Last minute welding advice?

[weldore]

wot dave says...if ya welder has decent enough power the larger diameter wire gives you a thicker pool.your putting more metal down without the speed, going up a size.but different plants cope differently to others.for what it costs (about 5 quid i think for a small spool from machine mart) its worth seeing what size your plant will cope with better ...and make sure you have a good earth onto the van.

[mrhutch]

^^ and me!

[oldiguana]

i always keep a couple a big thick cardboard boxes in me workshop,the sort of thing teles n bikes come in...they make great little exclusion zones for welding in,so sparks dont jump on to interiors,seats etc,n a few old leather coats bridge any gaps too.....and i put stone chip fires out with a ball pein hammer,also a small bathroom mirror for lookin under the car to look for fires without having to move is a good time saver....and im a stickler for 0.6mm wire,it doesnt leave an enormous weld but its very controllable on welders around 100amps,and makes butt weld joints alot easier to achieve.........................

[jaylo264]

Tony , i cut 2 mm with a 1 mm disc on a grinder ,and my bosch jigsaw /bimetal blade for curvy bits , and caution . and full protection.
jaylo

[chady]

I found tacking the earth clamp to the car/van with a tack of weld, so you get a good earth and not keep knocking it off.
Welded lots of rusty cars for mot when i worked it the trade.
Chady

[AngeloEvs]

Tony , i cut 2 mm with a 1 mm disc on a grinder ,and my bosch jigsaw /bimetal blade for curvy bits , and caution . and full protection.
jaylo

Same here, I use a jig saw with blade suitable for sheet mild steel, make a paper template, pritt stick it on, clamp sheet to a work mate or similar. You will have that sorted in no time at all................good advice about wearing safety gear in the thread, gloves, goggles or visor,etc.

[dink]

I found tacking the earth clamp to the car/van with a tack of weld, so you get a good earth and not keep knocking it off.
Welded lots of rusty cars for mot when i worked it the trade.
Chady

I clip onto the door catch, usually a good place for an earth, as it's constantly being contacted, keeping it clean
I use 4m earthing lead, and a 4m euro torch, gives me a good range without needing to move the welder about too much

[T'Onion]

Come on Tone let see the results

[mrhutch]

yeah .. how'd ya get on marra?

[Nicola&Tony]

Sorry about the delay, been a very busy day. Got it done (finished 10pm last night! ), haven't had the grinder on it yet and it's not gonna win any prizes for sexy welding, but the mot tester kept a straight face when he saw it, and the van passed (with an advisory on front brake pipes), so we're both chuffed to bits!





Better than what was there before though:


It was a lot harder than I'd hoped it was gonna be, despite doing plenty of practice on the bench, butt welding pieces of 1mm sheet together until the results were looking good. I think I used a lot of gas (good job I wasn't using disposables) and a lot of wire. I think the mpg will have taken a bit of a hit.

Reet chuffed that it's done though and that we got the mot.

Thanks very much to all the people on here who have given me info, encouragement, gas, old boiler casing panels (for practice) and all the other stuff, very muchly appreciated!

Tony

[weldore]

just needs a flap disc on it now

use it really lightly ,dont be tempted to push down on it

oh and one more tip for you..if you keep a notepad with the welder and right down all your settings when you get it to run nice and put down what thickness steel and what angle you was welding at - saves time ,wire and gas setting up the next time

[pmulcahy]

Wow, going to try my steps next. Whats the correct steel i need for the van 2mm? or does it depend on what area your doing, i know some supporting members are gonna be bigger, but by how much?

[Nicola&Tony]

Wow, going to try my steps next. Whats the correct steel i need for the van 2mm? or does it depend on what area your doing . . .

As you say, I guess it depends what you're doing. If I was gonna patch the step again I'd be wanting to try jaylo's tip by using 2mm steel to see if I could blow a few less holes. It was the old metal surrounding the patch which had been thinned down by getting it clean, that got the holes in it. I'd try to concentrate the weld on the edge of the 2mm steel and then let it spill over onto the thinner stuff. I'm also gonna give 0.6mm wire a try in future. Good luck with it.

Tony