Re: tips for welding small aluminum bosses?

the small aluminum bushing (1/2" rod) is getting hotter than the 1/8"
plate,
you're on the right track with heatsink. can't tell from the picture
how much
aluminum mass you have welded on the other side of that plate.

either preheat the plate or heatsink the bushing (try tightening a
nut/bolt
through the bushing.. maybe with a stack of washers on each side --
dont
squeeze too tight, or use too loose a bolt, as the bushing might give
when
heated).

or weld the bushing into the plate before welding the plate to the
other
aluminum piece.

you could try countersinking the hole to 1/2 thickness (or more) of the
plate. once the bushing is inserted you'll have a nice tight V-groove
to
help control the puddle width. turn your freq way up if you have the
option,
it'll keep your arc tighter.


Mike Vande Weghe wrote:
I'm TIG welding a short section of 1/2" diam aluminum rod into a hole in 1/8"
aluminum plate (which has already been welded to a piece of tubing). A hole
through the rod will be taking a lot of force, and the weld bead will help
transfer the tension side of the force to the plate. I'm having a lot of
trouble getting the heat where I want it and keeping the weld bead small
enough; it seems like once I get enough heat to form a pool it just wants to
climb right up the side of the rod. Here's a couple photos that show the
situation (force direction is from right to left):

http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeqn3w8/

Does anyone have any tips for small things like this? I'm using sharpened
lanthanated tungstens which gave me a huge improvement in controlling the arc,
but the combination of the inside corner of the joint and the outside curve of
the boss is giving me fits. Would heatsinking the boss (with a large piece of
copper or something) help?

For a while I decided to give up on welding this part and to just braze it in,
which seems to work ok with HTS-2000, but I'd really prefer to not add another
process if I don't have to, so I'm back to trying to weld it.


Thanks!

Mike

.

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