that even a master finds certain jobs and available equipment "not fun!". THANKS!
The honest reality of making it work, working with what you have and doing the best with what you've got. This is reality of welding repairs. Love this. Thank you for sharing.
Normally, I would make sure a client or customer would have a part like this completely disassembled. Makes you're life easier and lightens your liabilities. Aside from that, it looks pretty good. I hope it works out for your customer.
My mate and his father were farmers and used to do all the repairs on their equipment. And he always said to me it doesn't matter if it's broken you can only make it better. They were self taught and always did very good economical repairs. Nothing has changed repair costs always matter. Nice job another one saved. Happy new year to you all from ruth and mark Wales GB.
I have made several repairs on thick cast aluminum with a under powered aluminum welder, it is definitely a challenge and aggravating at times. I invested in a 30a spool gun for the thicker aluminum jobs & it made things so much easier. Great Work Isaac, as usual !! Thanks for keeping it real !! 👊🏻
Welding cast aluminum is like welding cast iron because it isn't a pure material. Great job because you did your best with a very difficult repair. Thanks for all the videos during 2022 and happy new year to you and your family for 2023!
I don’t Tig weld any of my aluminum mainly because I’m 99.9% mobile. But I can definitely feel your pain. Dirty aluminum is worse than anything else no matter the process. You did awesome. Just real world application.
I like it. I was trying to imagine building a jig for the painted side so you could have fastened it into the lathe. I've never ran a lathe or tig'd. But I love your videos when you gotta figure it out on the fly. love it.
Get yourself a piece of granite floor tile. They are 12" square and work good for lapping with sand paper like you were doing. They are pretty flat and smooth. I bought a couple of them at depot for a couple dollars each on clearance. Also drywall sanding screen works really good for lapping on aluminum. The swarf has a place to go and it doesn't build up and gouge the surface. Keep the videos coming Isaac . Joe
I like your philosophy, Isaac. It was broken junk when you got it. Everything you did to it, pretty or not, made it better. Love to watch and learn from you. Especially your thought process as how to tackle repairs. Thank you for sharing!
Nice repair job! A tip I would like to share with you is I l keep a small portable hair dryer in the shop for when my hood fogs up. Dries it out quick and if you keep it warm it does not fog up easily.
Us armchair repairmen would say, "just send it over to Topper Machine or Abom79 to get the bore and face touched up." It's too bad the real world isn't like that. You did a nice repair with the tools you had.
Brilliant people always watching and learning thank you👀❤️👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
when you stop learning you stop living , thank you for sharing . You operate on a high professional standard and this is still a way better repair than most of the people watching this could achieve.
This was a real world repair in real world scenarios. 1. Not ideal material 2. Not having all the right tools. 3. Tuff to access. I think for what you had to work with, you did a great job. I respect that you are not afraid to try anything. Keep up the great work!
Hey ICW thank you for sharing another awesome video! Seems like a very challenging repair. I would like to humbly share some techniques that have helped me when welding cast aluminum. I made a parts oven from a small stainless grill that can sit on top of a propane turkey cooker. Makes it easy to control temperature of your work piece. I like to preheat to 200-250 degrees depending on the size of the part and taper heat off slowly post welding. I try to use as little stick out as possible. Also I have a stubby gas lens kit that helps getting into tight spaces. For example at 22:09 I think a stubby cup, short backcap, and shorter stick out could have really helped you. Also I’m wondering if you ever use helium? It really helps on bigger parts it gets the arc going really well. I use a 75/25 mix of helium and argon. I have a Lincoln square wave 200 and with the helium it welds like it has 300 amps. Welding cast aluminum can really be a pain and like you said no matter what you do a lot of times it is not going to be pretty. I don’t know if you will even read all this and rambling at this point haha but anyways thank you again for sharing another awesome repair.
Thanks for. sharing the way things really are. the video that shows all the pretty welds are for the most part aren't the reality that I see in my shop. I appreciate the thought process and I do learn from all your videos. Keep them coming.
Anyone who has had to try and weld dirty cast aluminum knows how difficult that was. Awesome repair! Amazon sells some cheap but useable small fly cutters that are appropriate size for small mills.
I wouldn't touch that job with a 10 foot pole unless it belonged to me. Glad you were able to make it work. If it works for the customer then you didn't do it wrong. As for the sandpaper, I have flattened more than one head with that method. Some engine shops use belt sanders with sand bags to hold the head evenly.
