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MIG welding body gauge steel (cooling welds down)


daverclasper

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Hi.  Have done some welding of thicker stuff, though want to butt weld a small section/hole of in the corner of deck under the rear seat.

I know distortion not such an issue on this job, though interested any alternatives to using an compressor air line (haven't got one) to cool down the weld areas quickly when doing short individual welds, spaced out around the joint.

Thanks, Dave     

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Where I've not wanted weld heat to get into an adjacent area, I've laid wet newspaper between the weld and the sensitive area.

Or, in the Project Binkie saga, that ace welder Nik Blackhurst has been seen to weld up a connector that included some rubber and drop it straight in a mug of water.      I don't think you need worry about cooling your weld carefully.   A hose pipe, or just a jug or water may be safe, if there is rubber etc nearby.

But short welds as you describe cool very quickly anyway, as heat is drawn into surrounding metal and into the air.   So much so that such welds may be more brittle than longer ones, but if you are just closing a hole, and it's not a stressed joint, that's no problem.    

John

 

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12 hours ago, daverclasper said:

Thanks folks, good to know.

If you want to go high tech you can also get reusable heat absorbant putty. Loads on any Google search. 

30+ years ago I had a demo using putty developed by NASA for the space shuttle. The rep put a line of putty on a piece of sheet steel heated one side cherry red then picked it up with his fingers from the other side! 

Iain 

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25 minutes ago, daverclasper said:

Thanks. Also is the deck approx 1mm gauge, as I think the rest of body panels are?

Yup. Vast majority of such panels are 19 or 20 SWG i.e. 0.8 to 1.0mm. A couple of other thoughts that might contribute to minimising heat distortion are a) don't skimp on the gas, b) the repair section not to be a tight fit in the parent metal to allow for expansion and to 'take up' the extra metal that is being fed in by the MIG wire.

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