Alumiweld

[Dave]

While shopping for 7018 and 7024 welding rods, I ran across these rods that supposedly weld aluminum. Any body ever tried these rods? The instrucions say to use a propane torch.

[rcavictim]

Those are a low melting temperature aluminum alloy and when used you don`t actually melt the base metals together so it isn`t welding per se but brazing.  Very useful for brazing aluminum beer cans together which is how the fellow in the booth who is flogging this product at many trade shows/fairs often demonstrates how they work.  They have limited applications and cannot replace real aluminum welding on heavier jobs.

[hotater]

Dave--

Alumiweld is, as already said, more of a flea market sales gimmic.

Rockmount Research and Alloys (800) ARC-RODS  has "Neptune A" which is a true aluminum arc rod that takes some special techniques to use but does a great job.  It ALSO doubles as an aluminmum 'solder' much like Alumiweld that can be use with a torch of light jobs.

If you're welding the wings on your airplane I'd suggest something better.   

[biobill]

Dave,
  While 'taters rods sound better, I've had good results with the Alumiweld sticks. No way to guage the tensile but I've used them to fab brackets, plumbing, even an intake manifold. Never had a failure. 'Course a mig or tig would have been easier.

Jack
  Will those Neptunes run in a normal DC welder?
                                                                              Bill

[hotater]

Bill--

Yes, at about a hundred amps for 1/8". 

Neptune A is odd stuff.  It runs perfectly perpendicular to the (flat only) work and very close stringer beads only.  The flux is highly hydroscopic and the sticks need to be oven dried before each use, but it's the closest to TIG/MIG I've ever seen on aluminmum and most of it's alloys.
 THere's also a Neptune- M, fluxed-cored mig wire for small gass-less machines.

<Former salesman, present user, firm believer....no financial gain...bs ad in finitum...>

[rcavictim]

I accidentally over-torqued #4 injector on my VW diesel in my power plant and cracked the eyebrow of outer half of the threads completely off the head.  OOPS!     I thought the `click` I heard was the heat shield seating.  Nope. 

After cleaning the area with a die grinder I was able to weld the piece back on using an injector to align the threads with the head on the engine using that aluminum, flux coated DC arc welding rod.  That stuff really saved my ass.