v8burbling
Member
- Messages
- 89
- Location
- UK
Hi all,
My first go at welding up the chassis. I've done sills before and bulkhead sides but not chassis. It's also the first welding I've done without the little disposable bottles and the accompanying rubbish regulator - now using a 2litre 95% Argon mix with a standard reg.
OK so pictures below. The patch plate I made up wasn't a perfect fit but I thought it would be OK as other forums were recommending leaving a bit of a gap anyhow. I did some trial welds on the new metal (2mm sheet) and got a good wire speed and power setting.
The spot welds all went well (I think) except for one where really I think I'd left too big a gap between the patch and the old metal (see the bottom far end of the patch) and another that blew away a bit of the old metal.
Welding upside down was difficult. The spot welds went OK but when I tried to do the seams, molten metal kept falling back into the gun and blocking the gas. Does that also upset the power flow ? What's the best technique to avoid that?
The end result just looked rather messy and I wasn't at all pleased with it. Hopefully it is strong enough. It is only a protrusion at the end of the chassis to mount the rear bumper, which is why I started here. Need to improve big time though as I have a chassis rail side to repair next.
The main problems came when trying to weld it up. Lots of the old metal blew away in several places. I dropped the power setting 1 notch and dropped the wire speed a little to match. This helped a bit but I still have holes around the patch.
So what was wrong?
Did I not cut away enough of the old metal, i.e. it was too thin?
Should I have angled the torch toward the new metal or something?
Did I get it too hot?
Too much weld build up - should have used a slower wire speed ?
When I ground down the welds (have now read that maybe this isn't the best thing to do for strength) there seems to a seamless transition from the new metal to the old through the weld, so presume that means it was hot enough ?
I have an auto-dim helmet and was set to 11 but found it difficult to see what I was doing, i.e. where the edge of the patch was, which doesn't help. Not sure I should be going below 11?
My first go at welding up the chassis. I've done sills before and bulkhead sides but not chassis. It's also the first welding I've done without the little disposable bottles and the accompanying rubbish regulator - now using a 2litre 95% Argon mix with a standard reg.
OK so pictures below. The patch plate I made up wasn't a perfect fit but I thought it would be OK as other forums were recommending leaving a bit of a gap anyhow. I did some trial welds on the new metal (2mm sheet) and got a good wire speed and power setting.
The spot welds all went well (I think) except for one where really I think I'd left too big a gap between the patch and the old metal (see the bottom far end of the patch) and another that blew away a bit of the old metal.
Welding upside down was difficult. The spot welds went OK but when I tried to do the seams, molten metal kept falling back into the gun and blocking the gas. Does that also upset the power flow ? What's the best technique to avoid that?
The end result just looked rather messy and I wasn't at all pleased with it. Hopefully it is strong enough. It is only a protrusion at the end of the chassis to mount the rear bumper, which is why I started here. Need to improve big time though as I have a chassis rail side to repair next.
The main problems came when trying to weld it up. Lots of the old metal blew away in several places. I dropped the power setting 1 notch and dropped the wire speed a little to match. This helped a bit but I still have holes around the patch.
So what was wrong?
Did I not cut away enough of the old metal, i.e. it was too thin?
Should I have angled the torch toward the new metal or something?
Did I get it too hot?
Too much weld build up - should have used a slower wire speed ?
When I ground down the welds (have now read that maybe this isn't the best thing to do for strength) there seems to a seamless transition from the new metal to the old through the weld, so presume that means it was hot enough ?
I have an auto-dim helmet and was set to 11 but found it difficult to see what I was doing, i.e. where the edge of the patch was, which doesn't help. Not sure I should be going below 11?