02 September 2007

Which Filler Rod to use on the 4130 Fuselage?

Up until now, I had not really seen much on what was the best, or proper, filler rod to use when gas welding the fuselage. From reading alot of information all over the web I found that Tin Man Technologies seemed to have most authority in the experimenal aircraft department.

Tin Man recommends using ER70S-6 filler rod when gas welding 4130 fuselages. Tin Man also says "This filler has great penetration and little spatter, flows evenly, and is reasonably priced". I have found that the ER70S-6 is widely used when doing a search on Google and the search also reveals some nice technical details and comments about this filler type. It is important to note the heat treatment is not neccessary when gas welding using ER70S-6 filler rod.

Even, Lincoln Electric have some information on the topic of filler rods. Their info coincides with what Tin Man describes. I am confident that ER70S-6 will be my choice of filler rod for my Sonerai fuselage project.

On another note, I would recommend the Meco Midget torch to anyone building an experimental/homebuilt aircraft, even though I bought the HENROB 2000 torch which has more than enough capability. The Meco Midget torch is certainly very suitable as well for building 4130 steel tube fuselages.

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