MIG Wire for Sheetmetal

monster.

monster.

Club Member
I'm using .025, with pretty darn good penetration. I'm at a very slow wire feed, with a high heat seating.

What i'm having trouble with is the puddle (I don't get a nice puddle 20% of the time), I'll blow thru if I keep on it too long, but if i'm too brief with the arc, I don't get good penetration.

I've done everything so far (I think)

75/25 Ar/CO2
.025 MIG (i'll get the spec later)
tried several different grounds, even a magnet
prep the steel.

Should I go to a large diamete wire?

Help :D
 
I think my rollers and sleeve go up to .040, i'm going to buy a spool of that and see if I can get more consistent.

Thank you though
 
monster. said:
I think my rollers and sleeve go up to .040, i'm going to buy a spool of that and see if I can get more consistent.

Thank you though
Click to expand...

That is waaaay too thick for sheetmetal! .025 should work.


You need to play with your heat and wire speed and travel speed. Try turning down the heat/turning up the wire speed. Maybe try moving slower.

Make sure your keeping a consistent distance arc length.
 
jdustu said:
Make sure your keeping a consistent distance arc length.
Click to expand...

DING DING DING - I bet that is it

good point, now that i think about it, i'm all over the place regarding arc length - eh der! I've laid great welds with good penetration, and then i'll get a burn thru. I'm like WTF over here, move the ground, adjust amps/volts.. i'm like is it wire. I'm really all over the place.

Thank you

You know whats helped a ton, is using copper as a heat sink. I'm butt welding the panels in, and the copper made a night and day difference.

cool man thanks
 
monster. said:
DING DING DING - I bet that is it

good point, now that i think about it, i'm all over the place regarding arc length - eh der! I've laid great welds with good penetration, and then i'll get a burn thru. I'm like WTF over here, move the ground, adjust amps/volts.. i'm like is it wire. I'm really all over the place.

Thank you

You know whats helped a ton, is using copper as a heat sink. I'm butt welding the panels in, and the copper made a night and day difference.

cool man thanks
Click to expand...

Right on!

I don't mig sheet metal much, but I use copper as a backing plate a lot for other stuff.

Consistency really is the key. It's hard to adjust a machine if your arc length and travel speed is all over. Get those consistent, then you can mess with the machine a little bit at a time and really see the adjustments work....and after that you can even work backwards and mess with your travel speed.

The hardest part of mig welding is getting the settings right!
 
I don't know all the numbers and settings for welding, but like Josh said...play with the settings and you will find what works best. If I am blowing the pool out I personally will let off for a second, wait for the red to cool down a hair, then zap the trigger again. It usualy fills in very well.
 
Most sheet metal welding i do is done with tacking or very short welds. The .025 should work great for you. Just be careful to be sure not to put to much heat into the metal (if you doing body panels) or you will create a big mess for yourself.
 
I'll try to get some welding done this weekend. The other thing I need to try is grinding both sides of the sheetmetal a little bit more. I just don't want to grind away too much, the sheetmetal is thin enough.

I'm pretty good keeping the panel cool, I use compressed air, the copper, and I am very patient when i'm tacking it in. Sometimes like I said, I get booger welds, really shitty penetration, and a huge pile of weld ontop.

Thanks again for all the help
 
What type of welding are you doing? Patch panels? Are you doing a stright butt joint, butt with backer, or lap joint?
 
patching my floors, straight butt welding. It's not coming out too bad. Just the spots that i'm burning through, obviously I have to grind away and use copper as a backer to puddle it in.
 
Damn, sorry about the delay.

Lincoln 140, MIG ar/co2 75/25.

It's a nice little setup for body work. I thought about it before I bought it, but even if I was to build a rock crawler chassis with 2.5 ton rockwell axles, I wouldn't go thicker then .25 inch wall tubing (weight). So that's about the maximum I thickness I could weld.

I do want a TIG welder though, so I can do the chrome-moly and stainless, aluminum for headers, bicycle/chopper frames, cages etc. That stuff (moly) is lighter then mild steel, and stronger.
 
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