Welding - how easy is it ?

[alzax3]

It won't 'weld' (dissimillar metals) but may 'stick' if you manage to over heat it. It needs to be thick enough so as not to melt through - we had a 6 inch square piece about 1/2" thick in the fabrication works I used to toil in - I guess the thickness helps to spread the heat and stop the arc melting one area.
Not having a lump like that here, I tend to use an old Thor hammer for small holes - it has the advantage of a nice long insulated handle as obviously whatever you use - it gets HOT!

Oh yes, technique: if you want to fill up a hole someone's drilled in a dashboard, say - (obviously there's a limit to how big the hole is before it makes more sense to plate it!) you'd just clean back to bare metal, place your copper behind and 'paint' the weld into the hole in a circular motion (working inwards) fairly low power setting. Remove the backing copper and grind front for a dead smooth finish (aluminium oxide sanding disc works wonders, and if the weld was neat, you shouldn't need hard grinding disc at all).... simple!

[taupe]

Hi

Thanks for that - I have a few small holes i will try it out!!

[d_harris]

I have never, ever heard of that before! I might have to give it a go....

[Dean]

Well you learn something new every day!

[Mick_Anik]

I did a post in 'Useful Tips' a couple of days ago....:Always weld in a logical fashion'.

Welding...the word covers two things - the specific process of welding with the MIG, and the overall activity of replacing metal on a car. The fomer is very easy and quickly learnt. The latter? Heaven or hell!

I reckon the actual welding with a MIG pistol in your hand takes up no more than ten per cent of the time you need to spend to do a sound job on a car. The other ninety per cent of the time gets spent on cleaning everything up, cutting out, preparing or fabricating panels and finishing of the weld.
There are two kinds of weld - you can grind them down flat so they are invisible when painted, or do an "honest" weld, where you grind it to a certain extent but leave enough that it remains visible. This is the kind I do on my own cars.

The most important aspect is preparation - the actual welding should be very quick and easy. Skimping on preparation can lead to your having a bad time time of it once you get to the welding stage. Check the attachment for an example.
If you weld in the style of A, you'll have a hard time getting a nice weld. If you take the time to put a 1/8 inch lip along the piece, you'll have fun! With an 'anvil' (any heavy block of steel with a nice 90 degree edge for shaping the steel against) and a hammer, it takes only a few minutes to make the lip along a couple of feet of material.



Check the other post, and come back or PM me if you'd like more info. As a former journalist, I enjoy the challenge of putting things into words.

My welding motto?

Drawing blood is failure!


<br><br>