Cage Pad Question

[backformore]

I've had good luck with that method on the floor pans and other accessible areas too. The u!
Ultimate challenge is the upside down seam with a little bit larger than perfect gap. Talk about ugly! Fortunately it is a hard to see as it is to weld.

While we are all sharing secrets, what settings does everybody use for the above techniques? Settings for the thicker plate, the sheet metal, or something in between?

I've tried all with varying success using slightly different techniques for each. Just curious what people's preferences are.

[joeg]

Slightly Higher than for sheet metal

[Matt93SE]

While we are all sharing secrets, what settings does everybody use for the above techniques? Settings for the thicker plate, the sheet metal, or something in between?

I've tried all with varying success using slightly different techniques for each. Just curious what people's preferences are.

All depends on the welder..
or are you talking about what setting do I use to perform the plate-to-sheet weld? In that case, it's 'hot enough to melt the plate, not hot enough to burn the sheet.' usually it's a middle of the road thing on my welder.. I'll run the sheet metal current and a lower feed speed so I can get enough penetration on the plate, then just move across the sheet a bit faster to keep from overheating it. Seems to work OK for me. YMMV.

[evanwebb]

I haven't actually done a test to confirm this, but my suspicion is that a stitch welded plate on top of thinner sheet metal is stronger and more resistant to punch-through than a continuously welded seam. When you weld you change the metallurgy and likely also affect the thickness of the sheet metal immediately adjacent to the weld for the thin sheet and I suspect that the stitch welds result in a lower residual stress concentration around the welded areas. Anyway, needs a well documented test to prove.

When welding a thicker plate to thinner sheet metal you need to build up heat (by lingering with the torch, using a slower feed speed in a Mig) in the thicker material to ensure penetration in that piece, and then "draw" the arc & the heat onto the thinner sheet to actually make the weld. With practice avoiding blowouts is not too hard once you have fine-tuned the voltage & feed speed. It is not too hard when you are welding the edge of the thick material on top of the thinner sheet. The opposite situation is harder but fundamentally the technique is the same.