just started putting half boot floor in a mini [m using a clarke te150 mig welder with boc argon shield light 0.6 wire set on 1 min wire speed 5\6 gas set on 10 ltpm. doing the thin metal technique on this forum im getting pin holes in the welds the new metal blowing in places ive tried various differnt settings still blows and pin holes and looks crap any ideas where im going wrong. iwill try put photos on later.
- Thread starter hodge
- Start date
Country Joe
Argoshield Dark
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- Somerset - United Kingdom
Welcome to the Forum, hodge!
The photos would help - a lot.
Are these butt welds, or are the pieces overlapping?
Are you welding from above, or below?
Are the surfaces properly clean?
Have you cut back far enough, so as to reach sound metal?
Are you welding out in the wind, or inside?
How "crap" do they look, is there a brown residue all around the welds?
Pictures would really help!
All the Best,
CJ
The photos would help - a lot.
Are these butt welds, or are the pieces overlapping?
Are you welding from above, or below?
Are the surfaces properly clean?
Have you cut back far enough, so as to reach sound metal?
Are you welding out in the wind, or inside?
How "crap" do they look, is there a brown residue all around the welds?
Pictures would really help!
All the Best,
CJ
Country Joe
Argoshield Dark
- Messages
- 1,743
- Location
- Somerset - United Kingdom
Well, a bit tricky without seeing, but the brown sooty deposits would usually suggest a lack of shielding gas. I realise you say there was no wind, but the shielding gas can blow away quite easily, even in a slight breeze. Setting up some kind of wind break helps a lot, even if it's just leaning a sheet of ply against the car on the side the wind blows from.
Also, is the part of the car that you're cleaning with the cup brush, smooth, clean & shiny, as opposed to having pitted areas with rust traces in? This can cause the arc to behave in an irritating way, too!
Sometimes using a cup brush doesn't get right into the pitted surface of the steel, but usually if it's quite pitted, it's also quite thin, so you may end up having to cut away slightly more of a hole, in order to find more sound parent metal.
Getting as comfortable as you can (within the confines of a mini boot!) will help too, as it enables you to keep an even arc length throughout the weld.
Pictures would help loads, as then it'd be more easy to see if you'd be better persevering with the job as it is, or cutting back a bit further.
It could also just be that the settings (ie wire speed, amps, etc) aren't quite balanced correctly. Did you "set up" on some scrap of the same thickness, and if so, did you butt weld them, and were they ok?
Pictures would definitely help, then others (& me) would be able to have more of a clue as to what you're looking at here.
Another thought, are these "butt clamps" of yours forcing you to leave more of a gap than you would normally do, as it's much easier on the very thin bodywork steel, to have no gap at all.
Still trying to picture it!
All the Best,
CJ
Also, is the part of the car that you're cleaning with the cup brush, smooth, clean & shiny, as opposed to having pitted areas with rust traces in? This can cause the arc to behave in an irritating way, too!
Sometimes using a cup brush doesn't get right into the pitted surface of the steel, but usually if it's quite pitted, it's also quite thin, so you may end up having to cut away slightly more of a hole, in order to find more sound parent metal.
Getting as comfortable as you can (within the confines of a mini boot!) will help too, as it enables you to keep an even arc length throughout the weld.
Pictures would help loads, as then it'd be more easy to see if you'd be better persevering with the job as it is, or cutting back a bit further.
It could also just be that the settings (ie wire speed, amps, etc) aren't quite balanced correctly. Did you "set up" on some scrap of the same thickness, and if so, did you butt weld them, and were they ok?
Pictures would definitely help, then others (& me) would be able to have more of a clue as to what you're looking at here.
Another thought, are these "butt clamps" of yours forcing you to leave more of a gap than you would normally do, as it's much easier on the very thin bodywork steel, to have no gap at all.
Still trying to picture it!
All the Best,
CJ
mike 109444
Member
- Messages
- 4,728
Hi Hodge When you say you have cleand the metal, have you cleaned the underside of the boot floor metal? As you are using but weld clamps (type with thin strip + box section + pin underneath ? these will leave a gap for the butt weld but may also be allowing the paint or underseal thats on the underside to pollute the weld by creaping through the gap maybe?
