Tig Welding Aluminum bike Frame - A Welding video Review

another video on aluminum welding
TIG welding aluminum bike frame - This welding video on tigging an aluminum bike frame is extremely interesting. Lets see what we can learn.

The video starts out with welding of a small bracket that about 2 inches long on the aluminum tubing frame. It looks like a 3/32 filler rod is being used. 4043 filler rod is often used on these 6061 t6 aluminum frames but 5356 is also used where strength and color match are important.

The first weld looks just a bit cold to me but the welder might be more concerned about distortion or burn thru than strictly appearance. It looks pretty good anyway.

This welder welds with a very similar technique as me.

I like to step the torch ahead about 1/8" and then pause while I feed the rod.This is also the way I teach because I have found that its easier for a noob to concentrate on one thing at time.

Welding this way lets you think about one hand at a time.

You move the torch and the puddle ahead and then pause...then you stop having to think about your torch hand and start thinking about your other hand...the filler rod hand.

Then when you feed enough rod in the puddle,,,(hopefully the same amount each time), you can stop thinking about your filler rod hand and start thinking about the torch hand again. And so it goes again and again. this is how you get the stacked dime appearance that everyone seems to like.

The uniform stacked dime look comes from stepping ahead the same distance each time,and feeding the same amount of filler rod each time.

Notice how the welder holds the torch in this welding video.. not exactly a death grip is it? The welder is holding it gently and just firmly enough to manipulate the torch around curves and corners.

Also notice that a lot of filler is being fed into the weld. Its a bunch compared to the amount of filler it takes to weld steel. But that is kind of how it goes on aluminum welds like this. trying to skimp on filler rod usually just causes cracks and failed welds later on.

I like the way this tig welder sequences the welds and the doubler design strengthens the frame and also looks cool with the dimed in weld.

Also notice how the welder is holding the filler rod to be able to feed it between the first 2 fingers. the filler rod feeding is always the limiting skill when learning tig welding.

so it will help your welding to get really good at feeding the rod.

So how do you get good at feeding the rod? by never watching TV without a filler rod in your hand practicing feeding it.

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