Cast Aluminum Repair on Lathe Bracket W/ Power Tig Micro 185

Had a Bracket on My Jet Lathe that was broke when i purchased it,I decided to do a repair, Material was a very low quality casting and very porous , i bevel ground the edge on one side with a carbide bit in a die grinder to keep contamination to a minimum , then cleaned of all the paint in the area , the paint was about .060 thick they lay it on heavy to cover the holes in the castings. Got the part cleaned w/Acetone and clamped up. Set the machine at 95 amps ,freq at about 1 o'clock on the dial and balance at about 11, gas was 12 cfm used 3/32 4043.
Had good penetration and just had to run a small cover pass on the rear. This was very porous and welded easily at low amps even though it was 1/4" thick. Did a chemical strip after the welding to get the piece completely clean, some grinding and added a little etching primer and some matching White jet paint.
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What part was that? Broken during shipping or from use? Did you consider building it up to reinforce or was it one of those that won't break again.

Bracket or Guard that protects the Micro stop adjustment for the carriage , It was broken due to a shipping incident that bent the cross feed shaft. That i have already repaired

Nice repair. Always good to know that broken things like this are now in-house repairable. Amazing that you only required 95A. Were you running under 110v or 220v?

The Power tig Micro 185 was running on 220 volt, I didn't think it would take many amps as the casting was very poor quality and dirty, more like welding on a sponge, it was very porous material.
It looked clean but when the heat hit it out came the dirt. The cleaning action did its part and brought the puddle up good and shinny and the rod dipped in good.There was dirt down in the pores that would only get released when it became molten.

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Originally Posted by cbmkr

The Power tig Micro 185 was running on 220 volt, I didn't think it would take many amps as the casting was very poor quality and dirty, more like welding on a sponge, it was very porous material.
It looked clean but when the heat hit it out came the dirt. The cleaning action did its part and brought the puddle up good and shinny and the rod dipped in good.There was dirt down in the pores that would only get released when it became molten.

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That type metal (cast aluminum) is about 90-100 amps on the thicker stuff for us as well, do it all the time. Pool cleaning pumps motors, etc. That stuff is nasty too. Sometime you have to heat it (with the TIG torch) and get that black junk out, wire it and then weld it, on thinner stuff we see that.

Looks good, maybe a thicker paint, but if it's just a tool, what the heck. Some guys would power coat it :D

Nice repair! I like how you made the weld "disappear".