Panel beating tig welding

[Maxakarudy]

I know traditional coachbuilders/panel beaters use o/a to weld 1050 aluminium sheet when making panels, but does tig stand up to the hammering required to metal finish panels?
I find the tig method easier to weld without filler rod, but is it as good?
Would o/a annealing the ali after tig help matters?
Cheers
Martin

 

[hotrodder]

Yep, TIG welds can be planished and should be capable of taking lots of hammering/stretching without problems http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/media/albums Need to use filler wire, austenitic stainless is one of the few exceptions and even then it's not a good idea a lot of the time for various reasons. Autogenous TIG welds on ally will suffer solidification cracking most of the time, lack of fusion defects virtually all the time and will also be a chunk weaker. With carbon steels the filler wire contains deoxidisers, autogenous welds usually have porosity issues because there's nothing else (pure argon is inert etc) to deal with oxides

Welding ally anneals it locally regardless of the process. Oxy fuel typically anneals a larger area than TIG as the heat isn't as focused however that's a bit of a red herring with regards to planishing welds. With TIG you need to feed the weldpool a bit more than with o/a so there's typically more weld metal to deal with. More so with ally as the flux used with o/a does a better job of cleaning than the EP phase of an electric arc which can't reach the back of the joint

It's mostly swings and roundabouts but oxyfuel still edges out TIG as the better tool for welding coachwork IMO. Factor in everything else it's useful for beyond welding and it's a chunk further in the lead

 

[Burdekin]

Never done it myself on ali but seen a few guys who do. Spoke with Craig at CC Coachwork and he uses tig: www.cccoachwork.com but that's all I know. He doesn't use oxy.

 

[Maxakarudy]

Thanks for replies guys
I was recently shown by an old school panel maker how he welds 1.2 & 1.5mm 1050 ali without filler rod, he makes aluminium bodies and Jaguar panels, he gas welds them and the finish is superb, they could be polished.
I have practised a little with gas, but I find tig easier to see the puddle form & I'm in more control.
I find without filler rod there is a slight undercut, but there is penetration through the underside, so I think adding a bit of filler rod will be better.
Cheers
Martin

 

[hotrodder]

Have you got some decent flux rated glasses/goggles for oxy fuel? They're getting harder to find (sensibly priced examples at least) and make a big difference, not tried one yet as i've got some decent glasses with gwf rated lenses but if you google pulsafe cv85 you'll get a bunch of hits including discussions about them being good for welding ally on several metal shaping forums

While i generally prefer TIG it's mostly because i just use that process more and faffing about with flux is a relative PITA on smallish parts. Bigger parts/panels and i'd rather have some flux cleanup in exchange for less/easier/faster weld planishing/finishing

 

[Maxakarudy]

Hotrodder,
Yeah I've got a Pulsafe, I can view the puddle with A/O, but it's not quite as obvious as Tig I find, maybe it's a case of more practice.
Although looking at your album, what more punishment would you need give a joint to prove it's worthiness, if you need to pulverize it to that extent, you are doing something wrong ain't ya.
This conclusion tends me consider tig is more than up to the task, with benefits as you say with other welding scenarios.
So do you do auto bodywork/metalshaping as a day job? website?
Martin

 

[langy]

You would normally start with annealed ally

 

[hotrodder]

...looking at your album, what more punishment would you need give a joint to prove it's worthiness, if you need to pulverize it to that extent, you are doing something wrong ain't ya.
This conclusion tends me consider tig is more than up to the task, with benefits as you say with other welding scenarios.
So do you do auto bodywork/metalshaping as a day job? website?
Martin

True. That bit of ally abuse got done to show that TIG welds can stand up to as much as oxy fuel weld... it was a few years back and a different forum but the same old debate and a few people claiming that TIG welds were inherently brittle compared to oxyfuel. Kent White/Tinmantech has a vid basically claiming the same and it got posted, those pics were my rebuttal as i don't have a video camera

Don't have a website, weld/fabricate for a living but don't really specialise in metalshaping just do a bit here and there