Welding upside down

[stevie_c]

Hi Guys, I'm in the process of welding a new rear cross member on a land rover. The overlap welds on the top and horizontal surfaces are good as I was able to do practice welds before attacking the car. But... I'm finding it impossible to get a good weld on the bottom surface of the chassis. Any advice on welding upside down?

I'm using a SIP 130 with gasless wire as I'm working outside.

cheers,

Stephen

 

[malcolm]

Welcome to the forum Stephen,

Welding upside down is a pain. The main thing I've found helpful is to increase the wire speed a little - otherwise the wire seems to vaporise and form big balls of molten metal that drop onto your neck!

Also you could try the stop start technique in the welding thin metal page That'll help you prevent the puddle from getting too big and trying to drip off the chassis. You might need to increase the current a little for this technique to be effective.

I have a friend with a Series 3 Landrover. He's ordered a new chassis which we're planning to fit over a weekend sometime soon. It should be a fun challenge.

Malcolm

 

[malcolm]

I went into the garage and tried an upside down weld - the stop start technique seems to be the way to go. I turned up the amps and wire speed just a little to get a good arc, then welded a blob, stopped for a second, then welding the next one. The weld turned out quite nice.

 

[stevie_c]

Cheers Malcom,

Many thanks for the advice - far better than the 'turn the car over' advice I've recieved from the guys down the rugby club!

Good luck with the chassis change.