You do with what you got. Growing up in the country, I have learned the value of bailing wire and duct tape mechanics. Not that I used those specific items, but the concept. Would be surprised how well some of these nightmare repairs held up in harsh conditions. This project turned out better than I thought it would. If it gets them up and running until factory replacement parts can be gotten then it is perfect. Great job Isaac, thanks very much for sharing. Here is wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year.
you beat yourself up but 98% of the people that are in the trade would not have tried or given up you are truly a skilled craftsman . Happy New Year and God Bless
Honest job with honest results. A lot of us don’t always have the best tools so we rely on our skills and knowledge to make do with what we got. The results aren’t always pretty BUT they are sufficient to get the job done. Thanks for sharing one of “those” repairs in all its cringe worthy glory. My favorite work saying: There exist countless ways to accomplish any given task, however there will always be a right tool for every job. Whether we happen to own said tool & have the knowledge to use it correctly is an entirely different thing altogether. The right tool for each task not only makes the job easier, it also makes work a lot more enjoyable overall. You could spend 8hours using a hammer and chisel to cut down a tree, 1hour w/ an axe, 30min with a saw or 5min with a chainsaw … How badly do you value your time?
I do like your approach to these repairs: getting it done and not being paralyzed by the the possibility of a fail. Before at least try to, you never get anything done, right?! All the best for you and your family, happy new year!
Econotig is good for autobody, thats about it..I traded mine for a Syncrowave 250 and never looked back. Castings are usually dirty metal..You did a great job with this repair.
You gotta do what you gotta do. The motto of an owner operator. Thanks mate, there are some of us who understand. This also allows me to learn from others.
Excellent work, Isaac! I use those same kind of carbide burrs in die grinders for aluminum. My supplier calls them "Alumiburrs". They are designed to cut aluminum and don't load up like ones designed for steel. Glad to see someone else get a "won't take you long, easy job" kind of work! Enjoy your work, especially seeing your son work and learn with you. Both mine did and didn't seem to hurt them any. Happy new year.
In a perfect world we would have every tool needed, sometimes you make do with what we have, no one is going to crawl under the truck and see how it looks, it’s fixed, well done, thanks for the videos, Happy new year
I'll tell you these are the best videos on TH-cam for welding. Children pay attention. Customers don't want excuses, they want results. Sometimes it just gotta go and equipment or not, when people rely on you, you gotta make SOMETHING happen. Awesome as always.
Thank you for showing us your work even though it didn’t turn out how you wanted. I’ve come to see a lot of repair work, just needs to work. If it works, it’s fixed.
I know how you feel, I've had my share of problems welding aluminum too. You do the best you can with what you have to work with. Sometimes the conditions are less than ideal.
These types of jobs really try us all. I just repaired a hydraulic pump on my Channel. The welding also gave me a fit, oil, dirt, etc. In the end, it all works out. Thank you for your videos.
This man can definitely weld, that’s for sure! Of course, the next logical step is to venture into the world of machining. For this particular piece of milling work: a rotary table, a dial indicator and some endmills ought to do the trick, and maybe finish off the flange top with a shell mill or flycutter, preferably with as little material removal as possible from the original thickness of the flange while making a respectably flat seating and sealing surface.
England - People always use the word 'bodge' in a bad way. I am proud of my capability to bodge something back into service. Often I have bodged bits unobtainable, obsolete or have a very expensive replacement that have gone on to give years of service. I.E. In 1978 the UK had it's worst storm in a 100 years a neighbor had three ridge tiles smashed. I cooked them in the oven and stuck them together with car body filler. They are still there. I.C. you should be proud that you got that item back into service with the equipment you have. 'No negative waves man' I think you chaps say LOL. Belated Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year. Regards.
I've done a rew repairs like this myself, and I've always been sceptical about my repairs. But this video gives me a bit of reassurance since you did it exactly the same way I did!
I love it when pros like you show the problems and issue that plague us all. Non-textbook all the way but you did it, and it tells me I just can't be perfect everytime and expecting perfection sometimes is simply unrealistic.
I would have been singing that, "Oh-hell-to-the-no, no, no" song if I was asked to do a project like this. With manufacturing being in transition, we're going to be seeing a lot more of this kind of work in the next 2-5 years. So I have some of those aluminum burr tools. Now I just need to work up the courage to use it. Thanks for the inspiration!
