Welding Wire For Automotive Sheet Metal

For sheetmetal 024 wire is a good place to start.

Welding wire for automotive sheet metal.

When the material is 18 gauge and thicker you may be able to use a 030 inch wire. Medium sized mig units like these retail between 450 to 750. Personally i have found the best mig welder for automotive sheet metal is a 110v unit that has 30 140 amps. Because it will have you a lot more control over the whole process and it is more forgiving in case you do anything wrong.

To weld mild steel choose an american welding society classification wire such as er70s 6 which has a weld puddle that wets out nicely. Look for one with at least a 20 duty cycle at 140 amps. Ditch a 1 8 inch tungsten electrode for something much smaller like 1 16 inch tungsten. Holding the tip too far from the surface will cause the wire to have to come out too far to touch the metal.

The wire carries current and is surrounded at the weld by an inert shielding gas that is fed there through the welding hose and gun along with the wire. The best two electrodes for welding auto body sheet metal is either ceriated tungsten or thoriated tungsten. I don t recommend buying a used welder but i do recommend buying a brand name welder. Keep the stick out short stickout of your mig wire is important when welding any type of metal but especially sheet metal.

The suncoo 140 is made of a heavy duty stainless steel body and painted black to ensure long lasting lifespan. C 25 is the most common gas used for sheetmetal welding in a 25 percent co2 and 75 percent argon mixture. Mig welding is the preferred method for most automotive bodywork and since sheet metal is the thinnest of metals a large expensive mig unit is usually not required. If you are welding mostly stock that is 1 8 or thicker you might want to use 030 or 035 wire.

The majority of the sheet metal welding i ve done was with a 90 amp 110 volt welder. In general the thicker the base metal you are using the larger the wire size.