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To: VintagVW_at_listproc.sjsu_dot_edu
From: mwest_at_cdsnet_dot_net (Mike West)
Subject: Welding Type 1 Magnesium Case
Cc: vintagebus_at_type2_dot_com, type2_at_type2_dot_com

Welding on your type 1 magnesium engine case . . .

Pretty esoteric for most of us but when you need it . . . :-)

Dick bought a new welder . . Mig (gmaw)
The Miller 185 amp wire welder and the optional "spool gun"
for welding aluminum.

He just got sick of his little 110 volt wire welder . .

I have to admit "money talks" . . it welds a hell of a lot better.

This tale is about that "spool gun" tho . . . :-)

As I said above it's for aluminum wire which can't be pushed
down a ten foot tube like the steel can . . like poking a 
noodle up your nose . .

They put a motor driven spool right in the hand grip and mount
a 1 pound spool of aluminum weld wire right there above your hand.

"How much for all the munificent toys"? . .! you cry . .  :-)

$1800 including the wussey electric helmet . . $200 and change 
for that toy . . an extra argon tank and the "spool gun"
Dick never pays retail . . .

So we have to do some aluminum stuff just to get the burrs off
the equipment . .  :-)

Guys down at the end (industrial complex)want a  case welded with the
gussets under #2 main . . (#3 piston) 

Dick ran off a welded coupon of case material . .  
What the last says, is that they cut a piece right out of a case
in the area where the weld would be and Dick then welded a gusset
of aluminum to it, just like it would be in the case . .

It was a very cold weld . . they broke it with their hands. . . 
very little penetration. . . . but it looked real good . . :-)

We talked about the weld wire alloy . . I told him it is a pretty
good bet that something in the pure aluminum 3003 class . .

He didn't know what the case was made of, alloy wise, so he 
couldn't even ask . . . "ask what?" you say . .  :-)

There are at least 3 aluminum weld wires I can get in my little 
hick town . . there are no doubt many more available on request.

Those 3 wires are to handle all welding jobs of aluminum nature
yada yada . . it's like having 3 pills for all ailments. . . .

 
So having a mind of keen sharpness, I couldn't remember the alloy
in the case and had to come all the way home . .

The alloy for the case is AS 41 and that one run of AS 21's

Stopped at "Pacific Air-Gas" or what on the way back down to Dick's . .
This is a place referred to in "gear-speak" as your "FLWSS".
(Friendly Local Welding Stuff Store)

Julie . . she don't know a lot about it but she doesn't pretend
either . . I tell her the alloy and what we're doing and she goes
and looks in her little handbook of alloys and recomendations.

I can't tell how that statement about Julie is read . . she's the 
good guy . . at the other end of town is another weld shop . .
The guy read a few safety sheets and has become a Nazi . .
A fat lip would probably cure him but that wouldn't be "politically
correct" would it . ?

We decide that the "E4043" wire is the closest to what our base
alloy is . . turns out to be what Dick had in the gun . .
That's an ego "we" . . Julie told me and I accepted . . :-)

End of story . . I told Dick to get a stove in there . .

That's about the size of it, get an old electric stove that the 
burners still work on . . . . . preheat to about 350 at least and
then do the welding . . I like 400 better but it burns my gloves.

Oh, he's using an Argon/helium mix, makes a pretty surface . .

The other area that has to be addressed is cleanliness . .
To get a mil-spec weld you have to send your part thru the same
cleaning process you would a plated part . .

Those old cases are full of oil right down in the pores . .
He'll have to get that area to be welded hot enough to burn out
all the oil residue and the wire brush and caustic etch the area.

Second end of story . . just a tale to show how you go about this.

In the event that none  of it works out, I'll just deny like a 
President . . . :-)

 west

Ps . . 3 days later: it works . .  :-)