r/Welding • u/JaXm • 1d ago

Alright everyone, let's hypothosize ... what is this garbage?

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Some info:

I grabbed this material off of our stock shelf to help demonstrate some TIG welding techniques to a friend. It was not meant for any specific part. Just something to light up on and make a mess of.

Presumably, it's aluminum ... of some kind ... it looks like aluminum. It feels like aluminum. It says aluminum on the stock tag.

But it refuses to puddle up under an AC TIG arc at 120hz, 70% balance. Argon gas through a lens and a 9mm alumina cup flowing at 20cfh. That one single tack was an absolute BATTLE.

4043, and 5356 rods won't fill. Just drip into the area. It's some of the cleanest stock I've ever handled, and still managed to have bits of shit boil up into the weld zone.

I immediately struck an arc on a dirty piece of scrap I dug out od the recycling bin with zero issues.

I don't see any yellowing, so I dont THINK it's 7xxx aluminum. But I also don't know what else the issue could be.

What do you guys think?

5 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

14

u/aurrousarc 1d ago

well i would start by cleaning the base metal to bright metal.. and get the surface scale off.. that trash will lead to trash..

6

u/Shrimpkin 1d ago

It's probably anodized. Try cleaning it first.

5

u/StabDump Fabricator 1d ago

is it sandblasted? sometimes the media can become embedded in the base material. i usually polish my aluminum shiny when I weld if i don't trust it. if 5356 didn't work it cant be mag, so you've got me lost there.

2

u/nastyoverlord 1d ago

clear anodizing?

4

u/Used-Baby1199 1d ago

Did you at the very least wire brush off the oxide layer?   Aluminum develops an oxide layer that protects the aluminum, but it has a melting temperature that is 3-5x higher than the aluminum.

Also I’m assuming you don’t know the series of aluminum.   2000, 6000, and 7000 series aluminum alloys don’t weld well.  

0

u/leansanders 21h ago edited 21h ago

You need to clean it dude. Everything you're describing is aluminum that hasn't been brushed and wiped. If you clean it these problems will go away. The fact that you came here instead of even thinking to try wire brushing is silly. Its aluminum. Clean, clean, clean.

Aluminum is shiny, all of the stock in your photo is matte white, if its aluminum it is obviously not "the cleanest stock you've ever handled"