Another good video! I love your attitude about these jobs…you have to work with what you have. Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences! I hope you and your family have a healthy and prosperous new year!!
At least I'm not the only one who dips the tungsten repeatedly! The sandpaper trick works very well if you use wet or dry paper and solvent. Surface tension will hold the paper to the flat surface and the solvent carries off the material and lessens clogging. I use that trick to clean up surfaces weely in my little shop. At least that was a clean casting. Most of the ones I have had to weld were so full of junk the parent material had to be "boiled" clean with the torch before filler could be added.
I have done quite a few cast aluminum repairs,its just garbage! I bake,or torch it first to try and get the junk out of it,then 4043 rod hot and fast,ceriated tungsten! Clean and repeat! Its all about you grinding and shaping capabilities! Thank you!
Issac thanks for the awesome video. I am not great at TIG by any means. What I do is team up with another guy who is amazing at aluminum, so I farm the work to him, and he gives me a 30% professional discount on the work. So I markup his fee by 30% and pass it on to the customer. The customer is happy with the work, and hopefully he will pass more work on to me, and I make a bit of money, basically doing nothing, but making my customer happy. Cheers, and Happy New Year.
It would’ve been easy to not post this one. But this is what I love about you my friend. You approach everything with common sense and a calm attitude and you know what you are doing and you do a great job. I would be happy if it were my housing, I just hope the repair lasts. I’ve never had any luck repairing cast aluminum, it always breaks again. ☹️ Hope you have a happy and prosperous new year my friend. ✌️🇺🇸👍
Bravo Isaac, not an easy repair by any standards and made even harder by not having the bigger welder to hand. Not many people would have tackled the job in the first place, hope it worked out ok back in service. Happy new year to you,your boy and of course your lovely dog ☺️
Thanks for sharing man! It helps us guys who don’t have the “right” tools either and need to adapt and overcome. Not everything in life is perfect and thanks for showing that!
When I was in charge of a fancy welding department, our greatest problem wasn't weling aluminium but welding substandard dirty aluminium that had been cast using toe nail clippings and whatever was available. . It could be done but it was never a strong weld.
It really frustrates me because I want to master TIG on aluminum. Some say you have to make a ball on the tungsten, others say "I just break it off with my hammer and have at it". Drives me nuts...
We're only human Isaac, but you got the job done and have the knowledge of knowing when you've done enough to say it's "done". Honesty and humility are all we can offer behind our skills and word to someone, and you sir have shown that many times. May not be pretty or the 'proper' technique but it'll get the job done and won't come apart! Good work pard
Great chanel Issac, This is the type of work i do mostly, you did good as its not your specialist field and as you say if it works it works. I use exactly the same carbide burr as you have in the air grinder I have a whole load of different shapes and sizes to get into castings/cylinder heads etc...the style of flute you have is called an 'aluminium cut' here in the UK, they are good at clearing chips but if you ever do a heavy grind and it clogs spray some WD40 on it and the clog will just fly off when you grind again...if i got a big job in i have a capfull of WD40 and just dunk the burr in as necessary. Also porosity, just keep grinding it out till its not a problem, a lot of castings have impurities that boil up as you weld, hope that helps
I have welded a couple things like that. It’s not easy. The aluminum gets impregnated with oil and that makes it hard to weld. I’m just guessing that looks like an accessory drive off a Cummins engine. So I’m sure it’s an expensive part and may not be available quickly enough. Thus weld it make it work. Then get the new part on hand for if it breaks again. Happy new year to y’all keep the cool welding repair videos coming. Fun Chanel to be a fan of. Your talent and perfection of your trade reminds me a lot of my dad and his mastery of welding 🇺🇸👍
Don't hesitate - SWITCH to the spool gun!! You won't look back. Used one extensively back in 1994 and it took me by storm. Easier than GTAW and almost as pretty - in fact, if your prep is good, it comes out just as pretty.
Aluminium welding is such a weird thing. It can be easy, it can be hard, it's a lot of knowledge, but you can also direct a newbie to weld perfect with just the right words. Probably my favorite type of material to weld (outside old fashioned hammer and fire style welding). Here's to a Happy New year to you and yours.
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Nice repair. Over fifty years ago a wise man told me, “Son, don’t be Scared; it’s already broke, you can only break it more or Fix it.” “Whichever outcome; you’ll gain knowledge”. Isaac displays a remarkable can-do attitude.
