aluminum is a nice enough metal but it's a pain to work with

can't solder to it worth crap without special solder and really aggressive flux, can't weld it without tons of practice
-F

@Felthry I like aluminum.

Definitely not great electrically tho. And the oxide layer is a mixed blessing.

@Felthry welding it isn't so bad if you have a good TIG welder.

@starkatt soldering it's a nightmare though. you need incredibly aggressive flux, and a weird zinc-based solder that has the potential to give off highly toxic zinc fumes (tin-based solders, even really good tin-lead stuff, just don't wet aluminum very well at all)
-F

Follow

@starkatt i don't think the zinc fumes are really that likely to happen but anything working with zinc and high temperatures you need to be careful
-F

@starkatt I imagine welding it is a lot more dangerous than soldering with it, due to the higher temperatures involved!
-F

Sign in to participate in the conversation
Awoo Space

Awoo.space is a Mastodon instance where members can rely on a team of moderators to help resolve conflict, and limits federation with other instances using a specific access list to minimize abuse.

While mature content is allowed here, we strongly believe in being able to choose to engage with content on your own terms, so please make sure to put mature and potentially sensitive content behind the CW feature with enough description that people know what it's about.

Before signing up, please read our community guidelines. While it's a very broad swath of topics it covers, please do your best! We believe that as long as you're putting forth genuine effort to limit harm you might cause – even if you haven't read the document – you'll be okay!