Having just paid both arms and legs to have a sill fitted to my SD1, I'm thinking I really must learn how to weld thin stuff properly.
Evening classes in this (at a reasonable price) would be ideal, as just practising doesn't seem to be helping.
All I can find by Google is jewellery welding or classes designed for general pros. I specifically want to weld thin steel properly using a MIG.
Any where within a hour or so of Balham SW London would be fine - distance doesn't matter if I can do it by PT.
Welding course
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Hi
a few years ago I did a city and guilds course in Dunstable at the local FE collage, it was very usefull, and gave be the basis on which to practice by telling me what I should be aiming at and roughly what I needed to do to get there. However there is absolutly no substitute for practice and completely mucking it up, especially with MIG.
The other thing I have found with Mig is it is a bit of a blunt instrument when it comes to anything lighter than about 18 - 20 gauge steel. Certainly on my fairly basic Mig set up it is just too crude to get the amps low enough and the wire feed slow enough in a repeatable manner to avoid getting too much heat and filler on the weld. On my set up trying to get the "frying beacon" sound to the weld in 20 gauge, and avoiding the weld pool sagging results in having to move the tourch so rapidly that the job just gets too hectic and still the work tends to warp from how much heat is going in. I have done the "multi tack weld" technique where you put in tack weld after tack weld all along the joint you want (scattering the tack welds all along the joint as you go and hammering them out after each batch as you go), but boy does it take a long time and you cannot rush it or there is no pont! Tig is a different game alltogether when it comes to controlability and compared to Mig, in my opinion much easier to get a good result and you put in nothing like as much heat into the pannel.
Anyway back on track with your question, I would try your local F/E collage.
Have you read any of the series on panel repair/roof chop articles on the Carcraft website? Some of them are quite informative once you get past them trying to sell you some piece of kit.
Best regards
Mike
a few years ago I did a city and guilds course in Dunstable at the local FE collage, it was very usefull, and gave be the basis on which to practice by telling me what I should be aiming at and roughly what I needed to do to get there. However there is absolutly no substitute for practice and completely mucking it up, especially with MIG.
The other thing I have found with Mig is it is a bit of a blunt instrument when it comes to anything lighter than about 18 - 20 gauge steel. Certainly on my fairly basic Mig set up it is just too crude to get the amps low enough and the wire feed slow enough in a repeatable manner to avoid getting too much heat and filler on the weld. On my set up trying to get the "frying beacon" sound to the weld in 20 gauge, and avoiding the weld pool sagging results in having to move the tourch so rapidly that the job just gets too hectic and still the work tends to warp from how much heat is going in. I have done the "multi tack weld" technique where you put in tack weld after tack weld all along the joint you want (scattering the tack welds all along the joint as you go and hammering them out after each batch as you go), but boy does it take a long time and you cannot rush it or there is no pont! Tig is a different game alltogether when it comes to controlability and compared to Mig, in my opinion much easier to get a good result and you put in nothing like as much heat into the pannel.
Anyway back on track with your question, I would try your local F/E collage.
Have you read any of the series on panel repair/roof chop articles on the Carcraft website? Some of them are quite informative once you get past them trying to sell you some piece of kit.
Best regards
Mike
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stevieturbo
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Re: Welding course
Equally as important. What are you trying to weld with ?DaveEFI wrote:Having just paid both arms and legs to have a sill fitted to my SD1, I'm thinking I really must learn how to weld thin stuff properly.
Evening classes in this (at a reasonable price) would be ideal, as just practising doesn't seem to be helping.
All I can find by Google is jewellery welding or classes designed for general pros. I specifically want to weld thin steel properly using a MIG.
Any where within a hour or so of Balham SW London would be fine - distance doesn't matter if I can do it by PT.
I admit I'm crap at welding, but I can manage decent....er well, welds that hold bits of metal together even on thin stuff.
Even if it means stopping and starting to stop blowing holes as often.
I think the most important thing when welding thin metal isnt so much the person. But the actual welder. And also ensure clean well prepared metal in the first place. Any contaminants just cause splatter and make it a nightmare to weld.
9.85 @ 144.75mph
202mph standing mile
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgWRCDtiTQ0
202mph standing mile
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgWRCDtiTQ0
I looked at courses once, but the cost of 'em round here would buy a sh*tload of steel and gas.
Either the 'spot' method (tack-on-tack to make a bead - vid on the MIG site as ^^), or very short runs, like a half inch. Skip about. Let stuff cool, take your time.
.6 wire puts less amps into it, might help. If the welder goes down to 30 amps it should be OK, some only go down to like 40 though.
Close-fitting patches are needed, don't want to be chasing gaps.
Servicing the welder might help, new liner, shroud & tips can make quite a difference.
Sometimes I put a piece of ally sheet or a block behind, as a heat sink and to stop weld going too far behind the panel - just done 52 trim holes in my car like that.
If a ham-fisted shed-dweller like me can get Ok with it anyone can, so I'd say pile in and try stuff. Maybe make things from sheet. It's only steel, if it goes wrong chop it and go again, as my mate says. The MIG forum really is a good place, loads of info and very friendly folks.
Either the 'spot' method (tack-on-tack to make a bead - vid on the MIG site as ^^), or very short runs, like a half inch. Skip about. Let stuff cool, take your time.
.6 wire puts less amps into it, might help. If the welder goes down to 30 amps it should be OK, some only go down to like 40 though.
Close-fitting patches are needed, don't want to be chasing gaps.
Servicing the welder might help, new liner, shroud & tips can make quite a difference.
Sometimes I put a piece of ally sheet or a block behind, as a heat sink and to stop weld going too far behind the panel - just done 52 trim holes in my car like that.
If a ham-fisted shed-dweller like me can get Ok with it anyone can, so I'd say pile in and try stuff. Maybe make things from sheet. It's only steel, if it goes wrong chop it and go again, as my mate says. The MIG forum really is a good place, loads of info and very friendly folks.
