On Aluminium and Aluminium Welding
Mike,
I suspect that the original aluminium would be very similar to the modern 3003 grade. Fully annealed sheet would be ideal if you can get it for panels that need a lot of shape wheeled into them. Having said the former, I am currently using medium temper 5005 1.5mm gauge sheet to build panels for my replica FN - unfortunately, I can only purchase 5005 sheet in my state (Western Australia)! For the record, I have formed the nose and tail cones with a fair bit of annealing - the upshot being that the 5005 makes for a stiff panel.
I am a self taught panel guy but I am having a degree of success oxy welding the wheeled 5005 sheet. I find that the oxy weld zone is less prone to cracking vs TIG - especially post wheeling and or dressing the panels! I am using a very useful little Meco torch (no:2 tip - less than 4psi), 5005 rods, TM 2000 lenses and special yankee flux - I figured that I needed everything going for me!!! I have found Kent White's instructional videos and gear at Tinmantech to be invaluabe- in particular his TM 2000 lenses which "cut out" the flux's orange flair.
I have used a Eutectic brand aluminium solder (512S I think!) to seal the rivet heads holding my baffles in my aluminium fuel tank. The solder is not cheap, but it flows beautifully on new metal. As the melting point is only around 180 deg, a small propane torch is ideal. Again, I have used this around my filler neck with a mechanically strong "turned in" flange. Clearly, engine bay application is out of the question for this low mp metal alloy.
Brett
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