[black][size 4]Well I'm new to this forum and was reading this thread and also just purchased a new (old) boat that needed some repair. Well inspired by a previous thread I asked my wife(rrrsmom) to stop by Harbor Frieght and buy the Alumaweld. Well to make a long story short I'm having no success at all. Maybe it's not clean enough or not hot enough? Please advise as I'm trying to have her ready for the wiper turney. Any help, tip etc.. would be much appreciated. What's the trick? Thanks, Randy
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if your not familiar with soldering or brazing it can be a challange,the 2 key things are clean and heat,first take a wire brush and clean the crack very well.the best thing is to take a small disc grinder,or file and open the crack up.then take the torch and run it up and down the crack for a few min.then wire brush again.this will burn off any leftover paint,or oils. now it is time to start fillining in the crack.take the torch and start heating up the area,not just in one spot but the whole thing.(just a note the hottest spot of the torch flame is the tip of the blueish part of the flame)with the rod in the other hand,start srcatching the rod against the area,(dont put the torch flame on the rod tip,all this will do is melt the rod and make blobs,that it fall off) when the material is up to temp the rod will start to melt into the crack,when this happens,you want to stay ahead of the rod with the torch to keep it up to temp.after you filled in the crack,take the torch and go over what you just did,this with smooth out the repair,after it cools take a file to fine tune the repair.hope this helps
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What Tom said,
here is a couple tips that will help,
use a stainless steel brush or wire wheel to clean with
heat the thicker peice of aluminum first to the point that when you touch the rod to the part the rod will melt.
keeping that part hot heat the next peice untill it reaches the same temp.
then you can pudle your aluminum weld.
this part is vary improtant, you must get rid of any oxidized metal...
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aside from this product there is another product that works well, it is an aluminum epoxy. this will fill cracks and patch holes. It hardens like metal, it can be drilled and tapped.
another product is Marine Text. that is a putty form of the aluminum bond, If it is still available. It has been thirty five years since I used that.
get your parts clean, and once you put eather of these materials on you will have to disk sand or grind to get it off.
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