When the need arises for welding work, it is impossible to do without electrodes. Today, the market offers a huge range of welding electrodes of various types. However, situations often arise when you urgently need to apply a seam, but there are no suitable consumables for welding at hand. In this case, you can make electrodes with your own hands from steel wire.
Required materials and tools
To make welding electrodes with your own hands at home, you will need the following materials:
- a coil of steel wire with a diameter of 2-3 mm;
- liquid glass (silicate glue);
- powdered chalk or limestone.
You can purchase these materials at a hardware store. No special tools or equipment are required for constructing electrodes; all the elements necessary for this homemade product are accessible and almost always at hand.
Depending on the chosen method of drying homemade electrical conductors, you will also need a clothesline with clothespins or an electric oven. To test the resulting workpieces, you will also need an inverter (welding) machine.
Selection of electrodes for welding aluminum products, their features and characteristics
Welding elements made of low-melting metals can be compared in labor intensity to refractory metals. The first and second ones are influenced not only by internal, but also by external factors.
Electrodes for aluminum include various additive materials, which simplifies working with this non-ferrous metal and creates additional protection.
But they are not able to relieve the welder of all the preliminary aspects that must be resolved before starting the welding operation.
Aluminum rods are widely used not only in industrial enterprises, but also in everyday life - a garage, a country house, a small repair shop.
However, using them at home to connect parts with an inverter, you may encounter certain difficulties. And only correctly selected surfacing material and preliminary preparation will help to qualitatively connect the structure.
How to make it yourself
After all the materials have been prepared, you can proceed directly to the process of manufacturing welding electrodes:
- Prepare the wire. To do this, level the low-carbon steel and cut it into rods 25-35 cm long. The exact length is selected individually, depending on the characteristics of the welding machine and personal preferences.
- Prepare chalk powder. Grind the chalk so that it turns into a fine powder with a uniform structure. This can be done either manually or using a blender.
- Prepare the coating mixture. Combine well-crushed chalk and liquid glass or silicate glue. Mix the ingredients well until you get a homogeneous mass. There is another option, without preparing the coating. In this case, first dip a steel rod into liquid glass, and then immediately sprinkle it well with crushed chalk. Silicate glue can be applied using a regular paint brush. In this case, you need to leave the upper end of the wire approximately 3-3.5 cm long dry.
- Leave the future electrode for a couple of minutes, allowing the coating to dry slightly.
- After the liquid glass has thickened, the workpiece must be hung on a clothesline or calcined in an electric oven for half an hour at a temperature of 100 degrees. During this time, the coating mixture will take up well and harden, forming a strong crust.
After the finished product has cooled down a little, it can be charged into an inverter device and used for its intended purpose.
Technical features of electrodes
The thickness of the parts to be connected is limited by the diameter of the rod, which generally ranges from 4 to 5 mm. Operations with thinner electrodes are fraught with difficulties due to the increased melting rate of the rod.
The latter melts three times faster than steel. Based on this, it is recommended to weld aluminum parts with a thickness of at least 4 mm. The produced length of 3 mm rods is 22-30 cm, 4-5 - 35-45 cm.
The main difficulties that arise during the aluminum welding process are the following factors:
- oxide film - formed on the surface of the joined elements, and the first melting temperature is more than three times higher than the melt of aluminum itself - 2,000 ° C;
- rapid oxidation of the metal leads to the formation of a refractory film, which complicates the production of a solid seam;
- to prevent metal spreading, heat-conducting pads should be used;
- the presence of silicon in aluminum alloys promotes the formation of crystallization cracks;
- if the operation is accidentally stopped, a layer of slag appears at the end of the electrode and the weld pool, making it difficult to re-ignite the arc;
- Due to the high linear expansion rate, the welding bead is deformed during its hardening.
Welding operations with aluminum will require an increase in current strength by 1.5 times compared to other metals.
