Rebuilding a vintage Husky 250 with magnesium cases. Found a crack on the left side case, no leaks though. I searched the previous discussions on this topic and saw a post by KJ Donovan referring to the same issue. KJ and others, what is your experience with welding magnesium?
Welding magnesium is really quite simple and easy. It requires a TIG welding machine, and if you can weld aluminum, you can weld magnesium. The hard part is finding welding rod! A few years ago I had a few parts plus some that some VINDURO buddies needed fixed, so having access to the welding equipment at the time, I went in search of some welding rod and kept coming up empty. All the weld supply places would order it for me, at 50 bucks a pound and ten pound minimum or something crazy like that! There just isn't much that is made out of the metal these days for a lot of reasons. Magnesium is light and strong, but gets brittle with age. It can be difficult to machine. Drilling and taping a magnesium case for a vent fitting is scary sometimes! But welding up a simple crack is really no problem. I don't have my own equipment and no access to it any more or I would offer to help you out. I plan for my retirement gift to myself to be a new TIG/Stick welder set up for my garage. There are new machines on the market now that can do up to 200 amps and only need a 20 amp 120 volt power supply and cost in the 1500 dollar range! The equipment has REALLY come a long way and gotten quite inexpensive compared to when I graduated from welding school back in 1974. Hope this sheds a little light on the subject.
Type at you later,
Dan McEntee
Todd,
Daniel, is pretty much on target here, for the most part welding magnesium is no big deal provided you have the correct filler wire and a TIG machine. He is also dead on regarding the absolutely ridiculous pricing and minimum purchase requirements for magnesium filler wire.
The only caveat I would add is; it's easy to weld provided the casting is not horribly porous and the porous areas are not impregnated with contaminants. Then the problem becomes removing the contaminants prior to welding. All that stated, it sounds like the crack you are describing is straight forward repair with the right filler wire.
This past winter I was fortunate enough to score a couple pounds of AZ101 filler wire from a buddy, so if you PM your address I will mail you a few pieces and you can bring the case to whomever usually does your welding. If you don't have someone local to do the repair, just mail me the case. Only thing I ask is that you degrease the case with kerosene then soap and water before sending it. Don't clean it with brake cleaner as that opens up another can of worms.
Thanks,
Kevin
Thanks guys for your responses and advice. Kevin, PM sent.
Todd