Welding aluminum...

[jondee86]

Looking to get some supercharger ducting fabricated, and need
to know how easy/hard it is to weld 2mm tubing to 12mm flanges ?

If I need to use thicker tube/thinner flanges, better to know now

Cheers... jondee86

[Akane]

Are you trying to weld 2mm thick tubing to a 12mm thick flange?
Shouldn't be a problem, adjust your settings to the thinner material, what process are you using? TIG?

[jondee86]

I won't be welding it myself... just need to know if it will be
a problem for any competent TIG welder ? Tube and bends are
easy to come by in 2mm, and I would like to use 12mm flanges
so that I can dress them flat after welding (if required) Plus
decent flanges give more even clamping pressure on gaskets.

Cheers... jondee86

[Akane]

Can't see any issues with this. I had a shop welded a threaded bung that's easily 10mm thick to a 2mm Aluminium pipe for my intake temp sensor.

[touge_ae101]

Piece of piss welding to a thicker flange as it soaks quite a bit of heat and gives you way more room to make small mistakes without making a mess of it.

More important that it is virgin (or close to it) ali. Stuff with contamination and scratches can be a bitch to weld and will leave a dirty looking weld. Although for most decent welders it shouldn't be a problem and also depends on the welder itself a bit

[jondee86]

Probably fresh of the boat TradeMe 2mm bend and new 12mm plate
waterjet cut to shape. I only need one 180 deg bend to cut up so
I could get a locally formed one from Ullrich if quality was an issue
with the TM ones.

Cheers... jondee86

[Crucible]

Wont be a problem, extrusion is generally easier/ cleaner to weld than cast. Id weld it on around 130 to 150amps max.

Re pm, Im out of action for a short while as I dont have room in the new workplace to set my tig up so cant help at presant sorry

[evil_si]

Easy as

[jondee86]

Sweet... so no worries there. One other thing, if I want to match
mark the parts to show how they line up, what is the best kind of
marker to use ? I know that some things interfere with the weld...
so is a felt tip pen (VIVID marker) OK ?

Cheers... jondee86

[evil_si]

A black marker or vivid is fine