How To Weld Up Holes In Sheet Metal

Make sure to use an electrode wire that is thinner as it uses lesser heat and prevents blowing holes on to the sheet metal.

How to weld up holes in sheet metal.

The most permanent repair to a hole in sheet metal is to weld the hole shut. Essential tips on how to weld auto body sheet metal take it slow when welding auto body sheet metal. Sheet metal welding demands really tight fit ups. Sheet metal on the body of cars and trucks is pretty thin usually 18 22 gauge.

This may be due to burning through the thin sheet metal welding molding holes fabrication or other reasons needed. For this reason i always like to use copper backers and welders helpers to back up and quickly fill the hole. This will keep you far enough away from the weld puddle but give the least resistance for the arc when welding. The complexity of welding increases as the thickness of the material decreases.

Try welding with a scrap sheet metal piece and practice many times until you start working on more important projects. Try going for a wire of 023 inches when welding sheet metal. Yes it may feel quite derogatory and downright frustrating for you to not able to do much faster. Mig wire doesn t.

If you stick to these tips when setting yourself up for mig welding sheet metal you will be much more confident and successful. Any kind of welder can be used but the best. When you are new to the whole process of welding auto body sheet metals it is preferable to go a bit more slowly than you can handle. Fit up and joint design.

Ideally keep the tip of the welding wire about 1 16 from the surface before hitting the trigger. In a situation when a welder needs to make a butt weld on a 20 gauge panel and the parts are not able to touch each other not even for even 1 16 inches you will create a gap that is not capable of being absorbed by the heat. If you are going to weld on thin sheet metal such as car body parts then you re going to have holes to weld from time to time. The welding process actually adds new steel to the thin steel and can result in a repaired spot that is stronger than the original metal.

It takes practice to get it right but once you learn how to do it it becom. April 21 2014 by admin leave a comment.