I really appreciate that you show some struggles for the small shop guy. I always hate it when you watch stuff and everything goes smoothly, they have all the right tools, the right rods, the right everything..
Thank you very much
That’s just Issac’s way of doing these videos. Showing the good, the bad, & the ugly, not how to do it but how he does it.
This is why I love your videos they’re real world repairs. Having to deal with old material, painted, oil soaked, hard to position, harder to access, making due with the tools that you have. In the end, it’s fixed. Keep up the good work, keep teaching your young fella the trade that’s not as easy as it looks, and hope to see more great videos in the new year
Man to be honest that turned out much better then I thought it would have being a cast housing that had oil and paint on it.
To me it looked like a new part that had been broken due to a mishap . When the part comes for welding having broken in service the lubricating oil seams to have soaked into the aluminium structure which then gets drawn out with the heat leaving a surface deposit that prevents weld penetration & wetting.
*IC Weld has the cleanest hands of any shop welder. Stunt hands imported from germany and only put on for videos, most likely.*
@@1nvisible1 exactly. He's got that TH-cam money now to hire hand models 🤣
I agree “walk a mile in my shoes, before you complain” good effort.
@@1nvisible1 This old Tony hands.
There are lots of excellent videos on TH-cam showing welding under excellent conditions with ideal equipment and, not surprisingly, they get great results. Seeing how you handle an ugly break in an awkward piece of equipment without the right equipment, and how you handle what happens when it goes wrong? That's genuinely valuable.
Don't sweat it Issac. Thanks for showing this. Your thought process on how to make it work is out standing.
Man that looks good. I wish I had a tig welder and a plasma cutter. Pure magic.
We all beat ourselves up from time to time expecting excellent results or perfection like we see others do but remember some people are Specialist in certain areas and in other areas you are the specialist so I understand exactly how you feel but even with that being said I was happy with the result.
Nice try Issac, good job. Back around 67, I spent some time in an aluminum foundry learning to repair helicopter engine part casting defects. Using AC High Freq. but the best part was a water cooled torch. That does make a big difference. Someone's son, a youngster just out of welding school for a lot less per hr. replaced me. However it was quite a learning experience, enough to later on briefly work a job shop among other things repairing an endless flow of aluminum lawnmower decks from busy dealer. But they didn't have a water cooled torch. ☹ Always enjoyed the challenge of the job shop though. Last aluminum I did was a broken crane outrigger float. Crunched on a job while moving. Destroyed the piston seat latching area and parts. Laying in multiple stringers with DC stick, (had 3 1/8" rods left of two 5# tubes) I was able to put back enough material so after drilling, the latch assy functioned. Using several 3" fine tooth saw blades 'n flat washers I made something like a dado and was able to reshape some critical areas with a drill motor. One of those floats, think they said was around 3500 bucks.
Anyway, trust you 'n your family have a Blessed 'n Safe Happy New Year.
Thanks for sharing.
You're a braver man than me Isaac. I suspect that given how the world is going we'll be doing more and more repairs and not simply swapping parts for new ones.
We should and we should also force the big corpos to follow in.
We ought to repair more than swapping. Better for the local industry and the environment. It can also be cheaper to repair.
@@aserta don't worry, it's already happening in the background.
Also, manufacturing is coming back to the US, slowly but surely.
The world has gone crazy again, but we will prevail!
First you have to convince everybody to spend the extra $ to buy stuff in the first place that can be repaired.
Always enjoyable and educational watching you work. Watching you file on that mating surface was reminiscent of my teen years. I had a 76 Vega and as was typical with them, it warped the cylinder deck and kept blowing head gaskets.
Like you, I didn't have a mill and as typical with a teenager, I didn't have the money to pay someone who did. My father had an old linoleum file that was almost 2 feet long, that he gave me and said get to it. Well after several hours of meticulously filing the top of the block, I had new metal consistently showing on the whole deck surface.
I put it back together and drove that car for another two years and never had any more trouble with the head gasket. It's surprising what you can do to get by. Would it be better to have a part like that machined? Probably, but as you said, you do what you have to do to get the job done. Another form of sweat equity wins the day.
Sir you are a honest man and have honor .. that puts you ahead of 99% of most people.. I am sure your customers feel the same.
