Welding Sheet Metal With Stick Welder

Mig welding for thin metal.

Welding sheet metal with stick welder.

Forget the larger 1 8 inch tungsten electrode and use a smaller one. Porosity is almost inevitable and is affected mainly by the thickness of the zinc coating. Even professionals do it at times. Main things to know before you start tacking sheet metal.

Just kidding this tip is to explain how to weld sheet metal with a stick welder. Mig is one of the best ways to weld 20 gauge sheet metal. To weld sheet metal with solid wires use electrode positive ep or reverse polarity. But it is called stick welding as many beginners stick the welding rod to the base metal as a learner.

It s one of the highest quality machines available and comes incredibly low priced. When welding sheet metal the main thing to look out is to prevent warping and burn through. Even professional welders can create excessive heat affected zones and burn through while welding sheet metal. Many people think that shielded metal arc welding smaw or stick welding gets its name because the electrode s shape is like a stick.

Sheet metal has usage in sectors like making automobiles airplane wings and fuselages roofing and medicinal tables. It is an arc welding process that where you feed a solid wire electrode through a. The majority of the sheet metal welding i ve done was with a 90 amp 110 volt welder. 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.

It requires a lot of experience patience and skill to get the desired results. So if you think you re alone don t worry you re not. Manufacturers of filler metal have come up with special wires that promise to eliminate porosity. The real trick to weld sheet metal is to use a wire feed.

A wire feed or tig welder is ideal for sheet metal but we will assume that you don t have one. We need to establish what is considered thin metal. Don t attempt to weld thin materials like sheet metal with flux cored wires which put more heat into the base metal. Tig welding sheet metal.

The hobart handler 140 mig is the best affordable mig welder for sheet metal.