Tig Welding Sheet Metal Without Warping

Weld along the neutral axis.

Tig welding sheet metal without warping.

Tig welding tips questions equipment applications instructions techniques tig welding machines troubleshooting tig welding process 12 posts page 1 of 1 settings for thin sheet metal. Use intermittent welds instead of continuous welds where possible to minimize the amount of weld metal. The fact is that no matter how good or careful you are metal will warp when you re welding on sheet metal. This is especially helpful if you re welding in an area that is very critical and could lead to oil canning.

Another alternative is to surround the area you re welding with an anti heat compound that will block the heat from spreading to the rest of the panel and potentially reduce warping in the panel. Intermittent rather than continuous welds help as does minimizing the amount of filler metal used. Though weld shrinkage cannot be prevented it can be controlled by following these steps. The bigger the weld the greater the shrinkage.

Design and welding should be addressed to minimize this sort of warping. The best two electrodes for welding auto body sheet metal is either ceriated tungsten or thoriated tungsten. We ve heard all of the tricks in the book but none of them completely stop the warping. Use clamps to control expansion.

Minimize the amount of heat put into the weld. Ditch a 1 8 inch tungsten electrode for something much smaller like 1 16 inch tungsten. When welding thin metal the main objective is to avoid warping burn through and excessive heat affected zones while still ensuring the weld has enough mechanical strength for the application. Here s a list of tips that help reduce warpage in sheet metal fabricaitons.

Learn why mig pulsed mig tig and pulsed tig are the ideal choices when welding sheet metal. Limit the number of passes. Because it will have you a lot more control over the whole process and it is more forgiving in case you do anything wrong. Fix problems before they permanently set.

Move around on your project. Correctly sizing a weld not only minimizes distortion but also saves weld metal and time. Only reduce or control it.