Advice on welding this exhaust back together

[Steve-O]

Could someone give me some advice on welding this M3 exhaust back together? Its my project exhaust

I will be using a Clarke90 Mig welder.
It is about 1.5 - 2mm thick from memory.
I will also be using Argosheild Light and I think it is 0.6mm wire thats in at the moment.

What sort of Amps should I be set at and what sort of wirespeed would you recommend?

Thanks

 

[Ragnarok]

get some sheet the same thickness and do some practice butt welds.
what are you going to do to stop it rusting after?

 

[W4yne]

Clarke 90en

Hi Steve,

In the tutorials at the top of the page there is a very good guide calculator to the various power settings of certain machines, one of them being the Clarke 90en. Recommendations for 1.5-2mm steel would need between settings 3-4 with a wire speed using 0.6 wire of between 4.3 - 5.6

There is no real substitute for practicing on a piece of scrap steel of similar thickness to get the correct settings as your hand speed maybe faster or slower than someone elses.

Hope this has been of some help Steve? Good luck!

 

[steveo3002]

ive got the clarke 90 , you can prob use it at max power without too much worry

 

[gordon stephenson]

You have not explained why the exhaust is like it is, Have you cut it open to work on the internals? If so and its in good condition and and you say it's 1.5-2-00mm then it should weld just fine,Has it got an aluminised coating? If so it will probably need grinding off first,

 

[Steve-O]

thanks for the advice, wont be for a few days untill I do it as going on holiday but just thought I would get advice first before trying.

I have scrap metal the same thickness that I will practice on

It was cut open to remove the baffle material / fiberglass packing, I want more rasp from it, its not rotten or anythng

Its in clean condition but I might just give it a quick grind over the areas to make sure as it may have some sort of coating on it.

To stop rusting I was thinking of using high temp Stove / BBQ paint

Thanks again will also look at that power setting guide

 

[pedrobedro]

Wrap some stainless wire wool round the perforated pipe and wire it on or your box is going to lose you power and sound like a blowing exhaust like this one, unless that's what you are aiming for

 

[Steve-O]

ok so this is where Im at so far untill my wire ran out and time was getting on.

I thought I had some metal the same thickness that I removed from the inside but it was more like tin that just blew holes through. Anyway I just thought go for it -



This is my first attempt at welding something. Its not perfect but you have to start somewhere

I found the Clarke90 set to number 2 and Min worked best, set to 2 and Max was blowing holes quite easy.

 

[Steve-O]

I like tacked it all on first with little welds.

Filling in the large gaps takes a little time, is there a faster way to do this or do you just build it up?

thanks

 

[Steve-O]

Im getting better at this now I think The joints that are close together are easy, the big gaps I find turning the power right down and taking my time allows me to fill them in without blowing holes due to the heat build up when using the next setting up.

 

[mike 109444]

Steve-O once you have welded it up you might want to get some exhaust past and water it down (with some water!) so it is nice and runny then paint it on and over the welded joints allowin it to run into the welds to fill any pin holes. This will stop it blowing at thoses pin holes and burning a bigger hole!. It is very difficult to do a 100% gas tight weld on exhaust and the runny past works.

 

[Steve-O]

Thanks for the tip, will do that before fitting it tomorrow

 

[Steve-O]

done and fitted all seems sealed good just unsure on if I want to leave it on..

I like it alot but at the same time I dont want the hassle of the old bill stopping me telling me to put it back to standard etc so Im going to give it untill the weekend and see what I think... I sort of got abit of a stare off the police as I drove past them today..... hhmmmm

 

[the snooper]

my son had a car that was quite load when he bought it, motorway driving soon made him change that it drives you crazy

 

[jonnyBMX]

to me it looks asif you could do with cleaning it up a fair bit before you weld it! will make it far easier! ensure the earth is on a nice clean bit of metal too! 5 PS

 

[Steve-O]

its not bad realy on the motorway, the only RPM range it drones in is 1,400 - 1,950 rpm area

Overall it sounds good but I just dont want the hassle of being stopped as technically it is like running no exhaust lol.

Took it off today after 100 miles and all the welds are still in place and I dont see any sooty deposits coming through so looks well sealed.

 

[Justme]

I bet it rots out from the inside within a year.