How To Weld Sheet Metal With A Wire Feed Welder

As a rule when mig welding sheet metal never use a body filler metal that is thicker than the base metal.

How to weld sheet metal with a wire feed welder.

Mig welding for thin metal. You can buy whole sets of wire feed welders which come with guns and a variety of wires. It is recommended that a welder should use 023 or 024 inch wire for light gauge sheet metal work. A wire feed or tig welder is ideal for sheet metal but we will assume that you don t have one.

It is an arc welding process that where you feed a solid wire electrode through a. With these materials use a tri mix gas 90 helium 8 argon and 2 co 2. To weld sheet metal with solid wires use electrode positive ep or reverse polarity. Sheet metal has usage in sectors like making automobiles airplane wings and fuselages roofing and medicinal tables.

1 16 i will be welding on the low 1 setting with the wire speed set to 7. Wire feed welding calls for a good welding gun. Since the sheet metal for our container is a fairly thin gauge approx. All you have to do to figure out wire feed speed is press the trigger and count thousand one thousand two thousand three.

The wire feed welder speed will probably be not much over 100 ipm inches per minute. Mig welding is one of the simplest to use for welding. Https amzn to 37bevj1 while wire feed welding sheet metal go for short bursts of welding instead of a going on a long bead. When welding 304 stainless steel er308 er308l and er308lsi wires are compatible but for welding 316l stainless you need a 316l wire.

We need to establish what is considered thin metal. The hobart 500559 handler 140 mig welder 115v or lincoln electric k2278 1 handy core are some of the good ones you can go for. Mig welding was developed in the 1940 s and 60 years later the general principle is still very much the same. The real trick to weld sheet metal is to use a wire feed.

For sheet metal i use ine welding wire and it is just as good as their flux cored wire if you want you can grab one here. Just kidding this tip is to explain how to weld sheet metal with a stick welder. The wire should melt off into the weld puddle at an even rate and make a steady crackling noise as you go. Count to six and measure the wire that came out.

On the thin sheet metal like you are asking about 023 025 e70s6 bare wire with 75 25 argon co2 is the best. As the metal you are welding increases in thickness you will want to increase the voltage and wire speed as you see fit. Adjust the welder settings if needed.