cleaning aluminium

**northerncat** · 26th July 2008, 10:30 AM

i have recently purchased a secondhand boom that i wish to use on my boat i have stripped off all the fittings and am going to tig up holes, there are a few places where corrosion has eaten into the ally leaving the aluminium oxide? buildup in indentations, how do i clean this out to either tig it up or to fill it with a filler, i want respray the boom but dont want to paint over any of these areas till they are back to bare aluminium
sean

**Grahame Collins** · 26th July 2008, 05:52 PM

Hi
Dependent on the hole size,drill or hole saw out the corrosion and Tig weld in a patch.

If its a boom it will be marine grade aluminium and you would be advised to select the patch and filler rod to match.

Remember with the oxide it takes twice the temperature to melt it as it does for parent metal.

I am not sure of what the alloy is but suspect it is something in the 5000 series, but you would be able to check this better than I .

Grahame

**Rossluck** · 27th July 2008, 09:18 PM

Grahame, Can you use aluminium cleaner to prepare the surface for welding? It's some type of acid so I'm sure that all it does is to remove the oxidation. What do you think?

**Grahame Collins** · 27th July 2008, 10:09 PM

Hi Ross
I'd be inclined to try it on scrap first,then have a weld on it to see if there are problems .

I have not used chemical cleaners prior to welding ali, so I can't say what is likely to happen.
Also I would still mechanically clean the alloy after the chemical clean with a dedicated stainless steel brush.

Dedicated in this case , meaning that the stainless brush is used on aluminium only .This is to prevent contamination by oxides of other metals.

Grahame

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