Welding sugestions

Reply #15 – July 03, 2009, 07:31:24 AM

Same here,
I've welded everything from 24 gauge sheet metal to 1/4" with no problems so far.

I'm going to do some aluminum this winter, Got a secret project planned for my car. ;)

Welding sugestions

Reply #16 – July 03, 2009, 09:28:48 AM

Im thinking of getting the spool gun for mine. I still got to transport my bird over to the new shop before I can start back on it.

Welding sugestions

Reply #17 – July 19, 2009, 05:03:07 PM

Man... its been awhile, no great progress on the bird yet, I didn't realize the thread has been going on with out me, I have stopped getting notices. Anyway, I am actually going to get the correct size wire today and came back to make sure I was going to get the right size. I am having a hard time finding a good place to get sheet metal for a fair price but I should get some soon.

With school and house work I never have time to work on the bird.... its how its been for a while.

Welding sugestions

Reply #18 – November 15, 2009, 05:30:41 AM

Brief welding tutorial: Wire and or MIG welders: If If If

Automotive body panels are thin so they require the finer gauge welding wire.The thin wire does not come "flux cored" so you need to use a shielding gas.
Welding voltage if determined by the thickness of the material.The thicker the material the more voltage you need. If you don't have a welder yet the more settings the better If you can't find one that is variable. Century makes a variable model off and on and is the brand I use. Also don't get the smallest argon tank there is. If you are a beginner it will be gone before you know it. Tanks are expensive but if you can buy or lease the larger; I think it's a six cubic feet, if you can. A good typical welding pace is about a quarter inch of bead a second.The surface of the weld puddle has to be rippling or the voltage is to low. When you start a weld bead you get the puddle established first and then move the puddle to create a bead.It should take between two and three seconds to establish a puddle. If it burns through in this amount of time it is to hot. If it takes longer its not hot enough, (voltage too low). The weld trail behind the puddle( the part you just laid), should be glowing red for about no more than three eights of an inch. If your glowing weld trail is too long you have too much "localized heating" and are susseptical to burn through. If your glowing weld trail is too short the penetration will not be sufficient and the bead will not flatten out and will be high and irregular. The wire speed is ninety nine percent just to support your welding voltage. If the wire speed is too fast (for the voltage setting) it will hit the material you are trying to weld, stub into it. It is not melting fast enough. If it is to slow (for the voltage setting) it melts of in globs and hisses. The distance of the nozzle from the work piece should be short enough so that the wire coming from the nozzle is rigid. It's like holding a pen or pencil down low as apposed to holding near the eraser. This also helps apply the shielding gas to the weld. I would say another three eights of an inch for this measurement. As far as pulling or pushing the bead it is not that important as how well you can see the seam. If you have a choice of pulling pushing or however you position your nozzle, chose the way that you can see the seem the best. You would think with all that light it would be easy to see when you weld but it' the hardest part so make every thing is secondary to this except your own health. Don't position the nozzle so it blocks your view of the seam and the weld puddle. Lay the gun on it's side and move along the seam. Always make sure the metal is perfectly clean and also keep your helmet lens clean. Welding nozzle tips get oval when they wear so keep this in mind. The arc will stop and then restart when the wire hits the material with an oval worn tip. Sometimes you will get a roll of wire that won't unroll.It's not your gun liner worn out. If you can manually pull wire through the liner with no resistance the liner is not causing it not to come off the roll. If you need a wider bead going side to side works as well as weaving. Weaving must be from gas welding days or something.

If someday you want to weld heavy material, flux cored wire produces more penetration for some unknown reason to me. Also with flux cored wire, there is a large variation of how much wire speed you can use. However the greater the wire speed the more flux you are using hence the worse you can see because it causes a denser cloud around the arc.
When you weld thin automotive panel material, you have to clamp the two pieces together or rivet them as close to the the seam as possible. So Close you may partially weld your clamps to the piece. For example, per one rivet you will be allowed to weld maybe one quarter of an inch (one eighth on either side) of it. If you don't the metal will warp away and you will burn through the edge of the top piece. Welding is done at a comfortable pace that you can adjust your parameters as you lay a bead. There HAS to be a glowing area behind the travel of the arc. If there isn't you won't have enough penetration and the bead won't flatten out. I call the glowing freshly laid down bead (local heating) heat not directly from the arc.If you are welding thin material you can't lay down a long bead for two reasons. The first reason is the entire panel will warp. The second reason is you won't get enough penetration and the bead won't flatten out. You get too much localized heating for the correct setting for thin material. If you are not concerned with warping the panel but don't want too much localized heating ( eventually burning through) you can take your finger of the trigger, pause until the localized heating is only near to were the arc was stopped and then restart the bead. If your localized heating is too far behind the arc ( long) you will burn through. The localized heating thing is the only way I get good results.It's confusing so I'm not concerned with redundancy. Localized heating is as important as the weld puddle itself. If you are laying a bead and the glowing red area and or distance from your current weld puddle is to great you will burn through. If you are not allowed a little bit of localized heating your voltage is too high. If you don't have enough residual heating from the current weld puddle it's not good either. The city I live in has steel distributors that sell surplus by the pound. The going rate right now is twenty seven dollars for twenty pounds of surplus. This is good for practice or patching together your non-cream puff.

Welding sugestions

Reply #19 – November 15, 2009, 08:43:30 AM

Cool, You need to throw some pics into that write up now.