Hmmm... I welded a piece of 3 mm angle iron at right angles to a piece of 6 mm flat stock for a bracket I needed. (If you laid the flat stock on the table and stood the angle on its edge so the the "L" was in contact with the flat stock, you'd have a pretty good picture of what I did.) The 6 mm was clamped flat to my welding table (which is also 6 mm thick) with an additional 6 mm piece of scrap backing it. I left everything clamped until the weld was fully cold. Then I noticed that the 6 mm actually warped at the point of the weld. I've experienced this warpage with thinner stock but never with material this thick.
One of the books I've been reading (Welder's Handbook by Richard Finch) said that heating the area opposite the weld (on the other side of the 6 mm) to dull red and letting it cool would cause the stock to flatten out again. Unfortunately, I didn't remember this until after I had painted it so I couldn't try it. Does anyone have experience with this solution? What do you do to prevent warping on thick stock like this?
One of the books I've been reading (Welder's Handbook by Richard Finch) said that heating the area opposite the weld (on the other side of the 6 mm) to dull red and letting it cool would cause the stock to flatten out again. Unfortunately, I didn't remember this until after I had painted it so I couldn't try it. Does anyone have experience with this solution? What do you do to prevent warping on thick stock like this?
