Welding THE WORST Aluminum Casting I’ve Ever Seen 

I too play the family friendly game of "fixing this absolute dogshit i own" Sure keeps me busy

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I weld castings pretty much every day, and never have any problems with it. On engine cases, which have been in contact with oil, no matter how much you mess around with acetone, there will still be some oil present, which will screw up the weld. Using the Neptune filler, which has no silicone, is not a good idea, if the casting is dirty or material unknown. To clean the casting before welding, the machine balance needs to be set to full cleaning action, and the repair area heated with the torch, till there is no more black gunk appearing. Wire brush the impurities away, and keep going until no more is appearing. Next, if the machine, has a mixed wave setting, turn that on, and weld using a No5 collet body cup, 2.4mm lanthanated tungsten, and 4043 filler. If the casting is genuinely difficult to weld, not just contaminated with oil, then using 4047 filler might make it easier? Filler, with no silicone, will make the repair difficult. Some HD castings have a lot of zinc in them to make die casting faster, if that's the case they are still weldable, but the zinc will need to be boiled out of the repair area, till it's clean enough for a weld pool free of burnt zinc, to form.

If I could add something-I've done a couple of these.I place my ground directly to the part being welded and put a non-conductive item like an old glove on the 'good' side.nothing sucks like fighting through a weld to find arc burns all over the part.Ask me how I know! great content as always man-

this is the shit right here. pure honesty and honestly good work. keep sending us them bangers Anthony, it's been a pleasure watching you grow this channel and always giving real tips away for free 99. stay warm this season up there man.

I have to weld up one of these Harley crankcase covers a couple times a year. Best thing to do is preheat. Mantains the elastisty, keeps warpage down, and it bakes out some of the junk. I've heard they have a lot of copper in their castings which is what causes the problems. Either way they are never fun. Great job getting it stuck back together.

Seems like I always learn something thanks for the little bit of knowledge you pass on

*This is a tough repair because it is both chromed aluminum and has extreme variations of thickness in the same piece. I would probably try to preheat this to 350° first and maybe even blanket half of it simply because alum goes from solid to a runaway puddle in nothing flat, and I'd want everything to be consistent when I applied heat. Counterintuitively the chrome likely reflects heat away from the interior of the part. We tested brake caliper housings and the naked cast aluminum cooled quickest, then polished aluminum and chromed aluminum cooled the slowest. Of course that's the reverse heat escaping vs entering the part but concept of chrome reflecting heat is the same.*

I love your honest videos along with all your no filter thoughts you express :) thank you

Camarata needs to come out there with his new grader and fix that fuckin road 😂

Keep doing your thing bro. Love watching a TRUE PRO WORK

The rule of 30% for the set up. I always use the cleaning action of the welder before ever trying to start the weld.

Hey Anthony, just chatting with someone who did the metallurgy and there is actually copper in that aluminum also, he had troubles 20 yrs ago and fount that out and it smoothed right out

78k subs… very nice… congrads.. 100k coming up..

I love Anthony’s salty truthfulness. Keeping it real.

Holy shit Rockstar! I thought you were running a motocross race🤣🤣 I go by the Harley plant here in Menomonee Falls Wisconsin every day, now all ill think of is ole death wish, the shit casting and the Rockstar workin more welding magic!! Have a great week and keepem' comin!

Rockmount stuff is freaking incredible stuff. I first became aware of them because of Zila.

I could smell the hot aluminum and the nasty chrome crap through the screen..lol. Looks great so far. I am sure it will be perfect when you are done. Back to the video..lol

That road is a challenge with a 4x let alone a bike. Holy crap!!!

as a student I appreciate these videos a lot im constantly learning new stuff from u 👏🏽🔝

something I have done with bad casting's like that is turn my AC balance up. peddle it and just run the tig torch over the weld area back and forth, just trying to slightly liquify the basemetal and let that garbage float to the top. then re-wire wheel and hit with acetone again. it has helped get 90% of the garbage out of the casting before I start adding filler.

PRO TIP: welding aluminum that has been in salt water or had gas and or oil in it, always sucks seems like if you run the torch over it to heat it up and cook out the crap. Then once you get a tack its good to go.

I was gonna suggest building a brace based off the bolt holes to minimize thermal expansion and flex in the casting while you weld since it's so thin there, but you were already done when I arrived lol Love your videos man. Take care

Harley Meltin Metal! Fantastic view 👍😁

Nice motorcycle, nice repair.

Ha Ah yeh, my mate George, is an automotive engineer, specialising in motorcycle engienes, a large part of his business is welding up broken bit's of Harley. He is a god with a TIG welder.

