bronze or aluminum uniball cup slugs

[mexracer10]

which type of bronze is best to use as a slug placed into a uniball cup while welding so the cup will not warp, can aluminum be used if so which type. i am going to make some fixtures for welding some suspension peices and was wondering if anyone could help me out.

 

[partybarge_pilot]

Bronze? What ever you can get cheapest except oillite. Aluminum, works but they get beat up pretty easy.

 

[mexracer10]

bronze or brass or aluminum, does it matter? will i melt any to the inside of what i am welding? ill be tig weling and mig welding so i dont see a problem burning through the materials especially because they are rather thick. Or is what ever i can get the cheapest best? will they expand and get stuck as they heat up and release as they cool down?

 

[Wild bill]

You can get small drops of aluminum off ebay for cheap. Bronze is 3x expensive.

 

[DesertGuy1]

To keep things "cost effective" on a LCA fixture, I used 6061 aluminum. As long as everything was allowed to cool in place, there were no issues with warping. After looking at the available options, aluminum was the cheapest material to use (non-production) and accomplish what I needed. As mentioned above, other materials can go for 2-3 times the cost of aluminum...

Hope that helps

 

[mexracer10]

thanks for all the replies i can get my hands on alumnum easier than any of the other options. and that fixture looks bad ass desert guy.

 

[atomicjoe23]

Sorry this is off topic, but I love the SoldWorks rendering of the fit-up/welding jig!

Man I can't wait to learn SolidWorks! I was gonna teach myself. . .I even got the Student Edition of SolidWorks, but I just haven't had time. School starts on the 21st though and I'm enrolled in Engineering Graphics which is the SolidWorks Class so I should be pretty good at it by December!

Like I said, sorry it's off topic.

 

[rharriman]

bronze or brass or aluminum, does it matter? will i melt any to the inside of what i am welding? ill be tig weling and mig welding so i dont see a problem burning through the materials especially because they are rather thick. Or is what ever i can get the cheapest best? will they expand and get stuck as they heat up and release as they cool down?

We use aluminum bronze or bronze to make the uniball slugs for welding and then use steel to put inside the uniball housings for heat treating, if heat treating is required. You can use any brass alloy (whatever is cheapest, except oilite like Partybarge said) for the welding slugs and shouldn't have any trouble with sticking or galling. Aluminum might get stuck or gall more easily.


Nice Jigs DesertGuy, BTW..

 

[DesertGuy1]

Nice Jigs DesertGuy, BTW..

Nice avatar...

As far as the fixture goes... obviously it is a "single-purpose" fixture. Hindsight being 20/20, there is always a better way. Had I figured the largest fixture sub-plate I needed and had a square plate made with holes lasered every 2.0" in a grid pattern (not that much more in cost), I could have "re-purposed" the sub-plate each time. Now I have a subplate made in SW as part of an assembly and add the parts to it and build the fixture "pieces" to the sub-plate, if that makes sense. Of course when I hit the Mega Millions, I'll have a dedicated fixture table... until then...

 

[rharriman]

Nice avatar...

Thanks, I am kinda fond of it too, My wife doens't like it thought, LOL

We have been working on some fixtures for our LCA as well but its hard to make them so that you can compensate for weld shrinkage (especiallly on longer parts like trailing arms, rearends and longer LCA's) and also used it for heat treating.

Are you going to be at Primm this weekend??

 

[DesertGuy1]

Are you going to be at Primm this weekend??

I'll be at the MORE race... much closer for me.

 

[rharriman]

It's all good, always like to put a face to a name if I can, but I gotta support my boy Mikey in class 10.

Hope everyone has a safe weekend. I am looking forward to my first 'Tree Bar' experience and putting a few names to faces.

 

[Brian Mapes]

Bronze, Brass or Aluminum will work for uniball slugs. I personally use Aluminum because it is easily available and fairly good priced as well as easy to machine. Not to advertise but PM me in private I have a decent inventory of Aluminum plugs already machined that I sell to help people out. Brass or Alumium would be the best choices though however becuase of thier high thermal conductivity which is ideal.

 

[Samco Fab]

Make sure you use some anti sieze on the slug to make it a ton easier to get out when you are done welding

 

[partybarge_pilot]

Make sure you use some anti sieze on the slug to make it a ton easier to get out when you are done welding

Not an issue with bronze.

 

[atomicjoe23]

Bronze? What ever you can get cheapest except oillite. Aluminum, works but they get beat up pretty easy.

Just to satisfy my curiosity, why not oilite???

As far as the fixture goes... obviously it is a "single-purpose" fixture. Hindsight being 20/20, there is always a better way. Had I figured the largest fixture sub-plate I needed and had a square plate made with holes lasered every 2.0" in a grid pattern (not that much more in cost), I could have "re-purposed" the sub-plate each time. Now I have a subplate made in SW as part of an assembly and add the parts to it and build the fixture "pieces" to the sub-plate, if that makes sense. Of course when I hit the Mega Millions, I'll have a dedicated fixture table... until then...

Would you care to post a .jpg of what you are talking about. . .I'm to the point that I'm ready to start thinking about this type of stuff.

We have been working on some fixtures for our LCA as well but its hard to make them so that you can compensate for weld shrinkage (especiallly on longer parts like trailing arms, rearends and longer LCA's) and also used it for heat treating.

That's a good idea to use the jig for heat treating as well. . .I didn't think about that at first. It would make the jig a little heavier than if it were made out of aluminum, but it wouldn't get dinged up as easily and I guess you would probably want to make the jig out of steel anyway so that the jig and the part expand/contract at the same rate as it heats up from welding and cools down afterward. The aluminum would heat up and cool down a lot faster and I guess if the tolerances were tight enough you could induce some unwanted stress that way.

Thanks for the thread. .

 

[mikeyfrombc]

Just to satisfy my curiosity, why not oilite???



Would you care to post a .jpg of what you are talking about. . .I'm to the point that I'm ready to start thinking about this type of stuff.



That's a good idea to use the jig for heat treating as well. . .I didn't think about that at first. It would make the jig a little heavier than if it were made out of aluminum, but it wouldn't get dinged up as easily and I guess you would probably want to make the jig out of steel anyway so that the jig and the part expand/contract at the same rate as it heats up from welding and cools down afterward. The aluminum would heat up and cool down a lot faster and I guess if the tolerances were tight enough you could induce some unwanted stress that way.

Thanks for the thread. .

oil-lite or sintered bronze is oil impregnated and when you add heat it sweats all the oil out and it would get all over the part you are trying to weld , the only thing i use oil-lite for is pilot bushings on cranks , the rest of the time i use 660 Bronze or Aluminum Bronze when it comes to bushings , for weld plugs at work we use aluminum as it,s cheap and on hand

 

[atomicjoe23]

Thanks Mikey!!!