Hi
I've not done much in the way of spot welding and tonight I flung together 2 old pieces of sheet steel, drilled holes with spot welding removal drill in one of the plates, and tried my hand at it. Firstly I am using an old migmate 130 with the 6 settings i.e. low (min/med/max) and High(min/med/max).
I tried a couple at low(med) and didn't get much penetration at the back and it looked a bit lumpy rather than pooling, so bumped up to low(max) and it seemed a bit better. What I find is the most difficult part is holding the weld torch steady and at the right distance away whilst closing my helmet etc.
I'm thinking of getting one of those light sensitive helmets and a spot welding tip that holds the gun away at the certain distance and you don't have to balance it there. So here are a few pics of the ones that were better examples.
This is the penetration at the back, the one in the middle which looks like a rivet I think was the best one.
This is the coal face, again the middle one seemed to pool the best, the left one was me swirling the tip slightly, it looks kind of mushroomy, the right one was me holding it for a bit longer than usual so it started building up. Why is it the penetration in the back looks burnt in the centre of the weld, especially the left & middle one?
Any advice, tips, recommendations on those and improving it even more? Some of the spot welds will be sills onto the jacking point areas so wondering about spot welding thin metal onto thicker steel, any advice for that as well?
Note: Metal was slightly rusty from storage but cleaned up the bits I was welding with grinder.
Thanks
Andrew
I've not done much in the way of spot welding and tonight I flung together 2 old pieces of sheet steel, drilled holes with spot welding removal drill in one of the plates, and tried my hand at it. Firstly I am using an old migmate 130 with the 6 settings i.e. low (min/med/max) and High(min/med/max).
I tried a couple at low(med) and didn't get much penetration at the back and it looked a bit lumpy rather than pooling, so bumped up to low(max) and it seemed a bit better. What I find is the most difficult part is holding the weld torch steady and at the right distance away whilst closing my helmet etc.
I'm thinking of getting one of those light sensitive helmets and a spot welding tip that holds the gun away at the certain distance and you don't have to balance it there. So here are a few pics of the ones that were better examples.
This is the penetration at the back, the one in the middle which looks like a rivet I think was the best one.
This is the coal face, again the middle one seemed to pool the best, the left one was me swirling the tip slightly, it looks kind of mushroomy, the right one was me holding it for a bit longer than usual so it started building up. Why is it the penetration in the back looks burnt in the centre of the weld, especially the left & middle one?
Any advice, tips, recommendations on those and improving it even more? Some of the spot welds will be sills onto the jacking point areas so wondering about spot welding thin metal onto thicker steel, any advice for that as well?
Note: Metal was slightly rusty from storage but cleaned up the bits I was welding with grinder.
Thanks
Andrew