I ground everything clean, wire brushed, went over it with just the high frequency, wire brushed again, then started welding. I’m still extremely pleased with my Primeweld.

 

Last of the repair pics-

 

Primeweld 225x, getting it done!👏

 

And that folks is how its done! Really nice, aluminum is a beatch. Proper cleaning and good technique is what it takes.

 

Owner of that trailer will be chasing cracks until the day he sells it, or scraps it. Aluminum sucks for trailers.

 

Those aluminum stock trailers are nice ,, BUT ,,, the flexing going down the perfect highway and the animals movin and groovin helps shake them apart. Job security for sure. BTW, nice work.

 

Thank you. I was telling my neighbor last night that the good thing about repairing stuff for other people is figuring out what I don’t want to own. Aluminum stock trailers fall into that category!

 

aluminum is great for alot of things but often times it either needs to be much thicker or have reinforcement plates added

 

Well I found with aluminum it’s prep, prep, prep, did some repairs on my brothers car hauler, got to find the pics. Clean prep, prep. I did stick, 1/8” man that thing burns fast, it has to be cold to get the slag off. Prep prep prep

 

You are 100% correct on that. I have only ran aluminum stick once in my entire career, I didn’t have good luck with it. But I’ve always either owned or had access to TOG and a spool gun, so I never got too hung up on it. From what I remember about it, I applaud you for being able to run it successfully and make a repair!

 

What style of welding did you use for this? It looks good

 

Thank you. I used the TIG (GTAW) process to make the weld repairs.

 

I can only imagine the smell of welding that CRAPPY(literally) aluminum.

 

Holy crap, Jeff. Why would you say that? LOL

 

YUCK!

 

have you looked at the tig button? I have one and use it from time to time. My fingers are messed up from an accident and sometimes have issues. you can watch the tig button on 6061.com

 

I have never seen that before, just watched the video. That’s on the short list of stuff I am going to order. It looks pretty slick, thanks for the info!

 

Sat in an intro to Tig and just like my earlier years couldn’t stay inside the lines, my hands shake, love the look of Tig and the work those that are good at it can do with it. And I was thinking stick was awesome

 

Very nicely done! I’m amazed how well your welds came out considering how dirty the trailer was.

 

Maybe a spoolgun on MIG would have been a little easier than TIG, I just don’t think I’d like to lay in all the “BY PRODUCTS”.

 

Another vote for the Tig Button. I have one on my machine at work and one on my machine at home. If it breaks, I will buy another right away.

It is very intuitive and so useful. Especially for situations like this. I can climb around, lay down, or get in any position and it just works.

 

That some nice work you did right there. I did a bit of stick welding with aluminum and it turned out nice like that but i didnt have a lot of fun doin it. Ive seen some messy aluminum welding and I am glad I dont do it unless I absolutely have to...usually I just walk (or run) away from it.

Popeye