How to TIG weld aluminum beverage cans together

[honeybunchickens]

good job on the welding

[IcEcOlDkIlLa0601]

Welding Al needs AC current, which has its own cleaning action. I weld with my schools TIG welders and I have never preped the Al before welding since you can set the balance farely well.

[bigdaddy63978]

not to bad..

[landlockedviking]

very well done , thanks!

[jwwelder07]

I noticed that your having an erratic arc when you start to weld the reason being is when you weld aluminum you should ball up the end of your tungsten and maybe use a pure tungsten electrode to get a better result of weld bead. Thanks.

[evangelon2]

hi, I picked up a Super200P last month Getting ready to fire it up this weekend for the first time. I've heard that they can be problematic. Overall how has the machine treated you? What are the most common problems you've run into? (I imagine you can set the spark gap with a spark plug feeler gauge if you knew the proper gap) thanks for showing your settings!

[hrlawrh103]

how about not using paper towel with your acetone, cleanliness is critical for any load critical jobs, not cans i admit. try using pure cotten lint free cloth like for spray painting prep

[WDZaphod]

Thanks for this! Just learning how to weld, and I'm really impressed abt. what you do!

[thewelderdude]

Instead of the rare earth blends, try a 2% Lanthanated electrode. They will take more abuse than all the other types of electrodes and work awesome on AC and DC.

[RatkoUSA]

The best explanation of TIG I've seen yet.

[JuryDutySummons]

Awesome. I always figured that metal like that was too thin to weld by hand.

[loserspwn420]

and btw love the video never thought of practicing on aluminum cans, robotics team is starting up soon and im shooting for the welders position. thanks!

[loserspwn420]

what material is the filler rod made of?

[Barnekkid]

Very interesting. 

[TexasWhitetails1]

10:56 to skip the bullshit and get to the welding

[Just1Spark]

Genius welding table! A table saw! Thanks! I have a junk one laying around. Didnt even think of it!

[geweldigaum]

I like how you have an obviously well equipped shop and yet your welding table is a table saw.

[SuperMrAusten]

3 flow meters??? why

[DjViOd]

So this is essentially soldering but more difficult.

[preston9019]

whats the point of welding cans? practice? fun?

[kentarjoon]

OMG i fell asleep five times!! trying to watch dis!!!!

[thewelderdude]

compared to all of the cheap "made in china" welders out there, Everlast is pretty close to top of the line. They have some nice stuff.

[helicrashpro]

I have heard those machines suck. Not sure how cheap they are but does not seam like they are worth the cost savings. If you are wanting a cheap tig welder I have heard (have not used one myself) that the everlast welders are pretty decent.

[bkraz333]

@helicrashpro This is an "Everlast" welder. Check google images. The yellow paint indicates their older model. I wouldn't say it sucks, since it does weld quite well, but yeah build quality is typical of cheap import tools.

[G30360]

@bkraz333 Wow, great job! Also great explanation of what your doing/why your doing it. Lots of good advice in this video.Please come and check out my videos. I have 2 videos welding Coke cans together (one is me and the other is YouTube user S1773) you may find it interesting.

[AntiProtonBoy]

Those who are interested in this kind of stuff, also check the "weldingtipsandtricks" channel on youtube. Jody, the bloke who runs the channel, filmed a ton of excellent tutorials on this subject.

[G30360]

@AntiProtonBoy Dont forget me! the original TIG welding of Coke can video on the internet! LOL

[KiloSierraAlpha]

Ben, have you tried welding titanium? Is it the same thing as Al?

[bkraz333]

@KiloSierraAlpha Titanium is more reactive than aluminum and requires very good shield gas coverage. I believe most titanium is welded inside a "glove box" or similar chamber that allows the parts to be completely surrounded by argon. I've never tried it, but the best approach for hobbyists would be to buy a cheap sandblasting cabinet, and seal it up, then fill with argon.

[KiloSierraAlpha]

@bkraz333 Thanks for the info!!!

[lexichronicle2]

@bkraz333 That's right. I've seen people TIG welding titanium bikes etc in the open air. It works, but it isn't the best. There's a good paper about it somewhere from the nuclear and aerospace agency (not in a journal, amazingly) where in they demonstrate all the phase changes going on in the structure and contamination by oxides and nitrogen - even when using the correct cup and argon.

[2WildRazn]

@bkraz333 no it doesnt have to be in a glove box 

[hitachi088]

Wow, those welding machine are awsome! too bad they cost like thousands and thousands...

[lexichronicle2]

@hitachi088 You can get the lesser known brands for less. If you only want DC (for stainless) that's lots cheaper. To be honest, unless you want to make bikes other such super light stuff, DC is all you need. For science, most parts are stainless.

[frac]

You're on your way to making the worlds most rugged solar heater panel.

[pattymatic]

Did anyone else start thinking "Thunder Struck" when he said AC/DC?

[blueshadow1996]

that is a great vid man,,I like the welder

[mikelboi87]

Great video! I would love to see more videos like this.

[cyrex686]

Wow, that's amazing you can weld something that thin.

[Zagroseckt]

Thank you for putting out this video. To date it's the best one i've seen that shows the puddle and the weld as you would from behind the mask...

[JumperOneTV]

Thanks a lot for putting out this video! I have never tried TIG welding before, so it's really interesting for me :)

[morto360]

So the high voltage is basically only to heat up the part, while the gas keep air away.. is that all?

[hitachi088]

@morto360 i dont know TIG, but i am pretty sure they only use noble gas to protect the heated part from oxydising (<- dont know how to write that, anyway).

[lexichronicle2]

@morto360 A high voltage & high frequency is used to start the arc, it generates a spark to jump the gap. Once the spark has started, the power supply switches the high frequency / high voltage off and switches to low voltage, high current - as it's the current that generates the heat. These AC sets also have controls for many, many other functions, like wave balance, frequency, duty cycles, pulsing, micropulsing etc. The gas is argon (inert) to keep the air away though, yes.

[morto360]

@lexichronicle2 so basically you could use an soldering iron in a vacuum chamber and it work too?

[lexichronicle2]

@morto360 Provided the iron gets hot enough, yep. There are actually soldering rods available for soldering aluminium airframes with gas torches for people who build or repair their own light aircraft.

Quite often, if something is critical enough that it's going in a vacuum chamber, the welding will be done by an electron beam. An electron gun, like the one in the back of a CRT TV, shoots the electrons at the joint so hard that it melts - it is a very clean and precise heat source.

[TheCrazyInventor]

Well, that looks easy enough. But then again, so do other welding techniques, until you really do it yourself... Cool video, thanks for showing us. :)

[bladder1010]

Very interesting. It almost looks like soldering, though obviously it's not.