Weld Sheet Metal With Arc Welder

We need to establish what is considered thin metal.

Weld sheet metal with arc welder.

The rationale of the last point is to make it harder or more realistic for auto body welding. Set up your arc welder to straight polarity dcen that will keep the heat on the rod and not on the base metal dial down to 20 30 amps set up the sheet preferably over two bricks so that the bottom of the sheet is hanging in the air. As a rule when mig welding sheet metal never use a body filler metal that is thicker than the base metal. A shielding gas feeds via the welding gun alongside the wire electrode to shield the process from contaminants.

A wire feed or tig welder is ideal for sheet metal but we will assume that you don t have one. Mig metal inert gas welding is a welding process in which an electric arc is formed between the workpiece metal and the consuming wire electrode causing them to melt and consequently get joined together. Any arc welding process general recommendations the best way to weld galvanized steel regardless of welding process is to remove the zinc coating from the joint. Removing the coating and re spraying or painting the weld seam after welding to regain corrosion resistance.

Learn why mig pulsed mig tig and pulsed tig are the ideal choices when welding sheet metal. Just kidding this tip is to explain how to weld sheet metal with a stick welder. It s one of the highest quality machines available and comes incredibly low priced. It is recommended that a welder should use 023 or 024 inch wire for light gauge sheet metal work.

While sheet metal is primarily a tig welding job there are times when it s handy to have an available mig welder to fuse sheet metal. While wire feed welding sheet metal go for short bursts of welding instead of a going on a long bead. Try going for a wire of 023 inches when welding sheet metal. Short circuit transfer mig short arc tig and pulsed tig welding processes provide the most control over the heat to address these challenges.

When welding thin metal the main objective is to avoid warping burn through and excessive heat affected zones while still ensuring the weld has enough mechanical strength for the application. For sheet metal i use ine welding wire and it is just as good as their flux cored wire if you want you can grab one here. However if you are dealing with materials that are 18 gauge or thicker one should be able to use 030 inch welding wire. The hobart handler 140 mig is the best affordable mig welder for sheet metal.