Some thin sheet practice

[Silver Surfer]

I got an ESAB C160i from Steve at Weldequip and have been having a few goes on some thin sheet. I bought the welder with the aim of being able to repair my VW T25 van. I have not really done much welding before but have read alot and done a bit years ago as part of my apprenticeship. Anyway here is where i'm at.

Some runs and two butt welds on 1mm sheet (Argonshield lite)

I have also done some runs and a fillet on some 3mm base plate with a 6mm vertical piece (Argonshield lite)

The ESAB machine is superb. The settings seem to be high i.e min (0.4mm plate) is about right for 1mm.

Any feedback most welcome

 

[cumbriasteve]

Some very nice welds there, couple of 'drain holes' as well but I would be more than pleased with those on thin stuff.

I read the exact same somewhere about the ESAB settings not relating to the thickness but I think the variants will always be there with the difference of experience and the actual task.

I think as you continue you will get a feel for when the heat is just a bit too much and ease off before the blow through appears.

You should be well pleased with those.

 

[Silver Surfer]

Thanks for the feedback. I am very pleased with the results. I wanted to get some feedback and also let people know just how easy these machines are to use. I really have only done a very little welding in the past so I credit the machine with most of the results. I am a time served machanical fitter and would class myself as fairly practical so I think this may help but i really have never ever welded like this

I got more blow holes with the second butt weld as the plate edges were much more uneven.

Fot the fillet I used a sort of rolling 'e' method (as if I were writing a whole string of lower case e's). I also tried this on the thin plate where it seemed to work ok and got a wider weld bead. I did have to turn down the power tho. I thought this technique might be better for uneven edges on butt welds.

As I said before I used Argonshield Lite and also cleaned the metal as much as possible. I wanted to give myself the best chance I could.

All in all i'm really really pleased.

 

[mm289]

Hey SS, looking good - those ESAB's are really tempting especially like the portability and control.

If I do much more of this stuff I might look at one myself - maybe for the 'bay once the T25 is finished.

MM

 

[Silver Surfer]

MM the portability is what sold it to me and the fact that I can run it off either a 50m extention lead or a generator no worries.

What T25 do you have?

 

[FAAace09]

looking good still mate, im gona start with mig, i passed my oxi cetaline welding but was never really great, so more practice makes perfect, keep it up