A good share of the "can you even fix this" calls that reach the shop turn out to be aluminum. A cracked casting off a machine, a boat fitting, a trailer component somebody already attacked with the wrong filler rod. Steel forgives a rough hand. Aluminum does not, and that is exactly why it is worth bringing to a shop that runs it every week.
What We Build and Repair in Aluminum
Fabrication. Aluminum pipe bridges, windsock towers and oven structures have all left this shop, along with frames, guards and brackets where the weight savings earn their keep. Where aluminum work needs machining to mate with existing equipment, we machine it in-house to +/- .001.
Repair. Marine hardware, trailer components, cracked castings and one-off parts that a general shop will not touch. Our certified welders TIG weld the thin and visible work and MIG weld the structural runs, and there is plenty more of both on our work page.
Why Aluminum Is Harder Than Steel
The oxide skin lies to you. Every piece of aluminum wears an oxide layer that melts at close to three times the temperature of the metal underneath. Weld through it without breaking it down properly, with dedicated brushes and the right process, and you get a bead sitting on top of a joint instead of fused into it.
The heat runs away. Aluminum pulls heat from the weld zone faster than steel, so thin sections burn through while thick sections refuse to fuse, sometimes on the same part. Controlling that comes down to preparation, machine settings and an experienced hand.
It gives no warning. Steel glows red and tells you where you stand. Aluminum looks the same right up until it collapses. That is the main reason a garage MIG welder tends to make an aluminum crack longer instead of shorter.
It contaminates like stainless. A wire brush that has touched carbon steel will drag particles into an aluminum weld and weaken it. A shop that does real aluminum work keeps dedicated tooling for it, the same discipline we run on our stainless side.
Repair or New Part
Plenty of cracked aluminum can be welded and put back to work. Sometimes, though, the honest answer is that a new part fabricated from plate or extrusion is stronger and cheaper than nursing an old casting through another season. When it is close, we quote it both ways and let you decide. Either way the part is welded, finished and, where it has to fit something, machined under one roof.
Getting an Aluminum Quote
Same as any job here: bring the part, a photo or a sketch with rough dimensions to 3485 Mainway in Burlington, or send it through the contact form. Tell us what the part does and, if you know it, what alloy it is. We quote material, shop time and finishing as a real number, line by line, and customers come to us from Hamilton, Oakville and Milton for exactly that.