Welding Sheet Metal To Steel

Tig welding sheet metal.

Welding sheet metal to steel. Short quick welds when welding sheet metal with a mig welder you do not want to try and run one long bead like when you re welding heavier metal. Sheet metal warps easily and also can burn through easily. Because it will have you a lot more control over the whole process and it is more forgiving in. This is especially useful for carbon steel.

The majority of the sheet metal welding i ve done was with a 90 amp 110 volt welder. The best two electrodes for welding auto body sheet metal is either ceriated tungsten or thoriated tungsten. Don t attempt to weld thin materials like sheet metal with flux cored wires which put more heat into the base metal. But when it comes to stainless steel or other nickel based metals less heat is needed.

Just grab a piece of sheet metal to get the heat set correctly and go to town. Most of the thin gauge sheet metal are made from steel stainless steel aluminum or galvanized. Forget the larger 1 8 inch tungsten electrode and use a smaller one. How to weld auto body sheet metal with a tig welder.

The best way to estimate the heat input needed for welding is by applying the 1 for 1 rule this means that 1 amp should be used per 1 thousandth 0 001 inch of thickness. Ditch a 1 8 inch tungsten electrode for something much smaller like 1 16 inch tungsten. Say if you are welding an 18 gauge stainless steel sheet that is 2 2 feet in size to repair the side of your tank start by creating a weld that is 1inch long then skip 6 inches and then create a 1 inch long weld. Although the weld burns off the zinc very little if any corrosion resistance is lost especially in thin section sheet metal.

Manufacturers of filler metal have come up with special wires that promise to eliminate porosity. A good heat setting for 1 8 6011 rods on thin material is about 80 90 amps. Porosity is almost inevitable and is affected mainly by the thickness of the zinc coating. Andy fogarty demonstrates how to weld thin metal to thick.

When welding a long bead on sheet metal you ll put excessive heat into the panel and run the risk of the puddle falling through the panel. 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. It is imperative you consider the shielding gas welding process and electrode before welding 20 gauge sheet metals. In the us sheet metal is designated through the gauge the larger the number the thinner the metal.

To weld sheet metal with solid wires use electrode positive ep or reverse polarity. For 3 32 7018 s it s about the same.