Dang911 wrote:Well today I was about to weld everything up when reality set in, this is thin steel. I was planing on using a gasless mig welder with a flux cored spool. I'm now second guessing myself, thinking that even on its lowest duty cycle, it might still be way to much power. The last thing I want to do is put holes in the thing, especially in an area where there is no room for any "less" metal to be there.
It looks like you welded it with a torch? How would you suggest I weld this; Mig Tig or Torch? I probably could get my hands on a Tig, possibly a torch. Do you think I could use the Mig?
Chickening out here on the welding hehe
Here's some (hopefully helpful) observations:
1. Get some metal, and practice making some welds--before you do the real thing. How are you going to know if the heat is right, unless you've tried it on something? Maybe your MIG is OK--give it a trial run!
2. The most common problem with thin-metal welding is burn-through. This is the result of oxygen being where you don't want it to be. I'm currently using Solarflux B, coating the backside of the parts to be welded. It shields the metal with an inert compound. There's other ways to do it, including making up a cheap (duct tape) dam and filling the inside of the assembly with argon.
3. The closer the fit between the parts, the better. Same reason as 2 above.
4. you're going to be welding some dissimilar metal thicknesses, so practice is again the best remedy. Another "crutch" is to use a metal backing on the thinner part to prevent excessive heat buildup. Copper is considered the best material here--but a big chunk of iron or steel is probably OK, if you don't expose it directly to the weld and/or get it too hot.
5. When you weld the parts, make as many small tacks as you can before running a continuous bead. Also, when running the bead, keep the run short, to prevent excessive heat buildup (one inch length, or less); then, rotate the assembly and do some on the other side. Take your time and keep the parts cool. All this is related to warpage control--start now, it gets much worse when you switch to stainless.
6. TIG does the best job--if you can use it, do so.
7. Practice, practice, practice!!
Bill H.
Acoustic Propulsion Concepts
".......some day soon we'll be flying airplanes powered by pulsejets."