Aluminium welding.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Went to the Classic Car show at the NEC yesterday and was most impressed with one of those 'snake oil' products the small stands sell. It was a method of welding aluminium.

Basically, without even cleaning you heat with an ordinary blowtorch and apply a tiny amount of the special 'solder' to the joint - really just enough to 'tin' it. Then continue to apply heat and scrape the joint with a screwdriver etc. The resultant joint was as strong as the aluminium. It looked to require little skill - the guy certainly wasn't concentrating hard while he was doing it. Cost 20 quid for a metre of the 'solder' - but as I said you only actually use a tiny amount per joint. It's about the same diameter as end feed solder.

I'll report again when I've tried it myself. But if it's as good as it looked - an answer to a prayer.

[Clive George]

Durafix?

[geoff]

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

UIs it not the same stuff that someone posted a link to a few months ago ?

an american site

[The Natural Philosopher]

Much better to use Carr's aluminium flux and any solder you like Or even special expensive aluminium solder, but I didn't need to use it.

Costs a lot less than £20 too. Or use aulumnium solder paste, where its all mixed up for you anyway.

[bweebar]

Like this stuff?

(with video)

[bweebar]

And this looks like the manufacturer's site:

[Adam Aglionby]

=A0 London SW

Seems to be a few similar, and similarly priced products, IIRC buying Taymar (of blowtorch fame) aluminium brazing rods years ago in Halfords.

one goes into some detail, its mainly zinc based.

Cheers Adam

[Steve Walker]

Crikey, that's amazing - is is real?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

But this wasn't a solder. As I said made a joint as strong as a weld.

[The Natural Philosopher]

welded aluminium is about as strong as solder ;-)

[Steve Firth]

I have some of those I used to repair Birmabright panels on the Land Rover. It worked well, but needs a very careful control of heating of the area since the margin between welding and melting isn't huge. A clean propane flame is essential and MAPP gas is too fierce.

[newshound]

I've a pack of Durafix; only had one application to date, and it wouldn't tin at all. (I forget the material). I'm reasonably experienced at soft and silver soldering.

[Andy Dingley]

Easiest way on Landies (rare though the need is) is to weld them with a gas torch. Birmabright alloy is easier here than most other aluminium alloys. As a filler rod you need to use some Birmabright, snipped off spare bodywork, rather than aluminium. It also needs a powerful flux - the old Series manual recommends "Hari Kiri No.2" (!) from an address in Birmingham.

[Jules]

Surely with a Landy you just cut panels from any old scrap, rivet them on, and call it "added character" :-)

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Jules saying something like:

Who repairs dents and holes in Landies?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Absolutely. A few extra holes lets the water that leaks in out.

[Rhodes]

On Friday, November 13, 2009 at 7:59:28 PM UTC-5, Dave Plowman (News) wrote :

Dave, I was there and saw this stand. I was impressed and I have decided t o get some. I was visiting from the US. Do you recall the name or website of the guy selling the stuff? It really did appear to be truly melting in to the original aluminium rather than simply soldering or brazing.

-Tony

[Dave Plowman (News)]

My memory tends to fade after 5 years. ;-)

[JimK]

/My memory tends to fade after 5 years. ;-)/q

Sure it wasn't Anthony or Tony something...? :-)

Jim K

[Peter Andrews]

No idea if this is the guy, but at next weekends Model Engineering exhibition there is a stand: Alutight aluminium welding.

It's probably the guy I saw at the 2013 exhibition at Sandown - I've never done any welding but do know that ali is difficult!

Peter