Welding Light Sheet Metal

Mig welding wire is small.

Welding light sheet metal.

It s also important to select a filler metal that is thinner than the base metal or as close as possible. Try welding with a scrap sheet metal piece and practice many times until you start working on more important projects. It is softer and finishes well while reducing the heat required to weld it. While er70s 2 filler metal is a common choice for steel another popular option for welding sheet metal is silicon bronze.

Move the torch faster and or reduce the amp setting of the welder and the lower the wire speed. Try going for a wire of 023 inches when welding sheet metal. However if you are dealing with materials that are 18 gauge or thicker one should be able to use 030 inch welding wire. Problems with welding sheet metal if you are burning through the metal you re not moving the torch fast enough and or your welder is set too high.

Most of the light gauge sheet metal work will require the use of 023 or 24 inch while if you have a sheet metal having a gauge of more than 18 gauge then a 030 inch wire would be the most ideal. It is recommended that a welder should use 023 or 024 inch wire for light gauge sheet metal work. Make sure to use an electrode wire that is thinner as it uses lesser heat and prevents blowing holes on to the sheet metal. A er70s 6 wire would be most ideal for welding mild steel.

A wire feed or tig welder is ideal for sheet metal but we will assume that you don t have one. So if you have an 1 8th inch sheet and it s heated up you re going to have a lot more heat and with a lot more heat you get a lot more distortion. Just kidding this tip is to explain how to weld sheet metal with a stick welder. Using a thinner wire 0 30 instead of 0 35 will also help.

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