Well, I decided to prop up a camera and see if I could show a little bit of what I know about hammer welding (not much). I'm using oxy-acetylene to weld in the "eyebrow" part of frenching the headlights on my Chevy. And uh, my favorite word must be, "uh". <object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Rv5bKXJ3kEM?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Rv5bKXJ3kEM?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>
very nice video, thanks you for not holding the camera to long, as someone who was a camera man for a local cable station i can tell you the less movement the better, one of the best hammer welding videos i have seen.
Hey, That's some great photo & metal work goin on, there! Gas welding, hammerwelding and metalfinish are skills that are in short supply today. Somewhere in the last fourty years, metalwork and filler work became the same thing in the popular knowledge. Anyone who's done that type of work, knows better! Good job, " Life ain't no Disney movie "
Hey, thanks for taking the time to share. I do a lot of mig, but I also have a torch so I'll try some hammer welding--on spare parts first. Many of the magazines talk about using a torch as it prevents the metal from becoming brittle as you work it,,
Great video! Thanks for taking the time to do***ent and post. Me thinks me is going to try this very soon. Got me a filler neck to relocate. P.S. Don't worry, we all say that word more than we realize. It usually takes seeing yourself on video to notice. It also dosen't help when you are trying to describe something that relys so heavily on feel.
Mike, great work. I prefer gas welding over TIG. I have used TIG when I can not get behind the work with a dolly. The most difficult welding I was involved with was repairing a torn aluminum panel on the vintage sprint car my dad and I restored. I wanted to hammer weld but the aluminum was so oxidized I ended up TIG welding. Gas welding alumimun is difficult because the metal wants to "drop out" if it is heated too much. Many if not all aluminum bodies were constructed from gas welding. Definitely a "long lost" talent. Great video! Offy 220
Thanks for the kind words, everyone! I know this isn't a well-produced video, but I kinda had fun putting it together. I just hope it helps someone learn about this stuff. I wasn't sure about just holding the camera with my clumsy hands, but I thought panning around the weld area would give a better sense of what it looked like after I was done. I tried taking some still photos of prior beads, and they just weren't showing the form very well. I feed the rod into the weld. I find that I frequently feed the rod into one side of the puddle as needed. I'm not building up a lot of filler- just keeping the bead a little proud of the surface. I definitely recommend the spare parts thing if you haven't tried this before. If you have a piece with some crown to it, it will be a lot easier to manipulate than trying on something dead-flat. You can graduate to the flatter pieces after you get the hang of it. Both gas and TIG give a much more malleable bead than MIG. If you think about it, the MIG wire has to be a stiffer alloy to be able to get pushed through the cable/lead. (The proverbial "pushing a rope uphill".) If it was a nice soft alloy, it would wad up inside the welder. Add to that the fact that the very quick heating & cooling of the bead, and you get a rock-hard bead. When I TIG, I go in shorter beads as it's hard to use the TIG torch to keep an inch of bead a dull red. Otherwise, the technique is very similar. I agree on using TIG when you can't get a dolly behind the seam. I just did that last weekend on a part under the tail lights on my car. I wouldn't know where to begin on gas welding aluminum. I've seen it done, but that would definitely be tough. Aluminum doesn't glow when it gets hot like steel does, so it would be very hard to gauge what's going on with the puddle.
Nice work, i'm going to give that a try next time i'm welding where i can get to both sides... thanks!
Good video, thanks. My biggest problem is getting the torch put aside fast enough. It seems like it would be better with 2 people, one on the torch and one on the hammer/dolly.
That's definitely a challenge. I was using a pair of jack stands set very close together to lay the torch on (still lit). When I'm working on something a little higher off the ground, I have a modified sawhorse that has a place where I can lay the lit torch. Just be careful which way the flame is pointed!!!
Great job, but don't forget your hearing protection, Enough hammering and the ringing in your ears will take longer to go away each time until it doesn't go away at all.
Thanks, Tim. Nothing like what you'd do, but if you have any further suggestions/criticism/etc., lay it on me! ************************* One thing I didn't mention in the video, that I probably should have is a tip I learned at a Gene Winfield seminar last year. In the video, you don't really get a sense of how hard I'm hitting with the hammer. I had always been pretty timid with my hammering, but I got one of those "light bulb moments" when I saw Winfield swinging the hammer like he was driving nails. When I tried it myself, it all started to make more sense.
We just finished the oxy/fuel welding part of the welding course I am taking in college and I forgot how versatile of a craft/skill it is! I have a couple of "not worth saving" cars that I am going to do practice chops on and I plan on using oxy/fuel as much as I can! Cool video by the way!!! Thanks for posting it!!
What? Seriously, this is a good point. I also keep my welding gl***es on while I'm hammering. I found some that are like safety gl***es but a #3 shade, and I like them a lot. They are dark enough for welding on sheet metal and using smaller tips (like the #00 I've been using), but light enough that I can still see after I remove the heat and start wailing on it.
Its not so much the type of alloy as the process that contributes more to hardness. mig wire is usually ER-70 S6 the same alloy as a lot of people use for tig welding. I've actually used mig wire for filler when tig welding a tight gap, and gas welded with it too. Its almost as soft as rg45 on a gas weld and plenty soft enough to hammer weld. And it works really good when you run out of rod. ER 70 S6 tig rod also works good for gas welding. S2 is what i prefer though as it is softer yet. I sometimes prefer using mig wire if the gap is tight, you get a bit more control of fill, using rod I sort of try to wick a bit of the tip of the rod off into the puddle. The wire just seems to be a little easier to control for beginners. Good luck to every one that has a go with hammer welding. Once you get the hang of it you'll be pissed you didn't learn how to do it sooner. Great job on the video by the way. Its about time someone did a good video. The other one on youtube is kind of scary (the one with two guys destroying a roof).
Yup, what devl said....more please!!! Oh one quick question....when you are ****ing up patch panels how much gap if any are you leaving?
As little as possible! I've been using one of those little air-powered recipro saws lately, and cutting through both old and new panels simultaneously. (At least when I can.) The kerf from the blade (like a regular hacksaw blade) works very nice. I try to take the time to get the gaps just right, but I always seem to slip up somewhere and get it a little too wide.
I've never heard of this? Sounds interesting, though. As KrisKustomPaint mentioned above, the metallurgical stuff of getting the heat in and out so quick does seem to have most of the effect of making the MIG bead brittle. I tacked this panel in with MIG, and I can definitely tell when I've hit a spot that was MIG-ed. Much harder. I don't know if this counts for anything or not, but the back side of these beads looks almost identical to the top side. A light coat of undercoating, and you'd have a hard time telling where the seam was. Something to think about if you're doing a hoof or some other panel where people might see the back side.
The Jalopy Journal
