upside down??

[grayam]

Hi all,

welding of my mini is going fine, practice makes perfect as they say. However I have done both rear arches and have had to weld upside down. This produced lots of blow throughs, blobbing of weld and wire burning back to the tip. Also lots of weld falling on me !!

Is there a special technique to upside down welding ??

Graham

 

[arceyed]

when i weld sheet or bodywork, i do the spot by spot technique, i used to try to do continuous beads and had the same problem as you...saw the technique used on a TV program, with great reasults, it's also easy to grind back to a nice finish too, i weld a spot no longer than a second with the torch on, then slightly overlap the spot on the second, and so on, keep going until you get the the end of where you are going, this technique seems to stop heat warp, and burn through.

I'm no expert by all means, but this is the way i do it, and have got on a hell of a lot better since switching to this method...hope it helps

As i'm no expert if anybody can offer better advice or i have got somethig wrong please correct this

 

[grim_d]

On cars at least, when welding upside down I have found that a touch more gas, a touch more wire speed and thin metal technique works a treat to stop the problems you have mentioned.

If you don't have any tip dip, like me, keep and eye on the amount of spatter falling down the shroud, giving it a few taps on the ground every now and again to clear it out.

 

[grayam]

Cheers for the tips, still hate it tho !!

 

[tflnemesis]

Gaffa tape is your friend, i always try and tape up any openings in my clothes when welding upside down, spatter down the sleeve, round the neck or down your front is no fun at all......

 

[malcolm]

Turn up the wire speed and work a little faster if necessary. Works if the wire is burning back and dropping blobs.

The technique formerly known as the thin metal technique is good for thin stuff overhead with the increased wire speed.