Offering 5998 videos in 229 categories!
Your Account |
Help |
Review this video!
This new film deals with the higher-strength aluminum alloys of the 5000 and 6000 series, along with techniques for the soldering and brazing of all aluminum alloys. First, I want to give the viewer/student a lot of clearly demonstrated "torch-time" on all the points covered here. This is a fascinating topic, the methods are amazingly practical and it is simply a lot of fun to solve aluminum joining problems with solid technical know-how. In fact, as I was filming this material hundreds of teaching and research episodes came to mind, greatly supporting our effort. Second, I wanted to cover all of the gritty set-up and trouble-shooting information, because so much mis-information gets passed around and just confuses people. Also, I wanted to show different approaches to single problems. Since welders constantly ask me about the "TIG Vs Torch" issue, I was more than ready to finally contrast all of the pros and cons with both welding systems. Setting up the oxy-acetylene welding rig, with leak-testing, safety, and proper adjustment of the torch is a standard-but-essential step-by-step procedure. Alloy selection, cleaning and preparation of the material and filler, and mixing and application of the aluminum welding flux are also requisite, so I chose to include them. Crack prevention, which is necessary with the higher-strength aluminum alloys, is shown in depth, and will help to solve a lot of your problems. The intricacies of Butt joints, Tee joints, and Lap joints are thoroughly described and demonstrated.
(about 388 minutes)
This video was added to our catalog on June 28, 2006 in Metalworking::Welding.
Product availability: very long wait
Quick Review: Rent them if you are going to do Aluminum welding.
Long Review: I thought the first DVD was very slow moving, there was a lot of explianation why things were done in a certain way. But it was worth sitting through.
The second DVD showed examples of what happens when you don't follow the correct procedure and what happens when you do. It surprised me how many times I caught myself saying - yeah I'd probably take this short cut, only to see him demonstrating what happens when you follow that short cut. I watched the DVD's many times, I learned something new each time.
The DVD set was very informative. I was always afraid to even try welding/brazing aluminum because of the meltdown potential. I now have the info I need to give it a try.
Lots of good info. This first DVD in the set covers how to set up your torch, how big a torch to use, even on how to tell when your acytaline is dirty/contaminated.
This set could easily have been put onto one disc. What information that was there, was clear and easy to understand. The pictures were clear enough to see what exactly Kent was doing as far as torch and filler technique were concerned. His conversational teaching style was also easy to understand. It just could have been more condenced.
Very good. The information in this video is difficult to find elsewhere. The video contains helpful tips on material characteristics, torch selection for thin wall material, torch adjustment, fluxing and filler material selection.
The section on torch adjustment could have used a bit more planning. It looks like an "Oh yeah, we have to cover that" moment. Having said that, I found this section alone helped my aluminum welds go from "train wreck" to "passable". I found I had to replay this section several times before I could duplicate the authors results.
A split screen with valves on one screen and the resultant flame on another would have been good. A missing item, for a beginner (like me), would be a "flame anatomy" lesson. Terms like primary flame, secondary flame, feather etc are obvious once pointed out but can be confusing if tossed about without a labeled graphic.
There are quite a few sales pitches but they are not particularly annoying.
The best part of the video is the "after action" assesment of welds completed "live" on the video. You can replay the welding segment and then watch the critique of the weld. This is section is terrific. It alone is worth the price of admission.
For me the the most difficult part of learning anything is establishing the feedback mechanism for self improvement. In this section you are given the keys to kingdom.
Last but not least is a segment produced by Alcoa on aluminum welding. My favorite part is a demonstration of virtuosity where a welder joins a couple of coupons in less than a minute.
Highly recommended!
I found that the pace of the film was on the slow side, but he is very thorough and covers every thing you need to know. It is worth watching even if you know most of this stuff from his other videos. The first film in the series just covers basics. The Alcoa add on is worth the price of the video. I love these old WW2 instructional videos.
This second video finally gets to the welding, and it is certainly interesting and at times entertaining. The production of the film is very good, and you can see very clearly his technique. I would recommend this film to anyone with an interest in gas welding aluminum.
I think this video set is really good. Kent is a good presenter here, and I find his combo of advertising his products, covering a wide range of related topics, and welding fairly useful. The advertising creeps in because He really does sell the unique products required to do this particular form of aircraft welding. The torches he uses are not super powerful so we are in the range of welding sheet metals and light tubing.
Right now, wadding into the aluminum welding field requires buying a tig machine in the 3-7 K range. There are other machines that while less expensive are probably too expensive to be worth investing in. Any shop that has AO in it, can get going with Kent's tools for 100-a few hundred dollars. These tools also produce welds with different, possibly greater, integrity in certain situations. This is part of the reason certain large manufacturers have stayed with gas welding even with the advances in electro welding.
Kent White (creator of this video series) is very well known for his knowledge on welding and metal shaping. This is another good one. I wish SmartFlix had all Kent's videos. I'll be on the list when they appear.
This video is just the background for welding, setting up the tanks, flux, and the ALCOA film. It is good but if you already know this material, you might want just DVD 2.
The video is very good in it's teaching style.