The effectiveness of homemade products
Such homemade electrodes differ both in appearance and in operational characteristics from factory ones. They have a lighter color and crumble more during the welding process, but this usually does not affect the welding process in any way. When using a workpiece made of steel wire, a welding seam will be formed, however, due to the absence of slag-forming elements in the coating composition, there will be no slag, the electrode will begin to stick to the metal, and the welding process will be unstable. There is also a possibility that the conductor will not burn at all.
Thus, we can conclude that homemade welding electrodes can help out when there is no other way to make a seam. However, if possible, it is still recommended to use original electrical conductors for welding, which will help achieve a guaranteed quality result.
Features of welding aluminum at home
Anyone who has welded aluminum at least once in their life knows that this is a very difficult task. There is an oxide film on the surface of the metal, which makes the welding process difficult. Do-it-yourself aluminum welding electrodes can solve this problem.
But before you start, you need to thoroughly clean the surface. Remove contaminants and carry out comprehensive preparation of the metal for welding. This will improve the quality of the seams and they will last longer.
For high-quality welding of aluminum parts, you need a welding machine that produces direct current and is connected in reverse polarity. If you are using electrodes for aluminum arc welding, then pay attention to the current strength. This parameter should be set to a small value.
Follow our recommendations to get the job done efficiently:
- If you need to weld thick parts, then the approximate location of the seam must be properly heated before welding. This is done using a regular gas burner.
- Be sure to clean the seam of slag and pour boiling water over it.
- Once the grout has cooled, clean it again using a stiff brush. Do not disregard this advice, as remaining slag can promote corrosion.
What electrodes to use for aluminum welding
Are you interested in what aluminum electrodes exist for electric arc welding and shielding gases? Let's talk about industrial and homemade rods!
What electrodes are used to weld aluminum?
Melt coated rods:
- OZANA-1 and OZANA-2;
- OZA-1 - OZA-2;
- UANA;
- Capilla ALU 60/12 Si;
- Aluminil Si 12;
- EAL 4047;
- ALUMIN-351N;
- ZELLER 480;
- OZR - OZR-2 is best used for cutting metal.
1) OZANA-1, OZA-1, ESAB 96.10 are used for surfacing and welding of pure aluminum alloys with preheating of the metal. The process occurs on a direct current of reverse polarity. The seam is corrosion resistant.
2) OZANA-2, OZA-2, ESAB 96.50 weld silicon alloys (silumin), AL4, AL9, AL11, suitable for casting. Direct current of reverse polarity. The rods need to be calcined, and the metal needs to be heated.
3) UANA (salt coating) for aluminum casting alloys AD00, AD0, AD1, AD, AMts.
UANA operating modes
4) Capilla ALU 60/12 Si special coating for joining aluminum-silicon alloys (Al-Si, Al-Mg-Si, Al-Si-Mg-Cu). Price 2,350 rubles per 2 kg package, rod diameter 2.5 mm.
Capilla ALU 60/12 Si
5) Electrodes for aluminum Aluminil Si 12 with a special white coating for joining parts where color matching is required. They repair pipes, windows, furniture, and car parts. Cast alloys with a Si content of up to 12% - AlSi 12 (Cu), AlSi 10 Mg (Cu), AlSi 6 Cu 4. Metal thicker than 15 mm is heated before welding from 150 °C to 250 °C.
Characteristics of Aluminil Si 12
6) EAL 4047 for joining aluminum alloys:
- Al Si 12 (aluminium-silicon);
- Al Si 12 (Cu);
- Al Si 10 Mg (aluminium-magnesium-silicon);
- Al Si 10 Mg (Cu);
- Al Si 6 Cu 4.
7) ALUMIN-351N for the restoration of turbines, drifts, covers, pistons, pipes with a thickness of more than 2 mm. Weldable materials:
- Al Si 5 Mg (3.2341);
- Al Si 10 Mg (3.2381);
- Al Si 10 Mg (Cu) (3.2381);
- Al Si 12 (3.2581);
- Al Si 12 (Cu) (3.2583);
- Al Si 11;
- Al Si 9 Mg;
- Al Si 9 Cu 3;
- Al Si 7 Mg;
- Al Si 6 Cu 4.
