Welding plastic coated steel sheeting?

[Pete Gorrell]

Hi,
I'm a total beginner. I want to sculpt something out of strips of steel sheeting, spot welded together. I want it to look rough.
A friend has a load of plastic coated, corrugated, steel roofing panels that he doesn't want. Is it going to be possible to weld this, or am I better buying clean sheet steel?
Also, what's the best tool for cutting thin sheet steel into strips?
Regards,
Pete

 

[daleyd]

Plastic coated is going to be a nightmare, unless you have an easy way of removing the coating. It'll burn and produce smoke and just won't generally be very nice.

Depends what thickness sheet, as a start an angle grinder with a slitting disc is as good as anything, if it's particularly thin then perhaps snips may work ok, but you wouldn't want to be doing hundreds of metres with them?

A guillotine would be ideal but again it depends on the thickness/length of sheet and available space.

Welcome to the forum by the way, whereabouts in north wales are you?

 

[Pete Gorrell]

Thanks for this! I did suspect that the coating would be a problem. Shame, because he has enough sheeting for the projects I have in mind. I might take a sheet, cut it up and put the pieces on a bonfire first, to see how it looks. I'm try to create something a bit grungy, so you never know.
I'm between Mold and Denbigh.

 

[daleyd]

Yeah, if you can get the coating off it may work, hopefully your neighbours wont mind!!

How are you welding it? Mig?

I'm just down the road, in between Mold and Wrexham.

 

[harryb94]

Not sure how hard the plastic coating is to get off but you could try a wire wheel on a grinder, would make a hell of a mess though! If you're getting it for free you've got nothing to lose!

 

[123hotchef]

burn the plastic off with a torch

 

[cumbriasteve]

Sounds like the material I have used a few times, if it is, a thin cutting disc will slice through it like butter.

I cut 12 metres with a 9" cutting disc and I was nearly going at walking pace, hardly knew it was there.

 

[eSCHEn]

As has been said you can burn it off with whatever floats your boat.

If, however, the sheets are in decent nick then I'd flog them and use the coinage to buy nicer steel to work with. The box section roofing (if that's what it is) is not cheap at all. You'd probably sell it no sweat.

FYI the roofing comes in two thicknesses: 0.55mm and 0.7mm. The coating can be PVC or other materials. Don't breathe the smoke!

 

[Pete Gorrell]

Selling the roofing sheets sounds like a plan.
I need to bend the strips into shapes and spot weld the pieces. What's the best thickness, to make in bendable but thick enough to spot weld? What's the thinnest I could use?

 

[eSCHEn]

What thicknesses will your spot machine do Pete? I'm not a user of them but I believe the domestic powered ones can't do very much.

SWK will be along to correct / advise shortly

 

[Pete Gorrell]

What thicknesses will your spot machine do Pete? I'm not a user of them but I believe the domestic powered ones can't do very much.

SWK will be along to correct / advise shortly

My welder works up to 6mm.

 

[eSCHEn]

My welder works up to 6mm.

Hells bells Pete, that's a monster spot welder!