Mig Welding Sheet Metal Tips

Tips for welding sheet metal and body panels with mig.

Mig welding sheet metal tips.

To reduce the risk of burn through warpage and distortion follow these tips to reduce heat input keep travel speeds high and ensure there are no gaps in part fit up. Top ways to keep metal from warping when welding. However if you are dealing with materials that are 18 gauge or thicker one should be able to use 030 inch welding wire. Before you even get to welding this starts with panel fitment you want gaps as absolutely tight as you can possibly manage.

If you re welding thinner materials like automotive sheet metal it is more critical that you keep the heat to a minimum when welding. One zap at a time. It is better to use instead of a high percentage of co2. Tips for welding sheet metal with mig or tig.

Learn why mig pulsed mig tig and pulsed tig are the ideal choices when welding sheet metal. Learn how to mig weld automotive sheet metal in about 5 minutes or less. Welding sheet metal with a mig involves what i refer to as dot welding. Every time you weld a mig dot it is going to shrink in a circumferential fashion pulling from all sides.

October 4 2019 by. Holding the tip too far from the surface will cause the wire to have to come out too far to touch the metal. Mig welding is perhaps the easiest form of welding because it s also the most versatile. This also helps you in voltage adjustments and the wire feed can be set to any kind of configuration.

I keep it short and to the point in this welding instructional video and show how ve. As a rule when mig welding sheet metal never use a body filler metal that is thicker than the base metal. For thinner gauge sheet metal like 18 or 20 gauge we suggest 023 6mm wire in your mig welder. When welding thin metal the main objective is to avoid warping burn through and excessive heat affected zones while still ensuring the weld has enough mechanical strength for the application.

The end results can help manufacturing operations reduce rework and costs. You don t have to spend a fortune to get started a small unit like the powermig 140c will do a lot of work especially automotive sheet metal. It is recommended that a welder should use 023 or 024 inch wire for light gauge sheet metal work. Short circuit transfer mig short arc tig and pulsed tig welding processes provide the most control over the heat to address these challenges.

Mig welding aluminum sheet metal leaves little room for error. With machines having infinite adjustability you can weld sheet metals more easily and quickly. Keep the stick out short stickout of your mig wire is important when welding any type of metal but especially sheet metal. Otherwise you may find a lot more splatter than you have imagined.

Better choose a mig welding machine that comes with infinite adjustability as it will enable you to adjust like the way you wanted.