Welding

Topic: Welding (Read 896 times) previous topic - next topic

Welding

December 01, 2014, 06:33:48 PM

I have been welding for 50 years all kind. But yesterday a friend of mine wanted a O2 fitting welded in his engine pipe on his ranchero. So out comes the MIG and i drilled the hole and tried to weld it to the pipe. Well to my surprise no dice. The flame was so bright and the welds were py. So what happened. I accomplished the task but one of the worst welding jobs i have ever done, The Shielding gas was on and the heat was correct. My buddy is a welder and he said those old engine piper were aluminized and do not take to welding. Any experience with this. I am pissed at Myself for doing a bad job on that thing. Opinions gentlemen

Welding

Reply #1 – December 01, 2014, 09:53:08 PM

Aluminized steel needs to be mildly surface ground to remove the zinc or aluminized coating. Otherwise it's hard to get a good weld and you have to pile layers of melted wire in order to get any kind of seal. The fumes also are nasty, health-wise. I've also had difficulty welding pipe, since the air still comes in from the back side where the shielding gas doesn't penetrate/shield. Perhaps some dry ice down the pipe before welding? This will at least displace the air that is killing any kind of good mig weld. :)

Welding

Reply #2 – December 02, 2014, 05:24:25 AM

That just might be the issue. Well the guy is doing the top end in the spring along with headers, The engine pipes are obsolete so when he brings back the car in the spring i am going to experiment with the pipes. In the 50 years welding this was an eye opener for sure. Thanks