Good lesson. You can learn more from an honest man than a story teller. In this case, it was the tools not the tool user. Rare but true. Thank you.
Great job, Issac! In my computer repair shop I was always amazed to learn how quickly and willingly other shops had told them "That can't be fixed" and sent them out the door. 99% of the time it COULD be fixed, but it was a hassle and not very much fun at all. The looks on the customer's faces were priceless when I told them indeed it was fixed and ready to go. It made it all worth it.
Our Tig welder is a EWM Tetrix 351 AC/DC Comfort FW. It's a 5 - 350 amp water cooled machine that welds so nice. We've owned it since 2017 and it's never let us down.
It's not wasted time seeing how you gouge/grind, etc. Some of us learn from you. You are very meticulous. Please show all the work steps. Great content!
Will do
Make it work is the most under rated type of repair as only fools think every repair can be textbook.
Just did a repair on a cracked cast aluminum wheel the other day. I used my HTP ProPulse 220 MTS set on the .035 4043 program at 224 IPM. Makes short work of these nasty cast aluminum repairs. Works quickly to minimize heat transfer with "MIG like TIG" effect for general aesthetics. I do feel your pain, Isaac!
Issac - You are a master and too humble! I appreciate you showing how "challenging" it is to repair aluminum, especially without having the ideal equipment. The real-world is too often never shown in tutorial videos. I know you always take pride in your work and that the finished result is not up to your usual standards, but trust me, your client should be happy you were willing and able to repair his part. I think it will fail somewhere else before your welds ever give out.
We all learned something from watching that even a master finds certain jobs and available equipment "not fun!". THANKS!
The honest reality of making it work, working with what you have and doing the best with what you've got. This is reality of welding repairs. Love this. Thank you for sharing.
Normally, I would make sure a client or customer would have a part like this completely disassembled. Makes you're life easier and lightens your liabilities.
Aside from that, it looks pretty good. I hope it works out for your customer.
Use a piece of plate glass as your base instead of your table, then p60, and work down the grades to get it flat, hope this help. Great work
My mate and his father were farmers and used to do all the repairs on their equipment. And he always said to me it doesn't matter if it's broken you can only make it better. They were self taught and always did very good economical repairs. Nothing has changed repair costs always matter. Nice job another one saved. Happy new year to you all from ruth and mark Wales GB.
Came out good. The part is for a Cummins engine fuel pump drive.
I have made several repairs on thick cast aluminum with a under powered aluminum welder, it is definitely a challenge and aggravating at times. I invested in a 30a spool gun for the thicker aluminum jobs & it made things so much easier.
Great Work Isaac, as usual !!
Thanks for keeping it real !! 👊🏻
"Not going to show you drilling holes, that's boring." That was a good one.
Welding cast aluminum is like welding cast iron because it isn't a pure material. Great job because you did your best with a very difficult repair.
Thanks for all the videos during 2022 and happy new year to you and your family for 2023!
I don’t Tig weld any of my aluminum mainly because I’m 99.9% mobile. But I can definitely feel your pain. Dirty aluminum is worse than anything else no matter the process. You did awesome. Just real world application.
I like it. I was trying to imagine building a jig for the painted side so you could have fastened it into the lathe. I've never ran a lathe or tig'd. But I love your videos when you gotta figure it out on the fly. love it.
You did an awesome job repairing a part that was broken and got the machine back up making the owner money, that is what counts and it looks fine !
Get yourself a piece of granite floor tile. They are 12" square and work good for lapping with sand paper like you were doing. They are pretty flat and smooth. I bought a couple of them at depot for a couple dollars each on clearance. Also drywall sanding screen works really good for lapping on aluminum. The swarf has a place to go and it doesn't build up and gouge the surface.
Keep the videos coming Isaac .
Joe
I use a granite counter top sink cut out with skateboard deck tape stuck on it.
I like your philosophy, Isaac. It was broken junk when you got it. Everything you did to it, pretty or not, made it better. Love to watch and learn from you. Especially your thought process as how to tackle repairs. Thank you for sharing!
Nice repair job! A tip I would like to share with you is I l keep a small portable hair dryer in the shop for when my hood fogs up. Dries it out quick and if you keep it warm it does not fog up easily.
Us armchair repairmen would say, "just send it over to Topper Machine or Abom79 to get the bore and face touched up." It's too bad the real world isn't like that. You did a nice repair with the tools you had.
