Aardvark's '78 (Re-issue)

Cheers Paul. Yes the welds are a lot flatter! I've been doing a lot of practise on it, including some on thin metal as the bits around the rear windows are pretty thin. Generally ok but still blowing holes especially if the gap is too big and always getting holes when I reach the end of the sheet. Not confident enough to go back welding on the van yet. Any advice?

 

What size wire are you using? It should be 0.6mm... 0.8 is more for anything over 1.5/2mm

another thing is to not rush the welds on thinner metal... do it a tack at a time!! This way you can have the welder on a higher power setting (for better penetration) but you also technically blow less holes/get less distortion...

for instance - start by tacking it in


Work from one end to the other, one tack next to each original tack, allowing to cool (sometimes with the aid of a wet rag) before you restart the row


keep going until you're done


end up with something like this


When you get really good, you can do stuff like this








But that's just me showing off now

 

Nice welding! That wheel arch looks great.

I'm using 6mm wire. A couple of pictures below of practice welds on the thin metal



and reverse side



This was on the lowest power setting, my welder has four power settings but I think I'm getting penetration. If I try anything higher I just go straight through the metal. I'm welding one tack next to the other, waiting for the first to stop glowing red before moving on. I found that the welds got better by turning the gas up but I'm still having the problem that when I get close to the edge of the metal it just melts away as can be seen in the middle weld at the bottom. Any help on how to solve this gratefully received.

 

I hate to say it... but buy a better welder!!

A good starter welder (IMO) is a Sealey super mig 150 with facs... Although you want to buy an older one if you can as the new 150s are 4 power settings which is pretty poor

Was and still is my fav welder, although I've now moved on to a 200amp Migatronic... basically the higher the current the welder, then usually the lower it will go on the power setting

 

good to see an old thread back. keep it up mate!