Love your honesty. Just my 2c I’ve never had an issue with a casting cracking, even when welding trash Chinese cast aluminium. I don’t recall seeing you preheat the casting and use an oven or torch for a controlled cool. Usually it’s not required, but I thought that was common practice.

7:55 fu***** cheap fuc**** 😹😹😭 i felt that to the CORE

Keep on making great videos.

You sure ain't gonna get Disney to sign you on as a voice actor..."F'ing Elsa, stop freezing everything! These m'fers gonna lose their crops!"

Haven't seen the whole video yet, but when you deal with really dirty casting it helps to run an AC balance of 80/20 initially with no rod, This will melt the base metal and bring out the contaminants due to the heavy cleaning action. Then go back with rod and run about 30/70 ac balance

Just a friendly thing i saw the other day watching some engine rebuilds on Steve Morris, and the welder is 1 of 5 in the USA to do copper welding at 800amps, pure helium with tons of knowledge. You dont have much thickness and your 170amps is probably too high. I think downing the amps and upping the Hz would allow you to get on and off the material while still getting good penetration.

Fantastic work as always you would of thought a company like them would use good stuff. Cool repair 👍👍

Im here for the "go fuck yourself" haha. My favorite part of the video every time.

Yep.. Harleys sometimes leak right thru the casting. Crud also builds inside the “voids”/crack(s). Heat cycles and vibration.. yeah.. should have seen the earlier ones made of sheeet metal.. easier to fix.. so, with that bike, the casting broke where the motor and transmission flex risers occurred. When outer case is mounted, the stresses are spread more.. just a couple (5) decades with HD..

mannn you think thats bad i was welding a 60s barber chair foot rest leg, i had to gind it out weld it grind it and weld it over and over just to get decent metal that actually pools. Hate cast aluminum welds like donkey. Love your vids keep em up

You’re riding your Harley on some roads like I read mine on. The road I live on’s like a creek bed. I have to ride the friction zone and the brakes while dodging rocks. really sucks on a 940 pound Electra glide.

I'm getting to the point where I don't wanna TIG anything anymore. I'm good with the actual TIG'ing but it's all the prep work for it takes too much time and effort. I turned 53 years old in September and realized just how close I am to pushing up daisies myself. I've outlived the age my father was when he died and doubt I'll make it to the age my mom died at. I'm just rambling on here to say I dunno how many days I have left on Earth, so I'm not gonna waste them doing a bunch of shit I don't want to. I'll pass on most TIG jobs unless it's something cool like a custom turbo manifold or anything interesting really. I just don't feel like getting everything perfect ground out and everything you're using or touching meticulously clean. I turn down dirtbike engine cases all the time because they're oil soaked. The oil has permeated the pore of aluminium casting and is gonna be nothing nothing but a PITA to get a clean weld on. Not saying that's the case here at all. This situation is different and you're a much better welder than I am.

Hey I just started welding school this year and I love your videos very helpful! I would just like to say when you tell us your methods or why you use certain things could you just give a quick explanation on exactly why you use one specific thing over other (example): you use stainless steel wire brush on cast aluminum why is that

I use the jumbo collet bodies with a 8 or10 cup size to weld with, gives more gas for welding cast aluminum

Nice repair! Am I seeing things, or is the speedometer upside down? LOL

Very cool bike, cheers from Sweden

Was that casting from the AMF years? Holy crap that road at the end.

A bit of preheat should keep from cracking and warping ideally. I know a lot of guys don't bother anymore because it didn't work one time. It improves your odds for sure.

Some off road Harley tires would be fun...good looking bike

Nice great job ! Horrible test road

People actually wear gloves for too many things. I've met multiple people who have lost fingers or pieces of fingers wearing gloves while using drill presses. Be careful out there.

You should of torched it to get the oil and impurities out plus I would take the hot start off and let your cleaning action work and then pedal down and turn your hrtz as high as that machine will go

4047 work for me. Some of these castings might be magnesium alloy so look for Mg symbol first.

What a bummer.

Love the fuckin honesty, great real world info. Subbed and liked 👍🏻

I liked it, have a blessed day América

what a nightmare. good ol hardley for you..

Dude, I wasn’t going to comment, but how much was that bike? And they use those cheap materials? Sad af to see this country go that way

Another great video, but your back roads dont look very motorcycle friendly

I heard cast aluminum has a TON of impurities in it Also I think it did have magnesium because I was seeing some green light and magnesium does burn green when reacting to high heat like meteorites that burn green have magnesium in them or Nickel and possible copper

The fact of the matter with any type of casting I don't care what material it is they trap contamination they are all a crapshoot I don't care how well you grind it sandblasted if it had grease expect to fight if it's a casting in general expect a fight and whatever you do don't expect it to go well but what I have found that works is preheat and post Heat is it has grease in it and you think you got it all off you will find more percolate out as you heat it up you'll have a gummy puddle especially a gummy puddle with aluminum if it's a thin casting I will TIG weld it if it's a super thick casting I will aluminum pulse weld it with wire feed because most of the time with castings especially if it's aesthetic and structural it's going to get Blended anyway and most likely rechromed

I just recently repaired a cast sub frame on a gsxr 600... the casting was fucking terrible too.

love it

man you the shit for real bud!