ZELLER 480 with improved coating for electric arc welding and surfacing of aluminum, silumin, duralumin. Used to eliminate casting defects and repair engine blocks, crankcases, etc.
9) OZR-1 and OZR-2 for cutting at high speeds with the rod tilted in the opposite direction. The electrode movements are reciprocating: top-down or forward-backward. Calcination of products for 1 hour, at a temperature of 170 degrees.
Aluminum electrodes quickly absorb moisture; it is better to store them in dry places.
Tungsten electrodes for aluminum welding (non-consumable):
- WP with green tip;
- WZ-8 with white markings;
- WL-15 (golden color);
- WL-20 (blue marking),
For semi-automatic machines, wire MAL 4047, ER 4043, ER 5183, ER 5356 is used.
The price for the rods described above is decent and homemade “kulibins” make homemade electrodes for aluminum welding. At home, making rods with your own hands is not difficult. The recipe is simple:
- take aluminum wire 3-4 mm, cut into pieces 300-350 mm, sand;
- grind the chalk, combine with liquid glass (silicate glue), mix to a paste;
- Apply the mixture to the prepared pieces with a layer of 2 mm and dry.
The wire is immersed vertically in the coating solution, leaving a clean end 30 mm long. Homemade rods are hung to dry.
How to weld aluminum with an electrode
Aluminum alloys have different weldability due to the presence of alloying elements of different concentrations in them. The table will help you identify easy and difficult to weld groups of materials.
When the metal thickness is more than 5 mm, welding of aluminum with an electrode is performed with cutting of the edges. The V-shaped groove is made with a bevel of 45-60 degrees, and the technological gap between the workpieces is 1-2.5 mm, based on the thickness of the elements being welded.
Products subjected to welding need to be dried (insurance against weld porosity), and the electrodes need to be calcined according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
The prepared edges are degreased with acetone or solvent.
Electric welding of aluminum with an electrode is performed at a right angle (without tilting the rod), with a short arc.
For thick metal, the joint is heated to a temperature of 150-200 degrees.
The technology is performed by an inverter using direct current of reverse polarity (positive pole on the electrode, negative on the part).
Required welding accessories:
- power source for manual arc welding;
- metal brush for cleaning the oxide film;
- hammer for removing slag crust;
- welding brush;
- electrodes;
- leggings.
If anyone does not have any of the equipment described, then hurry to the store to buy it.
Performing welding
To ensure a high-quality connection of parts, it is necessary to pre-clean their surfaces from all kinds of contaminants and oxides and prepare the joints. At home, this will be facilitated by various solvents, in production - by alkaline baths.
Among the first to be used are white spirit, technical acetone, xylene and white spirit-based solvents - PC-1, PC-2. The alkaline bath allows the part to remain in the composition for no more than 5 minutes.
You can prepare an alkaline bath yourself, for this you will need:
- water - 1 l;
- soda ash - 50 g;
- technical trisubstituted sodium phosphate - 50 g;
- silicate glue - 30 g.
To improve cleaning, the alkaline liquid must be heated to a temperature of 65°. After removing the aluminum workpiece from the bath, you need to clean the ends intended for joining with a metal brush specially designed for this purpose, with fine bristles or a file.
Manual labor can be completely replaced by a grinding machine. After cleaning, the elements should be cleaned again with solvent.
Conductive rods for the welding operation will also require preparation before welding. To obtain a high-quality roller, the electrodes must be kept in an oven for two hours at a temperature of at least 200° C.
The welding operation involves the use of direct current of reverse polarity, with a value of up to 30 A for each millimeter of welding rod diameter. It will improve the quality of the connection by preheating the parts to 300-400°.
The amount of heating is directly proportional to the thickness of the structures being connected. However, if large-sized parts are to be processed, only the ends intended for welding are heated.
The following operations will help ensure a high-quality roller:
- the seam is freed from the formed slag crust;
- the roller is watered with hot water;
- cleaned with a wire brush.
Slow cooling of the weld bead will help prevent warping and crystallization defects during welding.
