Welding Overlap Seam Auto Sheet Metal

This is because the strength of the joints depends on the number and size of the weld.

Welding overlap seam auto sheet metal.

Tig welding sheet metal. The best two electrodes for welding auto body sheet metal is either ceriated tungsten or thoriated tungsten. Lap joints are made by overlap ping small amounts of metal and welding the exposed edges of each section to the other on one or on both sides. My question is when i weld in the new sheet metal should i overlap the existing metal or cut a perfect patch and seam weld the metal.

Spot welding is usually used to join a panel of overlapping sheet metal parts that are usually 3mm thick. I will be welding soon on a couple small spots on my 69 camaro. Ditch a 1 8 inch tungsten electrode for something much smaller like 1 16 inch tungsten. Don t attempt to weld thin materials like sheet metal with flux cored wires which put more heat into the base metal.

Its primary usage is in welding auto body and sheet metal. Lakeside autobody 44 996 views. This of course creates a double thickness of metal at the joint overlap something that can be difficult to hide without using excessive amounts of filler. A seam is then made by cutting down the middle of the overlap with a west cut 4 inch cutoff wheel and peeling back the remaining strip of metal.

You can now place a tack weld between the clecos but be very careful to make sure the panels are perfectly even. How to plug weld auto body sheet metal prevent. Thus spot welding diameters go from 3mm to. The majority of the sheet metal welding i ve done was with a 90 amp 110 volt welder.

Forget the larger 1 8 inch tungsten electrode and use a smaller one. Mig welding is the preferred method for most automotive bodywork and since sheet metal is the thinnest of metals a large expensive mig unit is usually not required. Because it will have you a lot more control over the whole process and it is more forgiving in case you do anything wrong. Welding patch panels lap or butt.

To be specific if i have two sections of say 1 8 x6 x6 steel plate that overlap each other by 3 and say i want to weld the two parallel pieces together. The ration of thickness should not exceed 3 1mm. This video shows how to mig weld long seams in auto body repair.