They chrome the casting to his the low quality aluminum lol 😂

You always use a 1/4, 1/8 inch distance from the pool? Shouldn’t the arc distances be the diameter of the tungsten?

You called it at 11:56 Magnesium . It would of failed the white vinegar test and I would of either slammed it in the scrap bin or turned down the job . I won’t let a cheap Chinese cast ruin my rep. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Do you drink beer with tomato juice?

Ant your good man its ok to say maybe u didnt clean the material well enough

Biggest question we want to have answered, how much did you charge yourself for this project? 😂 where were you riding your Harley at to have that happen?

"Muggy weld" I heard good rod to use

I will never weld another one again....amd I've been doing this a long time..

I always thought he had a shovelhead

You should never use a spinning tool when cleaning your aluminum to weld. A disc or wheel will embed crap into the aluminum, use a wire brush that is dedicated for aluminum and brush forward and backward, not circular, then clean again with acetone to remove dust and debris. There is no such thing as to clean with aluminum.

I let grimy aluminum parts sit and soak in the ultrasonic tank 24 to 48 hours to get it clean it welds better than just degreasing with acetone but still get the occasional spec that boils up. When welding but its not as bad .

Repair area should have been boiled, soaked in ace overnight, after gouging/chamfering and preheated before the weld. The casting wasn't the problem.

Should you have preheated that to keep it from being so rigid and pulling another Crack?

WENT FROM "HI GUYS, TODAY IM GONNA SHOW YOU THE PROPER WAY TO ALUMINUM WELD.. LETS GO!!" TO "FUCK THIS SHIT!, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!!" REAL QUICK..

I liked it and I learned something Harley making crappy parts since 1970

Sphinx's lost nose

All engine parts blow. I ruined more than I can remember but I did start using my gas grill to preheat them. Its like welding bread the way the voids and shit just pops up.

Thanks for admitting you being dumb for not being safe this time. 😂

I never see welder youtuber talking this unrespectful way to his audience 16:41

Cast is a bitch…my recommendations are good pre and post heat to reduce cracking when welding on cast and small beads when you weld should help as well…Also bury the part in sand when done so it cools slow

I just did a MACK fuel tank with rockmount Neptune tig Turned out beautiful! I need to upload the video

Looks like pretty clean aluminum in the camera. I know the worst aluminum tig I've done was a 231d transfer case out of a late 90s model dodge

Nice job bro. ? I have a small small shop with a 140 amp mig flux or hard wire. I have most or all tools to fab stuff. I want to start a bussines and get to the point where or at I've been to school and been welding for 20 years mostly mig but know tig and stick a little I learn really fast with anything I build mini bikes and go karts and metal models. I need a mobile truck would 10.000 to 15,000 thousand find one thanks for the videos and the tips.

😎👍

Is that rods near 4047 or 4043?

Life is too short for PPE.

I occasionally watch you but 52yrs ago I was working in a small shop and a rock mount salesman came to the shop and he gave me a belt buckel with a Welder on one knee even kept it for years after it broke

Meanwhile back in the civilized world we call it Aluminium....

It would be a great time hanging out with you an just shoot the shit😂

Just another worrd of encoragement. Build up your skills in the "clever" welding processes, so that when you get old and don't bend so well you can do stand up or sit down welding in the workshop. This will be particularly usefull in the colder months where you are.

What machine were u running ?

Throw that shit in the trash. Fix it with Primo Riviera belt drive.

U want to buy a 3m air helmet with one battery filter system

Full of excuses, and yea you should have pre heated it whether you think you know it all or not. And a 50/50 ac balance is never good 😂

😂 cast aluminum dipped in dirt and oil. At least it wasn't chinese.

You're dreaming

i owned a harley once, biggest piece of crap i have ever owned. never had an issue with any of the hondas , suzukis or yamahas i have owned. harley uses cheap parts and cost way too much, just for uncool people to think they look cool.

Not trying to bash on anybody but that’s $100 aftermarket case get a new one

sheesh, plz bolt that thing down before you ever do another of these. I always make jigs or at least bolt it down to the table when doing castings. Thell move on you if you don't and you should also pre-heat anything this large. When doing ATV differentials for example I make large inserts with the lathe to replace the gear set so I don't warp the areas where the bearings go.