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Old 11-14-2004, 01:09 PM
Fibergeek Fibergeek is offline
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Wow, you do nice work, Lorenzo.

Welding the electrical connections will be nearly as fast as Ti racking, and it provides several advantages over racking and all other mechanical attachment methods:

1. Absolute electrical connectivity; fusion welding provides the best electrical connection possible.
2. Immunity to connection degradation caused by the anodization process. Far better than any and all mechanical methods.
3. Only one connection point blemish. Racking requires a minimum of two, but they are usually smaller.
4. No holes required to make connections.
5. Negligible parasitic surface area effects. Racking adds surface area that must be accounted for. The current wasted by the rack heats up the electrolyte.
6. High strength, very suitable for large or heavy work.

Work that is 0.060" thick isn't a problem, the minimum work thickness specified for the Type 5 or 6 is 0.020". When you have determined the correct weld energy for the work, you will be able to make the welds with no possibility of burn through or even a heat blemish on the opposite side.

For the Throttle Body, you could use this technique to weld the wire in the bottom of a blind hole:
Get a rigid piece of plastic tubing with an OD small enough to fit in the blind hole. The tubing has an ID that will allow the wire to freely telescope in it. The tubing guides the wire and keeps it away from the sides of the hole as you make the weld. Larger AWG wire, say 14 or 12 AWG makes this easy to do. If you are using a Type 5, you can take all the time you want to line things up, it won't lose any of the charge (big storage capacitors leak).

This method can also be used on most any surface to aid in alignment, and to contain weld spatter.

Needless to say; a CDW will save your fingers, and the welded connections will provide a noticeable improvement in the consistency of your anodizing.
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