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MIG Welding Tips for Sheet Metal

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MIG Welding Automotive Sheetmetal This clip from howtoASAP.com is from a 52 minute video featuring nationally recognized automotive builder, Craig Hopkins. Whether you are a novice or a professional, this video will help you get professional results as you learn the tricks to welding automotive sheet metal. Muscle cars, classic cars or trucks use the same welding techniques. Save yourself money and do it yourself or see what your builder should be doing!

Working with sheet metal, especially the thin ones, is such a daunting task for amateur and inexperienced builders or welders. Nowadays, there are many different ways for assembling sheet metal, but the principle behind it remains the same. Sheet metal assembly, regardless of its method, refers to the process of fastening or combining two or more metal components to come up with a single output.

Any sheet metal assembly is always dependent on the components that are being used and assembled. For instance, the approach in melting or joining pieces of metal such as steel and copper is different from thin aluminum and other plated components.

Welding is the most popular way of fabricating or assembling sheet metal. Over the years, the advancement in the metals industry has paved the way to a number of welding methods and equipment. Depending on what you want to achieve on your project, welders can now carry out various sheet metal assembly techniques such as arc welding, gas welding and many others. Each of these welding techniques has its own features and uses in particular industrial applications.

Arc welding, for example, makes use of an electric arc. It utilizes heat of an electric arc to combine metal. Direct or alternating current can either be used depending on the components to be welded. In gas welding technique, meanwhile, burning gas is used to create heat. Gas welders may use propane, oxyacetylene and oxy-propane torches.

Aside from welding, there are other ways to combine sheet metal components. If you don’t know how to solder, you can undertake simple assembly routes such as riveting, bolting and screwing to assemble sheet metal. In bolting and screwing, stainless steel screws, either oval head or pan head, are often used to join metal sheets.

For this assembly task, you will need tools such as drill, twist-drill bits, scratch awl, center punch, and measuring equipment. Snips for cutting the sheet metal, as well as a pop-rivet tool and pop rivets, are required to join the pieces of sheet metal together.

The real trick to welding thin metal is to use a wire feed. Just kidding, this tip is to explain how to do it with a stick welder. 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. There is no absolute “according to Hoyle” answer, but I always considered anything less than 3/16″ to be thin. So from this point on we are talking about less than 3/16″ material.

The first thing to figure out is what kind of welding rods and what size of welding rods to use. If you have nice new 1/8″ material, I would go with 3/32″ 7018 rods. If you have old rusty painted up 14 gauge, I might be inclined to use 1/8″ or 3/32″ 6011 rods. You might ask me, why don’t you just grind the rust off? Well if it’s just surface rust go ahead, but if it’s pitted out you will grind all the material away before you get it clean. Not only that, but if you are just doing a quick repair job on something, just weld it. Chances are, if the material is that bad the weld will far out last the rest of the material anyway. Back to my point, 6011 is the rod I will pick anytime. It allows you to move a lot faster than 7018’s will.

As far as the actual welding goes, I like to use a whipping motion with the welding rod following the same direction as I am welding. Basically just a back and forth motion. The reason for this is to keep from building up too much heat all in one spot. If you were to drag the rod slowly you will have a pretty good chance of burning through. If you are welding vertically, don’t be afraid to run the 6011’s downhill. If the material is really thin, I will use the whipping motion downhill as well. I know it goes against some principles of burying slag but, when the material is thin it really doesn’t matter as much.

Most anything that is made from thin material is over welded. Say for instance you are patching an air compressor tank that has a hole rusted in it. You will weld the patch 100% because it needs to be air tight, not for strength. If you are making a section of air duct, you will weld it solid for air and not for strength, you get the point.

I guess the moral of the story is you can do just about anything with a stick welder in a pinch. It only takes a little bit of practice to make it happen. Just grab a piece of sheet metal to get the heat set correctly and go to town. A good heat setting for 1/8″ 6011 rods on thin material is about 80-90 amps. For 3/32″ 7018’s it’s about the same. Everyone is different but, those settings will get you in the ballpark.

Welding sheet metal is a complicated job that necessitates precision, accuracy and safety procedures. One of the common problems often encountered by welders working with sheet metal is that they can easily make huge holes instead of welds. Without the proper skills and techniques, the heat can immediately melt the metal and the liquid metal will fall out of the part that is being fabricated.

When welding thin sheet of metal, the primary goal is to prevent distortion, burn-through and extreme heat-affected zones while making sure the weld has enough strength for the application. Contrary to popular belief, welding is not as simple and easy as heating the metal then fabricating it to the desired shape or size.

Specific types of sheet metal need specific control over heat. There are numerous welding processes that can be done to weld sheet metal such as short circuit transfer gas metal arc welding (GMAW), pulsed GMAW, gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) and pulsed GTAW. Dissimilar components cannot be welded due to their varying melt properties and thermal conductivities. Nickel and chrome plated metals, for example, are easy to spot weld. On the other hand, sheet metals such as aluminum and tin need special preparation inherent to the coating metals.

The task of welding sheet metal starts from preparation and cleaning. Clean the metals, particularly aluminum, prior to welding. Use a solvent or degreaser to eradicate oil and dirt. Aluminum accumulates oxide layers when it is exposed to air. Before even welding it, remove the oxide using a stainless steel wire brush or chemical oxide removal solutions. Make sure the degreaser does not have any hydrocarbons.

Take note that aluminum oxide on the exterior of the material melts at 3,700 fahrenheit while the base-material aluminum will melt at 1,200 fahrenheit. Leaving any tinge of oxide on the surface of the base will hamper diffusion of the filler metal into the workpiece. Inefficiency in preparation degrades the quality of output, so be meticulous when cleaning it.

To ensure safety while welding sheet metal, you should work in a ventilated area to prevent build-up of harmful gas emission. Proper welding clothes, eyewear and leather gloves are also necessary. Sheet metal has sharp edges. Aluminum, in particular, is very springy and it can accidentally jump at you. Wearing the proper welding gloves can save you from a painful cut.