… and I figured, ya know, my pack hasn’t had any upgrades in years, and the ion arm on it is so tacky with a little plastic straw for a brass rod… I thought, Why not?!?
So I pick up my hack saw, my trusty ryobi drill and a sanding wheel.
30 minutes later… BAM!!
hey looks nice there? Is that stuff really that easy to cut that you can take a hack saw to it and cut it easily/ accurate like that. Never really tried. I know aluminum is soft, but i didn’t realize that soft.
Yeah, just make sure to have a new blade (medium is better) and it will cut quite easily. Drills like butter too!
I’ve also made my own banjos from a scrap piece of brass.
With a little practice, and patience too, you can hand make a part like this almost identical to an expensive machined part 
Good luck and I want to see when you have yours done!
I’ll post a picture of my old school gun hooks here for the people who asked for it. Stay tuned!
Well you’ve convinced me CPU,looks like I’m gonna get me some aluminum to make my Ion Arm assembly,yours looks great too BTW.
Sweet!
Not just that but you’ll save more money than if you switched to GEICO.
I spent less than $3 on the whole thing.
looks really good man..im going to make my own ion arm cap as well, hope it turns out as good as yours.aluminum is an awesome medium to work with.
later
jim
K,
I made these tonight after going to skycraft and getting a few scrap pieces of aluminum.
The older looking hook set is my very first one I made (mild steel) back in the 80s.
And the bottom set of course, is the one I just made. Still needs a bit of finishing but i couldn’t find my smaller file.
In case you’re about to ask, the plate is drilled for either angle. That’s how I made all my hooks and people liked the option.
Hey CPU,got a question man,how did you actually do the V portion of the hook?
I’m needing to make a couple of V Hooks and this would be a great away to do it.
What exactly do you mean? they’re both V, no?
You mean the “sleeve” part that goes under the gun? Just “fold” it around the other piece. Like a hug!
I found a few other things at the place but nothing really that exciting. Took some pics with me phone.
Here is a light kit that could be a budget cyclotron light. 8 LEDs with several different patterns including one by one with speed adjustment. Just have the LEDs go around more than once (ie: 1&5, 2&6, 3&7, 4&8)
And here I found what I think are smillar to the boxes from which the trap/pedal plates come from. Too bad I can’t use any of them since all of them have a big chunk routed out, making it pretty much too short for use in either the trap or the pedal.
No trap plate for me yet 
Neat ! I was supposed to head over to Skycraft today but , I ended up running out of time packing for the move.
Oh ok man,I thought that might be how you did it but wasn’t sure.
So today I stop by a welding supplier and pick up a tank of argon, and some aluminum wire.
On the drive back, I had visions in my mind of wonderfully pretty weld beads that would look lovely around the tubes which make the handles of a new and wonderful aluminum proton gun.
Boy, were my dreams crushed.
I cannot for the life in me, get even a weld, let alone a pretty one. I’ve tried every setting possible and it just won’t bead. Heck it doesn’t even want to stick to the scrap piece I had. As if I were trying to weld copper!
I figured it would be tricky, but Its looking more like, near impossible with my setup. I guess my only other choice (other than buying a TIG, which I can’t afford) is to give TECHNOWELD a try.
Anyone look into such product? I find it hard to achieve the bead pattern I want.
Oh well, at least I can stick with building the steel gun bodies instead.
That I can weld well.
You were using MIG to weld on aluminum? Brave soul. Check around on the internet, there are plenty of resources that can help you get a good bead out of MIG on aluminum. Also, were you starting with just running a straight bead on a flat piece of aluminum? That would be a great place to start. Youtube probably has some great tutorials too. i hope it works out for you to get your aluminum gun welded up.
-Tyler
"What exactly do you mean? they’re both V, no?
You mean the “sleeve” part that goes under the gun? Just “fold” it around the other piece. Like a hug!"
You make it sond so simple, but I’m cnfused how you went about this.
Did you clamp one piece to the other somehow and then hammer it over? How did you avoid denting the crap out of the soft aluminum both with the clamp and with the hammer blows? Blocks of wood perhaps?
Unfortunately I have no idea where one would get scraps of aluminum like that around here. 
That is exactly what I did.
I also watched just about every video on youtube that has to do with MIG welding aluminum. In all of them the wire never touches the piece. That’s something that I can’t get to happen. No matter how slow the wire is set to, and how high the temp is set to, I either get it to clump over the piece, or just burn a spatter filled hole through the surface.
I also think my gas regulator isn’t working. I can’t adjust it and I just keep losing gas through a breather hole while the gauge goes all the way around for the CFH. I really can’t afford a $100+ regulator right now
I’m pretty used to this welder and I can set it to do quite decent welds in steel without any shielding gas.
But with aluminum, this is all I can get…
Every setting possible is tested on this piece.
Every time I look at it, I keep thinking: Whoa Nice Shoot’n Tex!!
cpu this might be a stupid question, but are you using anything to clean the aluminum before welding it? it has to be SUPER clean before you can put a bead on it. i used a sheet for practice as well and it looked EXACTLY like yours. i found i didnt have the aluminum clean enough though. once i cleaned it up properly it worked…well it worked a little better lol. i hate welding aluminum.
To start, you’ve got the right idea starting on a piece of scrap and running stringer beads.
I havn’t done much aluminum, but amung possible factors, your wire feed speed is set to high or your voltage setting is too low. What polarity are you running and likewise what shielding gas are you using? Other things to consider, did you clean the oxide layer off, what’s your tip-to-work distance like and are you using the right wire for the type of aluminum being welded. What make of mig welder are you using?
In terms of the regulator and possible gas leaks…are the fittings tight, have you leak tested it (soapy water from a spray bottle…spray it on the connections and you’ll find any leaks via bubbles), is your flow meter set right (easiest way to do this is to have a waster plate nearby or a friend watch the regulator while you’re welding and have him adjust it as necessary.) Other factors to consider are the amount of manipulation you’re using as you weld, the travel speed and the gun angle.
When you say that you can do decent welds without shielding gas on steel, are you talking about a self shielding wire? If you’re welding with solid wire on steel (IE, ER70S-6), you need to use a shielding gas.
IMO, mig works like a hot d*mn on aluminum with the right setup. Because aluminum wire is so soft, mig aluminum is pretty much limited to push-pull or spool guns.
Just throwing this out there, but any welding issues can more or less be solved on the forum below. A lot of knowledgable people there of ranging skill levels. (Does it show that I just wrote my interprovincial? 
)
I dug through some of my old textbooks (about two feet worth!)
This will give you somewhere to start, though the parameters are for 1/4" to 3/8" plate. Depending on the output of the machine you own, they may not work, but it gives you a rough idea. Most hobby units will produce similar welds smaller in size at lower voltages if the wire speed is set right.
The last image (while not a very good one) shows the different transfer modes. It isn’t the image I was looking for though. You most likely saw spray transfer in the youtube videos. Hopefully these help some!
I worked in a welding shop constructing awnings when I was in high school… aluminum welding is one of the biggest pains in the ass that ever existed in my opinion. lol
