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Comment by Mike Armstead on December 21, 2009 at 9:22pm

I've never used the Henrob 2000, but have watched the video of it. The video looks interesting. Welding .016 aluminum is not going to be easy. One of the biggest problems is going to be warpage. As soon as the heat touches it the seam is going to try to gap open. You will probably have to use small tacks every .5 to 1 inch. You can compensate for this some by the kind of joint you make. Take a look at what zenith does on their fuel tanks. They bend the edges go they lay on top of each other and then just melt them together and add a small amount of filler metal.
If you decide to get a Mig don't buy anything other than a name brand. I tried the harbor freight brand and it is complete junk. It will not feed the wire correctly and the welding current will drop off considerably after less than a minute of welding. I've had the Miller for 2 years now and it works great. Also if you want to weld aluminum you will need a spool gun to feed the aluminum wire. It will not feed through the regular hose. When I brought the welder and plasma cutter a few years Indiana Oxygen had the best deals. They also have free shipping and no sales tax. They are online and have good service.

Is your plane so you can look at the exhaust pipes. I'm rebuilding the 601xl after a nose gear collapse. I wasn't involved with the crash, I just got the plane from the insurance company. I built a new muffler, but I believe the exhaust pipes are bent upward. I'm needing the distance from the bottom of the oil pan to the bottom of the muffler pipes.

Comment by Jake Reyna on December 20, 2009 at 7:55am

Mike, I'm not using the muffler, but remember that the distance isn't much. I was going to use the Thermo-Tec radiant barrier as extra protection. I'm going to be using a dual exhaust system, I wasn't happy with that large of a heat source in the cowl. I also plan on wrapping the exhaust pipes. For carb heat I will use a stand off flange on one of the pipes and maybe a Heat Muff for cabin heat.

In a reply to Brazing Aluminum you mentioned that 6061T6 loses strength when heated, but it can be welded. So, I'm confused.