HELP!

I thought I'd be clever and modify my own sump (seeing as I'm a tight a**e an' all )

Made the extension up no probs, moved the drain plug, put the welder on level 2 (It's a MigMate 130) and welding began....Not enough juice I thought so up to level 3.....holes start appearing

I eventually managed to get it done (or so I thought) then checked for the mandatory leaks and found many....

After my 4th attempt at sealing the damn thing, I still can't get it water (or oil) tight

I'm going to get a new flap wheel and dress it all back to clean corners and try again, but any help on what to set the welder at would be appreciated. It seems that level 2 is not enough and level 3 too much!

Cheers.

JB

Just an idea but;

Could you try and get it as tight as possible and then use chemi-metal to line the sump?

Not familiar with your welder but with my clarke I find that wire feed speed plays quite a big role in achieving decent welds.

Is it the weld thats porous, or gaps in between blobs of weld.
For a liquid tight seal, if its just some gaps it may be easier to use a brazing torch and 'lumiweld' rods to fill the gaps and get a good joint, but you'll need clean metal first.
Decent Aly welding is much harder than you think - the oxide layer has a very high melting point, the parent metal much lower, so you need to remove the top layer of oxidised aly or when you finally get through it you have much to much power and immediately blow a hole in the metal. This is obviously not aproblem for brand new metal.
Try to practice on some scrap bits of aly until you get good welds - wire feed and current setings seem to be much more critical than for steel.
Regards
Hugh

Thanks for the input guys. I know what you mean about the wire speed and I'm going to try a few different settings to try and acheive a consistent weld.

The sump BTW is steel not ally.

JB

i tigged mine. only way to do it easily.

I stupidly assumed it was ally cos mine is!
DOH!!!!

Hugh

quote:

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Originally posted by hughpinder
I stupidly assumed it was ally cos mine is!
DOH!!!!

Hugh

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What are you testing for leaks with? I used parrafin when I did my first sump and it leaked loads.

After a few attemts to seal it I gave up, painted it and fitted it, with the plan being to get someone else to chop a spare sump for me later on.

Once the oil was in it didn't leak at all.

Stu

I weld around the out side then do the in side
have you any photos ?
have you done the pick up pipe gas or tig is best for that
Jacko

Patience is a PITA! ....but it works

I gave it another shot, played around with the gas setting, wire speed etc and finally got it so I have the smallest of weeps from a couple of little areaas. I'll go over the edges with metal putty then paint it, and going on what whitestu says, it should be OK.

jacko, I intend to do the pick-up as mentioned on other threads by using the blow torch and then re-braising it on after I've shortened it.

JB

quote:

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Originally posted by Daddylonglegs

jacko, I intend to do the pick-up as mentioned on other threads by using the blow torch and then re-braising it on after I've shortened it.

JB

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I'll try it on the bit I cut off first so I don't chuff up the decent part