when doing body work which welding technique is better and leaves you with a better final product. some people say gas (hammer welding) others say tig?
If you have the means, TIG. Pretty sure you can hammer weld TIG also. I like em both but I feel TIG gives you more control of heat zones.
Many people swear by the Henrob style torches , I can't give you a testimony myself but they get some "wave weviews"
True...Henrobs are THE best in my book. But if you have to hammer, you gotta have a place to hang it.
I'd like to hear more on the Henrob and simular torches. I grew up welding with gas and do so everytime I have a project I can apply it to. My mig is great but the grinding, even contained to a minimum is a drag. Tig will be in my future some day when I can afford to step up to a nice rig. So lets here some more input.
use the search feature, works great and plenty of threads. here's just one: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=220385&highlight=henrob
tig is basically the newschool version of gas welding. you have increadible control,you can hammer,without harming, and if are lucky enough to have tig setup that is a inverter your world could'nt be better, yes i speak from experiance see my shop pics. the beauty of tig control alows the back side of you fabrication to look as nice as the front if you prep your work properley
Learn how to be a real good gas welder before you start TIG welding, the technique is the same. Most of the custom coachwork from the 1930 was gas welded, some French built fenders had as many as 15 pieces in them. I never got to TIG steel only TIG'd aluminum bodywork and heat was never a problem. FORGET trying to MIG bodywork, unless you like grinding off 50% of the weld and trowling on bondo and sanding some more.
One of the things that will make a difference is how clean the metal your welding is. For TIG welding, it has to be super clean,where as you can gas weld metal that is painted, rusty, etc.
I love my Henrob. I TIG a little but I've done a lot more gas than TIG, and the gas works great so that's my prefered method. Cleanlyness and fit up are still important. I guess you could weld thru rust and paint, but your results will show it.
What filler rod are you guys using for gas welding and where do you get it? I learned to gas weld in high school, some 30 years ago and would like to try it again.
sometimes learning new things can be a challenge, however if you learn to use a tig, they are greaat.
I learned to gas weld with coat hangers as filler material. Now I buy 1/16 dia mild steel tig wire and use it for gas and tig. I use 1/32 dia mild steel off of a mig spool for tig body panels. If you want to really have a cool time get some jewlers torches, and do some panel work.
Thanks Tinbender, I've been looking at my local Fleet Farm store but have'nt seen them. Maybe time to search ebay. I gotta get back into this, maybe I'll even ditch my MIG!
On body metal I like to use ordinary black iron tie wire; the stuff in rolls used for re-bar tying.....and use oxy-acet with an aircraft torch..... as a filler wire its great because it is small diameter, cheap to buy and is very low carbon and extremely ductile.....so you can hammer weld it out really easy......smooth and flat...it stretches out great! NOT suitable for tig though as it does not contain de-oxidizers and porosity will result!
I did these back to back test panels a while back. Material is .055 crs You can see the HAZ differance very clear. Both welds are malable - and easy to work. On the filler rod, I like to use Weld Mold T200 - I prefer .035 & .045 dia. Its my belief that if you learn to gas weld first you will become a better welder over all. It all comes down to using what your most comfotable with.
Smaller Heat Affected Zone translates into less distortion. "Hammer Welding" is just planishing the weld, to compensate for the shrinkage that will occur as it cools OA is less money to get started,good for other stuff too. MIG is perfect for tacking stuff together. TIG is my first choice for many jobs.
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