My thoughts always are, If Isaac can't fix this, no one can!
HA!! Well, if anything, I'm gonna give it a shot!!
Respect brother, whole hearted respect. Thanks for the examples and await the next installment.
Pray all are well.
Brilliant people always watching and learning thank you👀❤️👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
when you stop learning you stop living , thank you for sharing .
You operate on a high professional standard and this is still a way better repair than most of the people watching this could achieve.
Happy new year Isaac; thank you for all the adventures this year.
This was a real world repair in real world scenarios. 1. Not ideal material 2. Not having all the right tools. 3. Tuff to access. I think for what you had to work with, you did a great job. I respect that you are not afraid to try anything. Keep up the great work!
Thank you Issac for all you’ve taught me/us this year !! Have a Happy and Prosperous New Year. John
Hey ICW thank you for sharing another awesome video! Seems like a very challenging repair. I would like to humbly share some techniques that have helped me when welding cast aluminum.
I made a parts oven from a small stainless grill that can sit on top of a propane turkey cooker. Makes it easy to control temperature of your work piece. I like to preheat to 200-250 degrees depending on the size of the part and taper heat off slowly post welding.
I try to use as little stick out as possible. Also I have a stubby gas lens kit that helps getting into tight spaces. For example at 22:09 I think a stubby cup, short backcap, and shorter stick out could have really helped you.
Also I’m wondering if you ever use helium? It really helps on bigger parts it gets the arc going really well. I use a 75/25 mix of helium and argon. I have a Lincoln square wave 200 and with the helium it welds like it has 300 amps.
Welding cast aluminum can really be a pain and like you said no matter what you do a lot of times it is not going to be pretty. I don’t know if you will even read all this and rambling at this point haha but anyways thank you again for sharing another awesome repair.
Thanks for. sharing the way things really are. the video that shows all the pretty welds are for the most part aren't the reality that I see in my shop. I appreciate the thought process and I do learn from all your videos. Keep them coming.
One of the nice thing about what you do, is that you keep it honest. No Instagram fairy tales. Real stick with the reality
Anyone who has had to try and weld dirty cast aluminum knows how difficult that was. Awesome repair! Amazon sells some cheap but useable small fly cutters that are appropriate size for small mills.
I wouldn't touch that job with a 10 foot pole unless it belonged to me. Glad you were able to make it work. If it works for the customer then you didn't do it wrong. As for the sandpaper, I have flattened more than one head with that method. Some engine shops use belt sanders with sand bags to hold the head evenly.
You do with what you got. Growing up in the country, I have learned the value of bailing wire and duct tape mechanics. Not that I used those specific items, but the concept. Would be surprised how well some of these nightmare repairs held up in harsh conditions. This project turned out better than I thought it would. If it gets them up and running until factory replacement parts can be gotten then it is perfect. Great job Isaac, thanks very much for sharing. Here is wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year.
you beat yourself up but 98% of the people that are in the trade would not have tried or given up you are truly a skilled craftsman . Happy New Year and God Bless
Honest job with honest results. A lot of us don’t always have the best tools so we rely on our skills and knowledge to make do with what we got. The results aren’t always pretty BUT they are sufficient to get the job done. Thanks for sharing one of “those” repairs in all its cringe worthy glory.
My favorite work saying:
There exist countless ways to accomplish any given task, however there will always be a right tool for every job. Whether we happen to own said tool & have the knowledge to use it correctly is an entirely different thing altogether.
The right tool for each task not only makes the job easier, it also makes work a lot more enjoyable overall. You could spend 8hours using a hammer and chisel to cut down a tree, 1hour w/ an axe, 30min with a saw or 5min with a chainsaw … How badly do you value your time?
I do like your approach to these repairs: getting it done and not being paralyzed by the the possibility of a fail. Before at least try to, you never get anything done, right?! All the best for you and your family, happy new year!
That’s my favorite. Touch something hot wearing gloves, then realize that by the time you feel the heat you can’t get the glove off fast enough.
Econotig is good for autobody, thats about it..I traded mine for a Syncrowave 250 and never looked back. Castings are usually dirty metal..You did a great job with this repair.
You gotta do what you gotta do. The motto of an owner operator. Thanks mate, there are some of us who understand. This also allows me to learn from others.
