welding aluminum to steel... i seen it here 7 years ago

7 years ago when i was new here there was a post about welding aluminum to steel that had a link to a company that sold these welding rods with videos of some kind of new alloy gas welding rods that could weld aluminum to steel for real.
no joke, laugh if u want, but it was for real. any older hambers know what site i`m talking about?

 

No !!!

 

JB Weld will do it.....do they sell JB in a rod form?

 

It is like a bunyon remedy as seen on TV. Its snake oil my friend.

I have seen it at county fairs as well. I just don't believe it is for real or there would be shops around the country doing it.

 

Steel would "warm" as the AL melted away...sounds as though it would be a challenge.

 

ALUMINUM MELTS AT 1400* STEEL AT 2600 * TO 2800* SO YOU TELL ME ? HOW CAN THIS BE TRUE ???

 

The only way to weld steel to aluminum is with a special transition piece that is bonded with a special process. You weld the steel side to the steel and the aluminum side to the aluminum. You can do the same thing with aluminum to copper. Spur Industries in Spokane, Washington is one or the places that makes the transition pieces. They are not cheap but work great.

Any other process is pure snake oil.

 

Well believe it or not, I have welded BRASS to steel with a stick welder. I was working at a John Deere dealer and the backhoe boom slides had brass wear strips. We used a "brass" welding rod to weld them to the steel boom. Well after I left John Deere I heard they changed the wear strips to aluminum and had some type of welding rod to weld them on with. Now, I never saw this so it may be BS. But on the other hand 20 years ago I never heard of arc welding brass to steel, so....

 

Some sales men came into the shop at United Air lines once and showed me an aluminum bar that had been friction welded to a steel bar and then bent 90 degrees at the weld. The whole thing had been turned on the OD .I would have to guess there was a lot of distortion at the joint before turning. But i did see it.

 

look up explosion welding on the net. a process for joining dissimilar metals. common to see steel ears on tailgates of aluminum trailer dumps

 

I know you can't weld steel and aluminum together,but how does Cragar weld the SS mags together? The center is cast aluminum and the hoop is steel.

 

Google up 'friction stir' welding:

 

"HEY" THIS IS DAMNED INTERESTING !

 

I have an aircraft metal fab. book from the '50's. Written by a Col. who must have never got his hands dirty. There is a drawing showing alum. ribs welded to steel tubing. When I bought it, a friend said, never trust a book written by a col. He was right.

 

years ago mitsubishi was working on this,,,,

 

Hmmm... aluminum welded to steel??? Sounds like that lead into gold thing they used to tout in the middle ages. Alchemy my friend, pure alchemy.

 

The guys delve into the theory of it and one man proves it to be a fallacy i believe... http://weldingweb.com/showthread.php?t=10335

 

Mazda was using it back in 2005...

http://www.mazda.com/publicity/release/2005/200506/050602.html

Rich

 

They set steel welding tabs into the mold before they are poured

 

I can weld a cat's ass to a telephone pole & Copper to steel
Steel to aluminum? Not direct but a transition piece.

 

I've seen copper plate bonded to stainless steel plate, using this method. Used for transition pieces in electron beam welding.

 

My ET mag wheels I have had on 4 seperate cars over 40 years are a steel rim welded to a aluminum center must have 200 thousand miles on em by now.

 

Vicky I like your welding pallete! Friction welding possibly, on assembling wheels, ears that are cast or pressed into the Al, sure.

 

isnt that rod made by muggy weld
bonds al,copper,brass bronze ,steel pot metal on and on
seen it at sema show, actually bought some

 

Have the muggy weld stuff too. It's brazing, not really welding.

http://www.muggyweld.com/?view=home

 

yea it is like brazing BUT i tried to twist the pcs apart ,no way i beat the hell out of it bmf hammer still no luck , works real good

 

Years ago when I was building tuna boats in San Diego the shell was steel but the wheel house and crew quarters were made of aluminum. We had a 1/2" x 4" bar that was half alum and half steel. You could see a 45 degree joint in the middle of the bar where it had been exploded together. The steel side was welded to the deck and the house was droped down and welded to the alum side. I was told it was pretty expensive but fairly common and easy to order.

 

I have been working in the aluminum industry for over 20 yrs and have built aluminum to steel transition joints....i guarantee they arent welded!!!

 

Weld ....with the exception of explosion welding, no...However you could use sili-bronze...

 

Aladdin also makes a rod for joining aluminum to copper, brass, bronze, etc but it isn't welding it's soldering. Generaly the difference between welding, brazing, and soldering is with the temperature range. Applications requiring temperatures less than 840 degrees are considered soldering. Brazing applications start at 840 degrees. Welding is the joining of two metals by applying heat or pressure to produce localized union or acrossed the interface. The Aladdin low temp solder will work well for the aluminum to copper. They also have a 3 in 1 rod that works great on white metal die cast, aluminum, galvanized, etc. I've used the 3 in 1 rod to put thin pieces of sheet metal and aluminum as well as thin wall tubing and aluminum together, but I won't say it was a welded joint, it was more of a soldered joint and did work for the OT RC stuff I was building. Best of all it's made in Michigan!!!