I have just picked up my welder after 4-5 years of no work on my project, a VW Type 2 van. I started on some clean cut pieces of metal on the bench just laying down welds the way I used to. This worked fine on 0.9mm - 1.2mm which is what I have used most of the time in the past.
The next step that I needed to do on the project though was a difficult repair to the sliding door track on the middle sill. The metal is approximately 1.5mm and so I cut a repair piece leaving as little gap as possible to butt weld it in place so that it looks and works as original. I then tacked the piece in place with virtually no penetration tacks. Then I ground these tacks down and started to do small sections of seam welds.
Before doing any welds I tried welding some of the thicker 1.5mm on the bench to get the settings right but was really struggling. The welds beads looked quite good from the surface (in my opinion) but the penetration wasn't anywhere near as a good as the 1mm metal I work on. I decided to go for setting 5 of 6, with wire speed 7 or 8 out of 10. It is a Sealey 185 supermig.
I used the thin metal pause method that I nearly always use but it hasn't worked out very well. I tried turning the welder up, turning the wire speed up, turning both down, but have gone round in circles. The welds don't seem like they have penetrated nicely. The problem is I am working upside down and it is not the easiest access.
I now don't know what to do. The welds haven't got the penetration I was hoping for. I know I can grind the welds down and go over it again and I may have to do this but I know from experience that it is almost impossible to see the original area where the two pieces have butted together, so I might miss the correct place to weld.
I don't know if my settings are wrong and my method wrong or what. I get the feeling that I should have kept the torch going slightly longer between pauses but I am obviously very concerned about distortion as well as blowing holes. Not quite sure where to go from here I'm really disappointed and I knew this repair was going to be difficult but it is really important to keep the original panel and repair as little as possible. Any advice?
The next step that I needed to do on the project though was a difficult repair to the sliding door track on the middle sill. The metal is approximately 1.5mm and so I cut a repair piece leaving as little gap as possible to butt weld it in place so that it looks and works as original. I then tacked the piece in place with virtually no penetration tacks. Then I ground these tacks down and started to do small sections of seam welds.
Before doing any welds I tried welding some of the thicker 1.5mm on the bench to get the settings right but was really struggling. The welds beads looked quite good from the surface (in my opinion) but the penetration wasn't anywhere near as a good as the 1mm metal I work on. I decided to go for setting 5 of 6, with wire speed 7 or 8 out of 10. It is a Sealey 185 supermig.
I used the thin metal pause method that I nearly always use but it hasn't worked out very well. I tried turning the welder up, turning the wire speed up, turning both down, but have gone round in circles. The welds don't seem like they have penetrated nicely. The problem is I am working upside down and it is not the easiest access.
I now don't know what to do. The welds haven't got the penetration I was hoping for. I know I can grind the welds down and go over it again and I may have to do this but I know from experience that it is almost impossible to see the original area where the two pieces have butted together, so I might miss the correct place to weld.
I don't know if my settings are wrong and my method wrong or what. I get the feeling that I should have kept the torch going slightly longer between pauses but I am obviously very concerned about distortion as well as blowing holes. Not quite sure where to go from here I'm really disappointed and I knew this repair was going to be difficult but it is really important to keep the original panel and repair as little as possible. Any advice?
