I have a need to remove welds from aluminum. A flat piece of 1/8 thick about 3 feet square is welded on all 4 sides to 1/8 aluminum tubing (2 X2). The weld is not continuous, but are about 1-2 inchs long and are about 3-4 on a each side of the flat piece.
I need to remove the flat piece and not damage the tubing in any way. There will be no rewelding to be concerned about. Appearance is important, but the tubing will be painted once the removal process is complete.
What would be the safest, best, and quickest way to accomplish this. I need to do it about 900 times. While cost is a consideration, doing it right and with no damage is more important.
Any help is appreciated.
Thank you,
Wayne Craft
SR. Mfg Engineer
Datapath, Inc.
Hello craftydog, there are obviously many ways that this could be accomplished. I would suggest one in particular, invest in a high-quality router and equip it with a carbide cutter of the minimum width that would take out the weld. Depending on the amount of weld that is above the level of the plate, you may have to come up with a stand-off of some sort to keep the depth of cut consistent so as not to damage the tube. This stand-off may need to be set-up on the surface of the tube instead of the plate if that is possible to regulate the depth of cut. You may also need to stay a bit high and then use a mallet or similar tool to break the plate free from the tube and go back afterwards with a sanding disc or flap wheel to remove the rest of the weld and blend it to the tube. I don't envy you on this endeavor, I can see that this could get tricky depending on how well the finish needs to end up. I'm sure others may have alternate suggestions good luck. Regards, aevald
I tried to keep the description of the job simple. Unfortunately, there is not a flat surface on which to run a router. This is actually a triangle that is about 4 feet per side and 3 feet high. The flat sheets are welded at an angle to the tube on the two sides that I need to remove. Thanks, Wayne
Use the plasma arc cutting & gouging, very fast and clean. Low cost use an air muffler splitter or ripping chisel.
Hello craftydog, do you have any means of posting a picture of the situation that you have going on here? That might also help with suggestions from the folks of the forum. As Giovanni stated in his post and as I should have included more specifically in one of my prior posts, if you do grind be sure to use the correct type of grinding discs or wheels. This suggestion may not totally apply in this case as it sounds as if you are not welding anything back onto these, however the finish can be affected as well depending on how things are done. Using chemicals that would prevent the sanding discs or other types of grinding medium from loading up might introduce chemicals onto the surface of the aluminum which might impede the painting process or require special additional cleaning. As I said before, good luck on this project as you proceed with it. aevald
the better way is to just buy a 4.5 inch carbide tooth grinder disk (looks like a circular saw blade ) designed for non ferrous materiales, make a few practice gouges on scrap to get the feel. Make sure you have the auxilary handle in place. the rest like aevald had said.
I won't tell you what to do, but what not to do.
Don't use a grinding wheel or disk. After a few turns its surface will get pasted and the removing will become almost impossible. Aluminum is too soft for common grinding disks.
Giovanni S. Crisi
Sao Paulo - Brazil
USE A CUTTING WHEEL ON YOUR SMALL GRINDER.CUT AWAY AT THE WELD AREA CLOSEST TO THE PLATE THEN SEPERATE THE TWO PIECES.YOUR LEAVE WELD ON THE TUBE AN JUST SAND IT DOWN TILL SMOOTH.OR I AS I REALLY LIKE TO THINK SUB THE JOB OUT ,TAKE A PERCENTAGE ,AN LET THEM WORRY ABOUT IT LOL.
The grinding wheel will leave you with the best chance at not damaging the tube. However as Mr. Crisi stated, the wheel will load up really fast, so get some paraffin wax and touch your wheel every few minutes to the wax. The wax will keep the wheel from loading up with aluminum.
MGD is right... The cut-off wheel is a very good tool when use with paraifn.. The parafin can cause problems if you need to reweld, but that is not the case here. It's not as fast as a plasma but there is less risk of damaging your tube
Good point Lawrence, welding over the baked in paraffin wax does not really work good.
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