Aluminum repair

[Everett]

If no one does in the next few weeks I will. I have a few bikes to get done before I need it. May be after I get my 77 gl1000 done I can start one of them jobs.

[Liam]

Maybe this has been discussed already, but I just watched an interesting video on Facebook. Video is on this website.
https://www.aluminumrepair.com/

I don't work for them or anything, but if the stuff is as good as this video shows, it's good stuff.

I have to wonder why anybody putting a sales video on their website want your name and email address to enable you to view it?

[Liam]

Several years ago I was at the Toronto bike show and there was a guy there demonstrating something similar. He was repairing carburettor parts cylinder heads and other castings and he was also punching holes in the bottoms of aluminium coke cans and filling them in. The guy said it would work with any grade of aluminum as it had been formulated by a team of top metallurgists and scientists. was impressed and bought a whole bunch of rods, enough to do me a lifetime. I bought a few hundred dollars worth.
I knew of nothing like it available in Europe and was thinking that these Canadians are way ahead of the game. Wife always told me how everything in Canada was much bigger/better than what us bog trotters had over here. Thought to myself, darn, she is right.
Anyway when I got home I tried out one of the rods. I was being frugal and did not want to waste any of the precious metal so I tried a coke can like the guy demonstrated. It did not work. Stuff just melted and sat on the surface. I figured maybe it was a bad can so tried several others, still no success. Tried various other items and all were a failure.
But I had seen the guy do it in Toronto with my own eyes. I am a hands on person and can do mig tig and arc welding, soldering brazing etc
I can only conclude that the rods he was using for his demo were a different rod to what he was selling.

[Liam]

Thinking about this again, we had been over in Toronto for the millenium celebrations, so it was the Toronto bike show in 2000.
18 years ago around this time, so maybe the stuff is better now.

[BikeMaine]

Several years ago I was at the Toronto bike show and there was a guy there demonstrating something similar. He was repairing carburettor parts cylinder heads and other castings and he was also punching holes in the bottoms of aluminium coke cans and filling them in. The guy said it would work with any grade of aluminum as it had been formulated by a team of top metallurgists and scientists. was impressed and bought a whole bunch of rods, enough to do me a lifetime. I bought a few hundred dollars worth.
I knew of nothing like it available in Europe and was thinking that these Canadians are way ahead of the game. Wife always told me how everything in Canada was much bigger/better than what us bog trotters had over here. Thought to myself, darn, she is right.
Anyway when I got home I tried out one of the rods. I was being frugal and did not want to waste any of the precious metal so I tried a coke can like the guy demonstrated. It did not work. Stuff just melted and sat on the surface. I figured maybe it was a bad can so tried several others, still no success. Tried various other items and all were a failure.
But I had seen the guy do it in Toronto with my own eyes. I am a hands on person and can do mig tig and arc welding, soldering brazing etc
I can only conclude that the rods he was using for his demo were a different rod to what he was selling.

Interesting

[ericheath]

I have seen newer videos and it seems to work on them. They try to tell you how you have to get the aluminum clean and at a perfect temperature. I couldn’t make it work. I also bought the plain old Harbor Freight flux coated rods and tried to use them with my poor-mans, lift-start TIG. I did some welding on some old intake elbows and got a fair amount if boogery, bird-crap looking weld but it was full of holes and had a powdery, porous finish.

The problem I had was -and is what the books will tell you why you need high frequency welders- the surface is anodized and requires a much higher (3 Times higher??) temp to melt than the aluminum below or behind the anodized surface. You get it to the point you think it’s right, and suddenly it gives a very orange color which is difficult to see, and then the metal below the surface is a big puddle. When you touch it with your rod, you break the surface tension of the anodized surface and a big puddle of it goes splashing to the floor. You’re left with a big hole. I tried sanding the surface, wire brushing the snot out of it with virgin stainless steel brushes and cleaning it with alcohol just before attempting. It helped a lot, but I couldn’t make any welds I would trust.

Looking into it more and the TInman, (google) a guy who welds airplane wings etc with acetylene, swears you need to have the “magic” glasses which remove some of the light that aluminum gives off when it’s ready to melt. Cobalt blue glasses??? Anyways they’re only $300.

Good luck. Perhaps Mervin has some new powder to make it work better now. My attempts were about six years ago, and I’m anything but a good welder.

[williwm]

I received the rods last week, weather is nice today so I tried a piece of thin 1/16" angle and a piece of 1/8" plate with a lap joint. Dismal failure but more my problem than the rods. I cleaned by grinding off the oxidation and tinned each piece. Individually they tinned easily, got the piece up to temp and let the metal melt the rod and hit the area with a small hand wire brush. The area tinned nicely. Did the other piece with the same good results. Then laid them together and tried to join them.

