All aluminum hanger-Frankenhanger

Nice! I weld, too, but haven’t given any thought to PE devices in metal. I’ve been looking for an excuse so buy a TIG welder. Hmm….. :)

Yeah, metalwork/fabrication is the shizzle. Anybody can mig weld (pull the trigger) but GTAW (tig) is a whole new adventure. Then when you get to aluminum, it’s pretty simple-but completely different than working with non ferrous metals.

An interesting thing I noticed is that some of the professional women at the hospital where I work seem a little turned on by the thought of a guy doing metalworking & welding. One said that it indicated “positive toolbelt factor”, something she looks for in a man. I wonder what she’d say if she knew that we were making weiner stretchers. :)

RBM

Excellent work T4M!
I have a fair bit of experience with Mig welding (and I agree, once you know how to set up the machine, pull the trigger and weld away), but not TIG. Seems like a great reason to buy a TIG welder I think :D

All you need to do now is highly polish it. Bling-Bling!

Sweet!

I’ve heard (from some professional welders) and read what a bitch aluminum welding can be. Aluminum oxide has a much higher melting temp than pure aluminum, so everything has to be cleaned properly and kept clean. It also doesn’t change in color as it heats up, which makes working it at the right temp more difficult. Your welds look great. Very impressive. I haven’t done much welding, but I know enough to see you did an excellent job. I probably would have ended up with a glob of molten mess on the floor.

Question: would brazing be strong enough to hold the ends on such a hanger? More hobbyists could handle that than actually welding aluminum.

I remember seeing a demo from some guys selling brazing rod at a gun or gold show years ago where they brazed two stacked beer cans together. It struck me as being a sturdy bond, but I don’t know how tough it is compared to an actual weld.

Sorry, for the slow response. Yes, brazing would/should be more than strong enough. Tig welding is some what like brazing, the difference in the two being the heat source. Tig welding utilizes a tungsten arc to heat and penetrate the solids. Brazing uses a flame.

Would something like this work?

I suppose it would, I myself have no experience with this type of product. I have seen a product similar to this demo-d on TV via an info- mercial. They repaired a prop (from a boat) that had a large piece completely missing. They just kept adding rod to fill in the the gaping notch. Then ground, with a grinder-it ended up looking like new. The key I think to using products like these, is just like in welding /brazing. TEMPERATURE is the key, the base material absolutely has to be brought up to temp. before the two molten materials can fuse.

I saw that too. I saw a guy do similar things at a flea market. I believe he did stress preheating the material before brazing. It’s worth trying. What size tubing did you use?

I saw the same stuff being demo’d at a very large car show/swap meet and nearly bought some, but I was carrying some fairly heavy car parts as it was & had a long walk back to the car. I remember thinking that while they called it “welding” it looked like it was really brazing. They probably tied the welding name to it so that people would think it was super-strong. Not necessary since (from what I’ve read) brazing can result in some very strong bonds, too.

I like to think of brazing as the ultimate hot glue gun. :)

RBM