Bonding a steel nut to aluminum

O

oldwolf

Joined
Dec 29, 2002
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When I first built my NWG I had a bunch of square aluminum tube so used some in the build of the tracking unit. Tapping the Aluminum didn't hold up too well so I JB Welded a steel nut to the aluminum. Did I say 4 times. I thought Jb would hold just fine. but the belt pressure on that nut popped it loose 4 times so I've given up on that wonderfull idea.
Any ideas other than getting rid of the aluminum tube?
 
get a thick flat bar of steel that fits inside the tube, drill and tap it for the hole it needs


If you fit it tight, you can maybe jb weld it in place


but it's the fit of the nut pulling in tension that keeps it in place
 
Steel touching aluminum leads to galvanic corrosion through the dissimilar metals. It would be best to use stainless steel.
 
You mean a stainless nut?

Sbuzek, The aluminum is only less than 1/8". A helicoil needs something thicker, I believe.
The metal inside the tube sounds pretty good. Any others?
 
You didn't say if you were putting the nut on the end of the tube or inside the tube.
Epoxies work best if they are relatively thin, and if the surfaces to be bonded are somewhat roughened. Also epoxy loses strength at high temperatures.

So in your application the best thing would be to form a piece of metal that will fit inside of the aluminum tube with thin gap around the outside, drill and tap this piece, roughen the outside of the piece of metal and inside of the tube, and epoxy the tapped piece of metal inside the tube.
 
OK you guys. Thanks. Going to do the steel piece inside the tube. I think a piece of angle iron would fit in there.

Ken
 
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