vertical welding

[Mgazb]

What are the recommendations for welding vertical panels? I was doing a bit more work on my car over the weekend and ran out of flat bits to do.

Is it better to work from the bottom up - where the new weld will fall onto the old?

Or from the top down - where the new weld will run onto fresh metal?

I started with a new metal plate lapped over the old. There was a thin ridge on the blank side so I think the penetration was OK. I started at the bottom and worked up in stages to reduce the distorting heat effects.

I did manage to singe the carpet even though I had moved it away and thought I had covered it. Are there heat-resistant mats suitable for welding like for soldering pipework?

 

[Welder Jay]

it is a lot harder to go from the bottom up than it is to go from top to bottom.top to bottom looks better and it is just as strong and bottom to top is harder because the weld keeps falling down onto the previous weld and you get large pools of weld that hang off and its just more to grind off

 

[Mgazb]

Thanks, I'll try top down next time.
Presumably the same applies to diagonal welds on a vertical panel.

Are there any tricks to doing horizontal welds on a vertical panel?

 

[Welder Jay]

ive never really tried horizontal welds on a vertical panel but if u try and weave the puddle as you go make sure your placing the same amount of the puddle on each piece