Tig Welded Aluminun Cage ???

[blazed]

Originally Posted by CoreyK

You cant tack weld aluminum with a mig. At least i dont think you can. A mig is made for welding steel and other metals liek that. Not aluminum.

all you have to do is change out the spool and gas, to weld alum

['83 chevy]

Originally Posted by blazed

all you have to do is change out the spool and gas, to weld alum

i tryed the aluminum wire in my miller and all it would do is kink in the hose

[blazed]

do you have your gun strait or is it got a roll in it? dose your in case-(i cant rember the corect name right now) need to be replaced? i got down with alum to from a mig a it was preety

[Muddinguy]

I im gona go with 3/16's Steel tube. and MIG it together.. I was looking at HULK's Moon buggy project and his welds turned out preatty good..

[rckjeep]

Originally Posted by blazed

all you have to do is change out the spool and gas, to weld alum

That's not true. My mig will not do aluminum. It depends on the machine. I think you need a Miller 210 or maybe 220 to wled both metals. My 175 won't do it.

As for a tubing vs. rod tubing is stronger because you are bending four plains vs two. But brake line is annealed to make it easy to bend. I use 1/4" DOM or 1/4" 4130 for my tube projects and I always stand on the chassis and bounce a little to test the strength. If my 200 lbs *** won't even flex the frame I know it's good to go. I wouldn't try that with a brakeline chassis.

[dhoffroad]

your welder "can" do aluminum.....all it will take is $1,200 for a spool gun adn controler to hook up to your welder...LOL...

DOM or chromo for a RC now that's taking it serious.....

[Muddinguy]

Originally Posted by dhoffroad

your welder "can" do aluminum.....all it will take is $1,200 for a spool gun adn controler to hook up to your welder...LOL...

DOM or chromo for a RC now that's taking it serious.....

or if you have access to a welding lab like we do you can go in and use brand new water cooled TIG welders

[blazed]

Originally Posted by Muddinguy

or if you have access to a welding lab like we do you can go in and use brand new water cooled TIG welders

man those are sweet

[peej410]

i used 5/16 304 stainless .020 wall. my 11 pound rig fell off a 9 foot tall rock and landed one inch worth of the front end of the frame and it dented it a little bit. i tig welded it myself (not an easy task but doable) the frame did dent in the fall but it gives it character. the only problem with the 5/16ths is that its too big to look scale but i wasnt that concerned. also one thing to keep in mind is that some people on this site build much smaller crawlers than others. a 2.2 (from what ive seen) is usually half the size of a maxx crawler or similar. so if you havent picked the tube yet consider the stainless, its better than painting heres how mine looks.

[blazed]

how do you hold the tig when you did that tubing? i hold it like a pen and free hand it how bout you?

[peej410]

i always free hand, i just wrap the cable one wrap around my arm so i dont have to fight the weight of it and hold it similar to a pen.

[blazed]

good thats the easyst way. i was doing that today, but w/o gloves ive gat the prints burned off my typeing finger, i type one fingered

[peej410]

haha i dont use gloves either just pay attention to how hot everything gets lol

[dotson]

im building mine right now just like that