Welding Tips and Tricks

I don't really have any knowledge about the process but I have also had the odd tooth replaced in dry cut saw blades and the teck claimed to use silver solder and none have failed so far.

Silver solder done well will hold something like this but would put a lot of heat in & the nature of the stresses created forming the drum part means they often distort badly out of round / true - if I had to solder / braze it then I'd use oxy/acet - not propane - yes Tig hates zinc but it's only a few thou that will clean off with chemical or abrasive & still welds OK ( unlike hot dip galv )- I thought the question was what would be the best / ideal method even though it's posted in the Mig forum - really any welding process will do it with experience - if I'm reading this post right & you don't own a welder now I question if the part is worth your expense buying one - if you were going to buy a Mig anyway & this is your first job I'd say yes you can use MIg but allow a fair bit of practice time prior to the actual job - if possible buy one that will take gas / solid wire even if you do this with fluxcore & yes fluxcore is quite tolerant of plating - it will just burn off in the cloud of other s#it that comes with that wire ! obviously it would be better to remove the plating first however it's going to get repaired.

I may try to braze the parts. If brazing does not work and the parts are not ruined, I will buy a welder and try welding it, after practicing on scrap.

Thanks for all the help!

YOu can easily remove the zink coating with some muriatic acid, one of the Easy Off oven cleaners (not sure which one) should also do the trick just let it sit for a while (in a plastic back or such so it wont dry off)

If you have not already bought yourself a welder... Do your friend a favor --- take it to a pro. Even if you have bought yourself a welder... Do your friend a favor and take it to a pro. I have been teaching myself to weld for over a year and I would never use something from a friend to learn on. The way I look at it when I screw something up that is practice material. If something holds together and works like I wanted that is a finished product. Neither would be for a friend unless they weren't that good of a friend.

I would clean with detergent, then acetone, then scratch it up with 100 grit, then use a gel super glue. Harder than epoxy.

JB Weld would probably work cleaned the same way and you could use a popsicle stick to form a nice fillet.

Always prove your glue before gluing.

Zero heat distortion with gluing.

Most glue failures are due to improper prep.

Either glue can be released with enough heat.