Had a session of van repairing at the weekend and put a couple of 5x6” plates in to a panel. Plates are 1 thk and original panel is 0,8mm thk, butt welded with mig doing 15mm on one side then 15 on the next and so on. I’m happy with the welds, but one side of the original panel distorted a bit, like someone pressed a cricket ball against it leaving a 1 or 2mm dent. Any tips on reducing distortion? TIA, Bri
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Panel distortion
- Thread starter baj25
- Start date
To reduce distortion when doing thin non structural repair work, make repair sections with joddled edges, and plug weld to original panel. If you continuously butt weld, then its going to distort, and will be very difficult to get it flat enough for a good standard final finish.
G`day baj
As engineer said one method is to use a lap joint, another one that i prefer is to but join like you are doing but putting less heat into the joint.
Get your patch into place and if possible put a backing block behind it to absord the heat and stabilise the patch, then TACK weld it. Put a tack in one spot then another on the opposite side of the patch, work your way around the patch as if you were dividing the patch up, the first two tacks give you two halves of the patch, put another tack in the middle of each half and keep going like that. Keep the tacks as far apart as possible and take your time, let the welds cool as much as possible. If you keep the heat to a minimum you will minimise the distortion and only have a little to planish out once you have cleaned up the welds. With a little practice you should be able to get a patch that is almost invisible once metal finished.
Cheers
Troppo
As engineer said one method is to use a lap joint, another one that i prefer is to but join like you are doing but putting less heat into the joint.
Get your patch into place and if possible put a backing block behind it to absord the heat and stabilise the patch, then TACK weld it. Put a tack in one spot then another on the opposite side of the patch, work your way around the patch as if you were dividing the patch up, the first two tacks give you two halves of the patch, put another tack in the middle of each half and keep going like that. Keep the tacks as far apart as possible and take your time, let the welds cool as much as possible. If you keep the heat to a minimum you will minimise the distortion and only have a little to planish out once you have cleaned up the welds. With a little practice you should be able to get a patch that is almost invisible once metal finished.
Cheers
Troppo
I agree with troppo here. The key is to put as little heat as possible into the metal. By using tack welds at opposite sides as troppo says and maybe even waiting a minute or so in between each tack you will minimise the heat build up.
Again, as above, if you can access the back of the panel put a copper or brass block on the back to act as a heat sink and absorb some of the excess heat.
Again, as above, if you can access the back of the panel put a copper or brass block on the back to act as a heat sink and absorb some of the excess heat.