I was using an oxygen act torch with a very small tip, a # 00, and would under or over heat one piece or the other. A larger tip with a softer flame might have been better to heat both pieces uniformly. I think that the rods may be useful when used with the right procedure.

[ericheath]

One thing I remember in the video I watched was that he moved the flame away more like he was trying heat the surrounding area, not on the pice getting the weld. He held the heat close to the intended target until the rod began to flow, much like solder. Then he fanned the flame out in a big area. Maybe the temp has to be just right and moving the flame away kept the target area a consistent heat???

Aluminum dissipates heat quickly, perhaps the trick is letting it “dissipate “ back toward the weld target. Maybe it keeps the anodized surface hot, but not overcooking the middle??? Makes me want to go try it.

[CYBORG]

One thing I remember in the video I watched was that he moved the flame away more like he was trying heat the surrounding area, not on the pice getting the weld. He held the heat close to the intended target until the rod began to flow, much like solder. Then he fanned the flame out in a big area. Maybe the temp has to be just right and moving the flame away kept the target area a consistent heat???

Aluminum dissipates heat quickly, perhaps the trick is letting it “dissipate “ back toward the weld target. Maybe it keeps the anodized surface hot, but not overcooking the middle??? Makes me want to go try it.

Interesting observation . You may be on to something

[Track T 2411]

[77Gowing]

You would think that if this product is as good as they claim, they would have no problem explaining their process so the customer can be successful. If this product available in stores and if not...why not?
I'm no welder but how their product is marketed makes me a skeptic.

[GLmendip]

I had an oil leak where the oil drain plug had been overtightened and split the ali casting. I filed a slot into the split and used some HTS2000 rods from ebay and the repair worked brilliantly. Once dressed up you'd hardly know it was there.
You do need a good source of heat depending on how much casting you are heating up, a normal blow torch will struggle.

[BikeMaine]

I had an oil leak where the oil drain plug had been overtightened and split the ali casting. I filed a slot into the split and used some HTS2000 rods from ebay and the repair worked brilliantly. Once dressed up you'd hardly know it was there.
You do need a good source of heat depending on how much casting you are heating up, a normal blow torch will struggle.

Sounds positive,...

Do you sell HTS2000 products?

[duke182]

Several years ago I was at the Toronto bike show and there was a guy there demonstrating something similar. He was repairing carburettor parts cylinder heads and other castings and he was also punching holes in the bottoms of aluminium coke cans and filling them in. The guy said it would work with any grade of aluminum as it had been formulated by a team of top metallurgists and scientists. was impressed and bought a whole bunch of rods, enough to do me a lifetime. I bought a few hundred dollars worth.
I knew of nothing like it available in Europe and was thinking that these Canadians are way ahead of the game. Wife always told me how everything in Canada was much bigger/better than what us bog trotters had over here. Thought to myself, darn, she is right.
Anyway when I got home I tried out one of the rods. I was being frugal and did not want to waste any of the precious metal so I tried a coke can like the guy demonstrated. It did not work. Stuff just melted and sat on the surface. I figured maybe it was a bad can so tried several others, still no success. Tried various other items and all were a failure.
But I had seen the guy do it in Toronto with my own eyes. I am a hands on person and can do mig tig and arc welding, soldering brazing etc
I can only conclude that the rods he was using for his demo were a different rod to what he was selling.

Me too, except it was a car show in shreveport la.
I had basically the same experiences. But I ran into the same guy at another show and bugged the crap out of him about techniques that would actually work.
What I came to understand is that I couldn't afford enough rods to become proficient.

What I do know.
-The rods I bought (I wont buy more) did not need flux.
-you can weld al using a torch using the proper rod and flux
-there are also rods designed to arc weld al
-mig (wire welding) can be used, using gas shielding and continous wire as an electrode.
-tig welding (heliarc) produces the best welds
-tig does not require flux. It uses gas shielding also.
-high frequency machines produce the best results
-al must be clean. Real clean.
No coatings (anodizing paint etc) and no oxidation at all.

In my opinion, I wasted my money looking for a short cut.
The low temp rods are a "too good to be true" waste of money.

[ericheath]

My failed attempts led me to believe that the right glasses might be the key. Just too expensive to try and fail. Anyone else use these and can attest to them helping?
https://www.tinmantech.com/products/saf ... g-lens.php