Excellent work, Isaac! I use those same kind of carbide burrs in die grinders for aluminum. My supplier calls them "Alumiburrs". They are designed to cut aluminum and don't load up like ones designed for steel. Glad to see someone else get a "won't take you long, easy job" kind of work! Enjoy your work, especially seeing your son work and learn with you. Both mine did and didn't seem to hurt them any. Happy new year.
I think you did a great job and humble at the same time people aren’t like that now congrats my friend🇨🇦
I love your honesty. You let us know that your not perfect, and that inspires us to keep trying and learning.
In a perfect world we would have every tool needed, sometimes you make do with what we have, no one is going to crawl under the truck and see how it looks, it’s fixed, well done, thanks for the videos, Happy new year
"I'm not going to show me drilling holes, it's boring"
I wasn't expecting a dad joke on this channel, but keep them coming!
I'll tell you these are the best videos on TH-cam for welding. Children pay attention. Customers don't want excuses, they want results. Sometimes it just gotta go and equipment or not, when people rely on you, you gotta make SOMETHING happen. Awesome as always.
Thank you for showing us your work even though it didn’t turn out how you wanted. I’ve come to see a lot of repair work, just needs to work. If it works, it’s fixed.
I know how you feel, I've had my share of problems welding aluminum too. You do the best you can with what you have to work with. Sometimes the conditions are less than ideal.
It's valuable to all of us to see one anothers struggles.
Thank you so much for all your content 👍
These types of jobs really try us all. I just repaired a hydraulic pump on my Channel. The welding also gave me a fit, oil, dirt, etc. In the end, it all works out. Thank you for your videos.
Nice repair. I need to find myself a 4 jaw chuck.
Nice to see repair rather than replace. You are saving us from the throw away evolution one project at a time. An interesting project.
This man can definitely weld, that’s for sure!
Of course, the next logical step is to venture into the world of machining.
For this particular piece of milling work: a rotary table, a dial indicator and some endmills ought to do the trick, and maybe finish off the flange top with a shell mill or flycutter, preferably with as little material removal as possible from the original thickness of the flange while making a respectably flat seating and sealing surface.
England - People always use the word 'bodge' in a bad way. I am proud of my capability to bodge something back into service. Often I have bodged bits unobtainable, obsolete or have a very expensive replacement that have gone on to give years of service. I.E. In 1978 the UK had it's worst storm in a 100 years a neighbor had three ridge tiles smashed. I cooked them in the oven and stuck them together with car body filler. They are still there. I.C. you should be proud that you got that item back into service with the equipment you have. 'No negative waves man' I think you chaps say LOL. Belated Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year. Regards.
It's not how it looks, it's if it works that matters. Thanks for sharing!
I've done a rew repairs like this myself, and I've always been sceptical about my repairs. But this video gives me a bit of reassurance since you did it exactly the same way I did!
Really like your modesty. So many people today put on a façade. Love your work.
This is why I like your video's, incredibly honest! I'm still always impressed!
Folks are starting to wonder if Issac can fix a rainy day. Good work.
I love it when pros like you show the problems and issue that plague us all. Non-textbook all the way but you did it, and it tells me I just can't be perfect everytime and expecting perfection sometimes is simply unrealistic.
I would have been singing that, "Oh-hell-to-the-no, no, no" song if I was asked to do a project like this. With manufacturing being in transition, we're going to be seeing a lot more of this kind of work in the next 2-5 years. So I have some of those aluminum burr tools. Now I just need to work up the courage to use it. Thanks for the inspiration!
Another good video! I love your attitude about these jobs…you have to work with what you have. Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences! I hope you and your family have a healthy and prosperous new year!!
Isaac,you are so self deprecating.
Don't give yourself such a hard time man.
You did great with what tools were available dude !
Welding cast aluminum to tough. Looks like you did a bang up job.
At least I'm not the only one who dips the tungsten repeatedly! The sandpaper trick works very well if you use wet or dry paper and solvent. Surface tension will hold the paper to the flat surface and the solvent carries off the material and lessens clogging. I use that trick to clean up surfaces weely in my little shop.
At least that was a clean casting. Most of the ones I have had to weld were so full of junk the parent material had to be "boiled" clean with the torch before filler could be added.
Going into 2023 -"Wow". Happy New Year Sir
I have done quite a few cast aluminum repairs,its just garbage! I bake,or torch it first to try and get the junk out of it,then 4043 rod hot and fast,ceriated tungsten! Clean and repeat! Its all about you grinding and shaping capabilities! Thank you!
