How To Weld Sheet Metal Without Distortion

It might be tough to completely eliminate distortion on something that size.

How to weld sheet metal without distortion.

Use intermittent welding using intermittent welds rather than continuous welds where design allows it can save as much as 75 weld metal and significantly reduce shrinkage and distortion. Here are some tips to minimize welding distortion. Minimize the amount of heat put into the weld. To weld sheet metal with solid wires use electrode positive ep or reverse polarity.

If necessary invest in weld gages. Tig welding sheet metal. Forget the larger 1 8 inch tungsten electrode and use a smaller one. When butt welding chamfer both sides of the join but keep the included angle less than 60 and make the gap between the sheets as small as possible.

Ensuring that the weld has been correctly sized will minimize distortion and save weld metal and time. You can learn how to use them in proper use of weld gages. Start out with lots of tacks and then backstep weld about 1 1 2 at a time. The bigger the weld the greater the shrinkage that will occur.

Welding heat sink applying a heat sink behind the weld or on the surrounding metal of a weld will help keep the the heat from spreading and allows you to weld without damaging the metal surrounding the weld as much. Use intermittent welds instead of continuous welds where possible to minimize the amount of weld metal. It s important to avoid overwelding. 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.

Another way to minimize weld metal is to use intermittent rather than continuous welds where possible as in fig. There are a few ways we ve found that help with this process and we decided to list them below. Because shrinkage accumulates from each weld pass a fewer number of big passes results in less distortion than a greater number of small passes with small electrodes. The bigger the weld the greater the shrinkage.

Don t attempt to weld thin materials like sheet metal with flux cored wires which put more heat into the base metal. Short bursts or tacks will help you gain more control and adjust easily. While wire feed welding sheet metal go for short bursts of welding instead of a going on a long bead. Welding stiffeners to plate is a great place to do this.

Try going for a wire of 023 inches when welding sheet metal.