The only way I would join the two would be to use a

polymethylmethacrylate composite. This stuff is used on airplane structures to join parts where drilling and riveting would lessen the strength of a subassembly. Be careful though the the stuff is toxic. Wear respirator rubber gloves etc. It is tough as hell strong bond product name Equilox sold by Centaur forge

John Dach
john@MLCE.net
web site: http://www.MLCE.net
I have seen "kits" at boat shows for sale that will "weld" just about any metal to just about any other type of metal. Different rods for different metal combinations. Not cheap but not bank breaking either.

The other thing that MAY work, depending on how much stress si going to be put on the bond area, is using a product called LEXOR (I think that is the name, I know it starts with an L and has an X in it). It is a caulking compound for windows and other needs, is water clear, is a solvent base and is TOUGH. If you ever use it to put in a car windshield, you will destroy the car getting the stuff off. VERY sticky, not terribly expensive and available at your local hardware store.

John Dach

There are some very limited methods for actually welding ferrous to non-ferrous alloys. Unfortunately though, these processes do not lend themselves to the hobbyist or even most welding professionals as they typically require very specialized tooling and equipment. The most effective method that I have used involves a GMAW type process with AL wire and a dabber type wire feeder cycling at about 40 cycles per second with the welding current and voltage tuned to compliment the dabber cycle. Heat shunting is very important to limit the size of the heat affected zone and control cooling contraction in the dissimilar metals. I use water cooled copper bars on both sides of the work-pieces and joint.
Fronius, a welding equipment supplier, has at least one dabber style GMAW gun on the market, so perhaps in the future these technologies will be more readily available.

Go with cool bolts!

This is a school project usually meaning low bucks and low experience, I would go with bolting the pieces together. A robot is a work in progress, and expect to take it apart and do it again, and again. I have often built at least three robots before getting a working version, and even then it was a work in progress.

Lots of good inputs, but many are beyond student level.

Don

Hello there,

yes you can Al-Ss joint very easily.

you have to a brazing alloy of composition Zn98Al2 and a flux paste - Al Flux 028 Cs/D (of company Flux GmbH).

Regards,

Eyup Karaca.
Istanbul-Turkey

The only two ways I could see to join aluminum to steel would be either by friction stir welding FSW or by using a Bi-Metallic explosion welding (piece are generally already joined by explosion and sold as is). Bi-Metalic has been very popular in the marine fields to attach the steel shell to aluminum superstructures.

Alex, P.E.

www.maadigroup.com

I have a millermatic 210 mig welder and a spool gun and I used silicon bronze wire and it work great for welding aluminum to steel

What type of gases and dia. of wire are you using? How many amps and volts are being used? How thick is the material.

Please send me a response to: phil.fockler@morbark.com

Thanks

i would also like to know your wire size, and voltage used with this silicon bronze wire. i have a project i need to complete and i need to weld and aluminum bracket onto some mild steel for a customer of mine... is the same mixture of argon and carbon dioxide ok to use in this application? Please e-mail me back at techryan112@hotmail.com

Hello, my name is Terry and I am trying to get more information on Explosion Welding. Do you have any more information or resources where I can get more information on this subject? Please email me at kassandraromine@yahoo.com. Thanks!

It's called Data-clad and has been made by Dupont for years.
We use it in ship building with a 100% success rate.
I believe you can get almost any combination of ferrous to non-ferrous.
If you only need a relitively small amount and expense is an issue I imagine you could buy scrap from a steel hull-Al superstructure builder quite reasonably.
They have a very informative web-site as well. Dupont/data-clad.

My grandfather showed this to me a few times as a kid and it is part of the reason that im now a professional welder myself. In his 40+ years as a welder in Texaco oil refinery plants he learned that by using an oxy-fuel torch he could sucessfully bond a GALVANIZED STEEL nut onto a piece of Aluminum sheetmetal. Now, i will admit it is still a bit of a grey area in metallurgy since they are dissimilar metals However you can look this up on wiki in the 1950's to the 1970's they developed Aluminum/Zinc alloys and last time I checked...galvanized coatings are mostly Zinc. Well, thats what I know on the matter. I hope it helps....do with this info as you like hehe