Welding aluminum - advice.

[Brainsquishy]

Hey guys, hope someone can assist.
I have developed and patent protected a new product that I am now scaling up for mass production. Part of the manufacturing process uses a form to contain a "bag" that we inject with foam. The form we may use is made out of aluminum as the quote we got for steel forms was too high and ships from overseas making delivery too long as well. The form is about 4'x4' and spaced 7/8" between the two sides. We are making a type of board. I need to do some customizing to the "concrete" forms to make them work for the operation. That customizing will require plasma cutting and welding so I can trim it and add in our hardware for fast cycling. The design of my casting system is pretty cool I would say and I will need to make about 100 of them (forms) to meet my production requirements. I wanted to use steel as I already taught myself how to cut and weld it. I have never worked with aluminum.

Is it easy or hard?
Will my plasma cutter do the job of neat slicing aluminum?
I have a 110v mig welder from Princess Auto that I can attach a shielding gas to, will it be big enough or do I need to upsize?

Thanks.

[Cal25]

I have wanted to try welding aluminum myself. I understand that besides the special mig wire, that you need straight Argon as the sheilding gas. Your small machine should do fine on aluminum I would think.

[katoranger]

You will need a spool gun for the aluminum welding wire. I don't know if your princess auto unit will be up to the task.

Never welding aluminum before, but seen it done numerous times. Not sure if a plasma cutter is the way to go either. Never seen one used on aluminum.

We always used a band saw to cut aluminum tubing and angle and one of the welders made it stay together.

I made these. All the panels and trim was done be me.
http://www.broadwayequipment.com/Rollover.asp

[waynev]

I've done both TIG and MIG on aluminum, i like TIG better but for the quantity you are building i'd go MIG, IMHO that PA welder isn't going to cut it, i'd suggest a Miller in the 180-250A range and get the aluminum spool gun for it.

since i always think outside of the box i will throw this in, how bout not welding at all, get your sheets and drill holes along the edge, get some 7/8" x whatever width you need and bolt them together, no welding needed and if you can use your cnc plasma to drill the holes in the sheets it will be gravy work.

EDIT, the above is for the forms, are you saying you have the forms already and just need to modify them?, if so never mind the above.

[Brainsquishy]

Hey katoranger, nice project.

I didn't think the little welder I have would have had the power needed for the thick aluminum.
Waynev, I was thinking of modifying existing concrete forms as they are already proven for flex resistance and have accessories we need. However, I know they will cost me about 30-35 dollars a sq ft and each unit will require about 32 sqft (4'x4' on each side).
If I could get someone to copy a sample of the existing form, that could be a viable option and I would assume much cheaper than buying new off a form salesman. I could likely do a mod on an existing form, but don't have the time myself to do a total fabrication. Plus I'm not really a welder, just trying to launch an couple of awesome new products without the right amount of start-up money. Oh, the first order is for 30,000 boards.

[katoranger]

Is there a welding/fab shop that you could contract with to build them for you? Might be a more practical solution than in house building.

[Weldangrind]

Aluminum is a fickle mistress.

X2 on the band saw. Plasma cutting leaves a flame cut, although much less rough than oxy / acetylene. Sometimes you can't use a band saw, like when you need to remove a section in the middle of a piece; in that case I use a non-ferrous thin cut-off disc in a 4 1/2" grinder.

X2 on the Miller 180 Auto-set; it's a fine machine that can drive an economical spool gun, and it's suitable for light industrial work. TIG creates a much nicer weld, but the TIG process is cumbersome by comparison (not to mention spendy).

[lego1970]

I don't know much about welding but I'm very interested in hearing about your invention. Back in the early 90's I had three ideas that I submitted to Ford. Two of them never made it, but I did see a valve assembly almost identicle to mine in a sportbike mag a few years ago. Also, I came up with a way to compress hydrogen to 13,000lbs with almost zero energy consumed, but it's a massive undertaking to do so. Ran the idea by a couple engineers and they said it would work, just probably not cost effective.

Anyway, sorry for rambling but I'm always fascinated with somebody unlocks a puzzle to a problem. Good luck and let us see the final product when your done.

[Brainsquishy]

Pics of the forms I would like to mod or "duplicated", or maybe better said, use as a starting point. The finished size would be 48"x48" with one corner cutoff at a 45 degree angle which is inset 4" into the corner. We use that as the filler corner. The two finished (smooth) sides are faced with HDPE sheet (non-stick) and spaced 7/8" apart.

http://chinariders.net/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=11349&g2_serialNumber=2

http://chinariders.net/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=11354&g2_serialNumber=2

see: http://www.wallties.com/88_concrete_forms.htm

I thought to ask you guys about this as so many of us here at chinariders enjoy these challenges. I would love to discuss this product in the forum, but I am always trying to keep information about me off the net. Its all about security of my family etc. I can PM the links to the website for this product as we are selling it now. Fun Fun Fun!
lego1970, I love discussing projects like these and love it when the underdog wins?[/url]