What did you do to your rig today?

[Greynomad]

Thanks, Dot,
We'll be in touch.
Might even return via Strathalbyn if you're back by late September...

[Dot]

Thanks, Dot,
We'll be in touch.
Might even return via Strathalbyn if you're back by late September...

Won't be home then Ray , not unless the court case is ready for verdict or sentencing

[T1 Terry]

Have a great trip you two you will love it over there We are stopped at Underbool having lunch and G had to get on the roof to make some adjustment to the sat dish, all those strong winds shoved something a tad off centre !!(no not my brain) don't like this road, too many trucks with animals in them going to a place I don't like Cloudy / overcast but not too bad..

I'm just about over travelling that way, the road is so up and down with nonsense 80km/h corners every few kms thrown in we did the road out through Sedan this time, a much better trip and only 20km longer to the Balranald road house on the Sturt Hwy.

[native pepper]

Just begun making new frames for the bus solar panels and new awnings out of aluminum angle to put 1000w on it. I'm going to do it by brassing them together rather than weld and see how it goes, never brassed aluminum so it will be interesting to see how it goes and will post some photo's if it works. Much cheaper than welding and according to my mate, easier.

[jon_d]

Becareful of the heat,

The ali will draw it away and when its ready to 'melt' it all does.

[native pepper]

Yep pretty aware of that, however the brassing rods melt at well below the aluminum and intend do a number of trial runs with off cuts to see how it goes. The 9 rods and S/S brush only cost $20, so can afford to experiment with them, if not will go back to welding them. The cost of argon and it's accessibility where I live, makes it very expensive to use.

[T1 Terry]

Yep pretty aware of that, however the brassing rods melt at well below the aluminum and intend do a number of trial runs with off cuts to see how it goes. The 9 rods and S/S brush only cost $20, so can afford to experiment with them, if not will go back to welding them. The cost of argon and it's accessibility where I live, makes it very expensive to use.

If you use a solid piece of copper as backing, you can use oxy and aluminium filler rod, just keep the tip of the rod in the puddle. Practice of some scrap till you are confident, but the results are quite surprising. There are also soldering rod available that melt below the aluminium melting point yet create a bond stronger than the mating aluminium sections. Again, copper blocks is the secret, the aluminium and aluminium soldering material will not stick to the copper but will support a good bead and hold the heat in the joint to stop fracturing caused by rapid cooling.

[native pepper]

Thanks for that, have the soldering rods and tried them yesterday, but to windy and cold outside and the flame kept going out. Those little throw away gas bottles don't seem to handle being upside down for long, so am making an attachment to go on a 9kg bottle. Normally use a tg/mig for aluminium, but thought I'd give this a go as it could come in handy on the road for quick repairs.

[T1 Terry]

the little gas bottles sure pump out a big flame when you turn them upside down When I've had to weld or braze or alloy solder stuff when it was cold and windy I packed the items in sand, then heated all around the area slowly working my way into the centre of the area I want to repair, that way the heat stays in the job after the repair to stop rapid cooling fractures, but it's all a suck it and see process really. When I welded the frames for my overhead cupboard in big bus it was a different shape after each join, the distortion was far greater than I'd anticipated and I ended up needing to build a steel jig to hold it all in the position I wanted it to be at the end so it was that shape when it cooled.
My next project will be TIG welded, just easier to keep the heat where it's needed and out of where it will cause problems..... hopefully.
The easiest aluminium frame work building I've done was using those plastic corner pieces in the 25mm sq tube, drill a small hole and fit a bolt to lock it in and on to the next bit, surprising just how strong yet flexible the whole structure is once completed and no weld fractures in the corner joins

[native pepper]

Think may be a blockage in the jet, tried again with a new bottle and it kept going out. Went to see my mate and he says his welds never buckle, but he is a qualified fabrication engineer and seems to be able to join any bit of metal together. All he did was laugh at me and said, keep trying and it will finally work. Do prefer TIG, much easier to work with but don't really want to take a tig with me on the road and am beginning to use aluminium more and more for weight and ease of use. Just bought a dual cab tipper so can now collect large aluminium sheets and angles, rather than having to cut 6m into 2-3 pieces and have a big sheet hanging out of the trailer. It will make it so much easier to make the new panel and awning frames, without having to weld them back together.

Gas is so expensive for mig/tig, even a C bottle is ridiculously expensive down here. they have a new thing, you buy the bottle and never have to pay for rental, just swap it over. Cancelled my gas account and going to get one next week, you save about 1/3 as a "C" does me for a long time.

d