Welding Copper Sheet Metal

Forget the larger 1 8 inch tungsten electrode and use a smaller one.

Welding copper sheet metal. It is often necessary to raise the temperature level of the sheet in an area of 6 0 to 12 0 in. One project is sheet metal haven t bought it yet so don t have the thickness. The other is copper plumbing pipe. While wire feed welding sheet metal go for short bursts of welding instead of a going on a long bead.

The filler has more nickel than the base metal making it stronger. As a general rule of thumb copper under 2 mm should have argon gas and up to 160 a applied. Is there any way to use that for this project. Someone told me that i could weld copper w the 175 but would need a spool gun to do it.

Don t attempt to weld thin materials like sheet metal with flux cored wires which put more heat into the base metal. Here s a few tips on repairing rust holes in car body panels. For sheet metal i use ine welding wire and it is just as good as their flux cored wire if you want you can grab one here. Use the proper gas ratio.

You want the weld metal to be stronger than the base metal. As a rule when mig welding sheet metal never use a body filler metal that is thicker than the base metal. Step 3 remove all problem substances. Mig welding is the preferred method for most automotive bodywork and since sheet metal is the thinnest of metals a large expensive mig unit is usually not required.

Try going for a wire of 023 inches when welding sheet metal. Grease oil and paints can cause your weld to crack if they get mixed in. In this video im showing you the process i use to do small rust repairs where a complete panel. It is recommended that a welder should use 023 or 024 inch wire for light gauge sheet metal work.

If the copper is thicker you will need to adjust the gas and amp by applying helium and upping the. The majority of the sheet metal welding i ve done was with a 90 amp 110 volt welder. In welding copper sheets the heat is conducted away from the welding zone so rapidly that it is difficult to bring the temperature up to the fusion point. When the copper alloy contains at least 70 percent copper use 70 30 copper nickel filler.

Depending on if you are using tig tungsten inert gas or mig metal inert gas and the thickness of your copper you will need to adjust the ratio of your gas and temperature. To weld sheet metal with solid wires use electrode positive ep or reverse polarity. I have access to a miller 175 mig.