Anodizing over my welds

[Revlimit]

Hello everyone: Does anyone out there have any experience with having welded parts anodized? If so, can anyone give me an idea as to why a perfectly gorgeous weld going in to the anodizing tank comes out charcoal grey? This is CLEAR anodizing, done by quite a reputable company, so the process should not be flawed, but I have these pristine, clear aluminum weldments peppered with charcoal welds. Thanks, Rev.

[PUMPKINHEAD]

Don't quote me on this, but i don't think all filler material can be anodized,
what is the filler you used? what is the material you welded?

[dseman]

Hello everyone: Does anyone out there have any experience with having welded parts anodized? If so, can anyone give me an idea as to why a perfectly gorgeous weld going in to the anodizing tank comes out charcoal grey? This is CLEAR anodizing, done by quite a reputable company, so the process should not be flawed, but I have these pristine, clear aluminum weldments peppered with charcoal welds. Thanks, Rev.

The higher Si content of a 4043 filler causes the darkening of the weld after anodizing a 6061 alloy part. If you use 5356 as a filler next time you won't have this problem.

Here's some info. that should answer any of your future aluminum welding questions:

http://www.alcotec.com/techpage.htm
http://www.alcotec.com/atasap.pdf

-dseman

[RST200]

Hello everyone: Does anyone out there have any experience with having welded parts anodized? If so, can anyone give me an idea as to why a perfectly gorgeous weld going in to the anodizing tank comes out charcoal grey? This is CLEAR anodizing, done by quite a reputable company, so the process should not be flawed, but I have these pristine, clear aluminum weldments peppered with charcoal welds. Thanks, Rev.

I would agree that it's the filler you used. I'd bet you used 4043.

[HAWK]

Revlimit,

Here is an informative and interesting article from Miller Powerclick on a company using the bump technique to weld anodized. Check it out: http://www.millerwelds.com/education...s/story93.html
Check out the picture the bottom of the page. I copied the image, but it's a bit fuzzy.

[Revlimit]

dseman..you nailed it, I did use 4043 0n 6061. Thanks for the insightful replies everyone. This is an awesome forum. By the way, besides the issues I'm having, what are the pros and cons of using 4043 vs 5356 while welding 6061? Thanks again, Rev.

[PUMPKINHEAD]

don't know if this will be of any help:

[dseman]

dseman..you nailed it, I did use 4043 0n 6061. Thanks for the insightful replies everyone. This is an awesome forum. By the way, besides the issues I'm having, what are the pros and cons of using 4043 vs 5356 while welding 6061? Thanks again, Rev.

Rev*,
How come you didn't check out my links? The answer is in there...page2,3 of
the atasap.pdf document. It's a big table where you select which materials are to be joined and which filler to use. It shows the tradeoffs between ease of welding, strength, ductility,corrosion resistance, service temperature, and color match after anodizing. Kinda like pumpkin's table but much more comprehensive.

There is a lot of good information in there, but you have to read it. Geez,
I gotta stop giving away the good stuff if people aren't going to use it.....

-dseman

[Revlimit]

Hmmmm...all I can say is that I DID check them out. The first link is now saved into my welding folder, and I believe the second link was on the site the first link took me to. Thanks again.

[PUMPKINHEAD]

dseman,
if I would of checked 'em out, i wouldn't have posted mine, oops.
didn't mean to step on your toes.

[dseman]

dseman,
if I would of checked 'em out, i wouldn't have posted mine, oops.
didn't mean to step on your toes.

No problem pumpkin, it's just a personal, pet peeve of mine, that when I
go through the trouble of solving someone's problem they sometimes
don't bother taking the time to read the answer. Revpol did however,
but must not have read far enough to get to the table.

Another pet peeve, not using the search engine. Most of these questions have been answered before--it saves everybody time by doing a quick search first.

-dseman

[Revlimit]

Wow, you must be a PLEASURE to work with. Tell you what dseman....in the future, please don't reply to my posts. There, problem solved. Rev. By the way, that was my PC reply.

[Paulyfab]

Syncro-start

In the Artical That HAWK posted the refrence was made to the "syncro-start", is this a new base feature or can it be added to an older model 250 Syncro?