Issac thanks for the awesome video. I am not great at TIG by any means. What I do is team up with another guy who is amazing at aluminum, so I farm the work to him, and he gives me a 30% professional discount on the work. So I markup his fee by 30% and pass it on to the customer. The customer is happy with the work, and hopefully he will pass more work on to me, and I make a bit of money, basically doing nothing, but making my customer happy. Cheers, and Happy New Year.
It would’ve been easy to not post this one. But this is what I love about you my friend. You approach everything with common sense and a calm attitude and you know what you are doing and you do a great job. I would be happy if it were my housing, I just hope the repair lasts. I’ve never had any luck repairing cast aluminum, it always breaks again. ☹️
Hope you have a happy and prosperous new year my friend. ✌️🇺🇸👍
Nice work on a tough job IC - well done indeed.
Finished job looks good and the customer must know that you don't own a machine shop. Great job!
Everything can't always be "pretty" sometimes you just have to get the job done by any means! Great work and thanks for showing real world situations!
As always First class repair and a real look at making a repair on something like that. Thank you sir
Thank you for sharing Isaac I think you did a great job. God Bless you and your Family
Bravo Isaac, not an easy repair by any standards and made even harder by not having the bigger welder to hand. Not many people would have tackled the job in the first place, hope it worked out ok back in service. Happy new year to you,your boy and of course your lovely dog ☺️
Thanks for sharing man! It helps us guys who don’t have the “right” tools either and need to adapt and overcome. Not everything in life is perfect and thanks for showing that!
When I was in charge of a fancy welding department, our greatest problem wasn't weling aluminium but welding substandard dirty aluminium that had been cast using toe nail clippings and whatever was available.
.
It could be done but it was never a strong weld.
To form the ball end on the tungsten, I strike the arc initially on a piece of copper. You are always methodical.
It really frustrates me because I want to master TIG on aluminum. Some say you have to make a ball on the tungsten, others say "I just break it off with my hammer and have at it". Drives me nuts...
We're only human Isaac, but you got the job done and have the knowledge of knowing when you've done enough to say it's "done". Honesty and humility are all we can offer behind our skills and word to someone, and you sir have shown that many times. May not be pretty or the 'proper' technique but it'll get the job done and won't come apart! Good work pard
Great chanel Issac, This is the type of work i do mostly, you did good as its not your specialist field and as you say if it works it works. I use exactly the same carbide burr as you have in the air grinder I have a whole load of different shapes and sizes to get into castings/cylinder heads etc...the style of flute you have is called an 'aluminium cut' here in the UK, they are good at clearing chips but if you ever do a heavy grind and it clogs spray some WD40 on it and the clog will just fly off when you grind again...if i got a big job in i have a capfull of WD40 and just dunk the burr in as necessary. Also porosity, just keep grinding it out till its not a problem, a lot of castings have impurities that boil up as you weld, hope that helps
I have welded a couple things like that. It’s not easy. The aluminum gets impregnated with oil and that makes it hard to weld. I’m just guessing that looks like an accessory drive off a Cummins engine. So I’m sure it’s an expensive part and may not be available quickly enough. Thus weld it make it work. Then get the new part on hand for if it breaks again. Happy new year to y’all keep the cool welding repair videos coming. Fun Chanel to be a fan of. Your talent and perfection of your trade reminds me a lot of my dad and his mastery of welding 🇺🇸👍
Hope you have a safe and prosperous 2023. Thank you for sharing what you do.
I’ve been sanding outboard motor heads that way for 25 years. Heavy paper on mirror glass because it’s dead true works fine 👍
Don't hesitate - SWITCH to the spool gun!! You won't look back. Used one extensively back in 1994 and it took me by storm. Easier than GTAW and almost as pretty - in fact, if your prep is good, it comes out just as pretty.
I love videos like this. Do what you got to do As long as it works it’s good. That is the world I have been working in my entire career.
Aluminium welding is such a weird thing. It can be easy, it can be hard, it's a lot of knowledge, but you can also direct a newbie to weld perfect with just the right words. Probably my favorite type of material to weld (outside old fashioned hammer and fire style welding).
Here's to a Happy New year to you and yours.
This is what you call real work, don't apologize for nothing.
Thanks for the video Sir. Sill a great Welder with great integrity. I always look forward to your videos. Tough job, but you got her done.