I need help guys. I am trying to close holes, the bullet kind, with my welder. I am finding that the welder tends to blow through a bit even though I am on the lowest setting (Hobart Handler 120 using flux core wire) but some sticks on the edge of the hole and go inward with mixed success. I am using a flattened piece of copper tube as a backing to the hole. I had to stop before I finished, but I begin again tomorrow. Question is: am I headed in the right direction? How would you go about filling holes?
might try qucik work with the trigger. i think a patch piece is always best, but for the little holes for trim in my pontiac, i was lazy and just zapped it slowly until it was closed. glad the copper worked for you, i tried a piece of bronze sheet and the ****er stuck! looked like it and the steel had begun to melt together, not just a heat stick.
Don't use flux core. Use Argon/Co2 mix gas and the thinnest wire you can find (.23 ) I never use a copper block... I tried it but it doesn't save me any time, and there did not seem to be any difference in warp either...
[ QUOTE ] Yeah, quick tacks may be the answer. I was trying to run p***es almost. [/ QUOTE ] Oh, I missed that part... Do quick tacks instead of trying to lay a bead...
i find it's the quick tacks, (ZAP, two, three, four, ZAP, two, three, four, ZAP ....), mixed with a highly oblique torch angle. or, in english, lay the torch down so it's almost flat on the panel, with the wire hitting the far side of the hole on the edge of the steel. here's a picture...
what caliber hole ya got? if the hole is as big as a half inch I would use a patch, work the metal smooth, hold a piece of same gauge behind and trace the hole onto it. trim with snips and weld it in. if it's as small as a quarter inch I would tack it like the automan shows in his most excellent illustration. although it does look like an alien space ship zapping some planet with a death ray..kinda. paul
That's what they did to me when I was abducted. I don't like to talk about it. Thanks for the tip regarding the gun angle. Hadn't heard that one before.
[ QUOTE ] Don't use flux core. Use Argon/Co2 mix gas and the thinnest wire you can find (.23 ) [/ QUOTE ] I use straight CO2,its way cheaper then the mixed stuff.Burns a lil hotter too.I get it at a fire extinguisher place.Its like a third of the price. Flux core is for fixing tractors! ......Shiny
my $0.02: Since you mentioned bullet holes, it is often easier to drill the hole bigger (!) to be able to make a decent patch. If you have a Uni-Bit "step-drill" this works real good...at least it does for me. Just use a bit of masking tape to hold your patch in place long enuff for your first tack. Then put out the flaming masking tape fire and finish your patch. If you know anyone who has one of those big metal punches that will do holes bigger than 1/4", you can have them pop a few "slugs" out of some sheet that's the same gauge as your panel, and use the slugs for patches. Just drill your holes to match the slugs. This method works real good for rust holes, too. drilling them out gets you out into more solid metal.
Use a 20 penny nail. It works great on trim holes and easy to hold. Get it welded in and gring off the excess. TP
[ QUOTE ] Quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Don't use flux core. Use Argon/Co2 mix gas and the thinnest wire you can find (.23 ) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I use straight CO2,its way cheaper then the mixed stuff.Burns a lil hotter too.I get it at a fire extinguisher place.Its like a third of the price. Flux core is for fixing tractors! [/ QUOTE ] Yeah, I'd love to use something else but other priorities prevail for now. That is part of hot rodding, making do with what you have. It is wire feed after all, not like I'm gas welding with coat hangers. (That works too.) Getting past the expense of buying the bottle is what is holding me up and I'm not interested in renting, if it ain't mine, I don't want it around.
Pretty much everyone covered the bases. You just need to ***emble all the info into a usable form. This is what I have found to work best for me. If its big enough you can actually make a patch peice (i make patch peices no smaller than the size of a sharpie marker diamater, but I pretty much try to make them for anything bigger (like magic marker size or bigger), just to make for LESS GRINDING later on). Use a chunk of copper on the back as a heat sink. Get a buddy to hold it with some channel locks, cause itll get hot! I usually make my patch circles to where they will poke right through the hole, so the weld fills the gap and fuses the metal together. Ive found if you have to wedge the patch circle in, itll lead to warping, like when you **** sheet up to each other, try to leave a small gap, about the thickness of the wire. Then, I crank the heat up on the welder. "C" or "D" (probably mostly "C") setting with "E" being the highest the welder will go on a typical 220 volt wire welder. I use the Argon/CO2 mix gas. That flux core wire should only ever be used for when your trying to finish a project and you run out o gas and absolutly cannot get more! Other than that, that stuff ****s for me. But, Im not pro either. Then, all I do is make tiny little buzz's. NO actual running a bead here. Just squeeze the trigger, and let off. It makes for perfect little tiny metal puddle, and the high heat will properly fuse the two parent materials together. This will take forever, but will lead to very little material build-up, with quality fusign together. If you do it right, ON THE BACK SIDE OF THE PATCH, itll litterally look like you ran a bead on the back side and hammer and dollied it flat (even though you only had the copper behind it). Far as bullet holes, ya, Id do like someone said, and drill out and put in a patch if the tearing is bad at all and it doesn't hammer and dolly sperfectly smooth before welding it up. Hope this helps. Remember, crank the heat, and only tiny small buzz tacks. It takes foever, but will save you HOURS on grinding the weld filler off later, and will save you a lot of hammer and dolly work. Heres a pic of the firewall I put in on the 35. I have not touched a hemmer or dolly to it after filling the 40something holes (I think it had 38 holes if I remember correctly) and welding the firewall inset in at all. I have no filler on it either. Filler will come later to cover the seam you see where the old meets the new.
[ QUOTE ] It is wire feed after all, not like I'm gas welding with coat hangers. (That works too.) [/ QUOTE ] Hey now ...thats how i learned how to weld sheet metal... my father inlaw cut up a coffee can and we welded it back together with a coat hanger as welding rod it sure does work
The Jalopy Journal
