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 then 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 . . :-)