I purchased a pound of AL435 aluminum stick welding rod a couple of
weeks ago, just to futz around with. Today I got it out and played
with it.

The stuff WORKS. Rather amazing how well it works. But damn it burns
fast.

Electrode positive, about 50 amps, and I was fillet and butt welding
scrap pieces of 6061 T6 (3/8" plate) with no preheat and getting
surprisingly good penetration and fill.

While Im not sure Id want to fly in an airplane welded by me, with
this stuff, its more than suitable for putting Stuff together with.
As fast as it burns, I stitch welded a pair of 1" welds in fillet and
a 1" weld on the backside of a L assembly of 3/8 plate..then beat the
snot out of it with a 2lb hammer. The assembly was Very deformed
before the welds started to fail and examination showed deep
penetration into the parent metal.

Slag was quickly removed with a wire brush in just a couple swipes.
The rod smells distinctly different when burning. Actually kinda
pleasant smelling G.

An odd property, at least to me, a newbie, was too much heat simply
melted the rod and did very little to the parent material. It simply
flowed over the plate like braze, with little penetration.

For those of you who do not have a TIG machine and need to weld up
aluminum, all you need for rough welding, is a DC welding machine .
Ill be using more of this stuff in the future. At 50 amps for the
smaller rod, this stuff could be used by somone with one of the cheapy
Harbor Freight machines, as long as it has DC. I didnt think to try it
with AC, but I will. The data sheet spec'd DC Positive, so thats
what I ran.

Gunner



Come shed a tear for Michael Moore-
Though he smirked and lied like a two-bit whore
George Bush has just won another four.
Poor, sad little Michael Moore

Diogenes