Thanks Everyone,

[redwine300]

Well, that's all the plug welds drilled out, and not one snatched drill.

 

[redwine300]

Just I thought things were going well, I discovered a problem with the spot welds on the new crossmember.
I could not believe my eyes, at least 6 of the spot welds were faulty. OEM Nissan as well.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

^^ Not good.

 

[redwine300]

^^ Not good.

So true.
I have subsequently contacted the vendor about this fault and explained my concern.
His initial response was quite curt, but after several exchanges, polite ones I might add, he has agreed to submit this complaint to Nissan themselves.
Unfortunately this will put the welding off for a while as there maybe a slight chance of a replacement.

 

[redwine300]

While I wait for a decision about a possible replacement crossmember, I took the opportunity to trial fit the existing new one.
After a few attempts, I managed to settle on a good fit between the crossmember and the tensioner rod brackets.

 

[redwine300]

Decided to transfer the spot weld pattern over and remove the paint back to bare metal ready for plug welding.
In the meantime, I am going to set up a test piece replicating the 2 different thickness' of metal for some practice.

 

[redwine300]

Set myself a multiple test sheet tonight so as to set the mig up.
I have a Clarke 135TE Turbo, but for the life of me I can not remember the correct sequence of power settings.
As I recall, the manual may be wrong.
Is this sequence correct?......

1 min
2 min
1 max
2 max

 

[Cobbler]

That's what it was on my old 100en, if your not sure, if you have a multimeter, take the wire feed tension off so it doesn't feed wire & check the voltage between the tip & the earth clamp in each of the settings.

 

[redwine300]

Cheers bud, will do.

 

[redwine300]

Ran my set up welds tonight, my god I am out of practice.
Anyway, I decided to start at the lower end of my mig and work up monitoring the weld height and penetration as I went.
Here's the results, no laughing please.....

Starting from left to right....
(Clarke 135te turbo machine)

First, power at 1 min, wire feed at 5. (poor penetration and spitting/burning back)
Second, power at 1 min, wire feed at 5.5 (as above)
Third, power at 1 min, wire feed at 6 (as above)
Fourth, power at 2 min, wire feed at 6 (as above)
Fifth, power at 1 max, wire feed at 6.5 (as above but with buzzing)
Sixth, power at 1 max, wire feed at 7.5 (better penetration, some spitting)
Seventh, power at 1 max, wire feed at 8 (better penetration, less spitting)
eighth, power at 2 max, wire feed at 8.5 (fair penetration, some buzzing)
ninth, power at 2 max, wire feed at 8 (as above, probably should have tried a wire speed of 9)
tenth, power at 1 max, wire feed at 8 (good penetration, some crackle and some spitting)
eleventh, (as above)

If the welders amongst you would cast your eye over these and make suggestions as to how to improve things, I would be greatful.

 

[redwine300]

Anyone?

 

[the snooper]

dont think you are gonna have any problems you have it sussed from the above pics

 

[alexGS]

Anyone?

Your description and experience with the Clarke 135te sounds exactly like my Telwin (130A), I'm wondering if they're the same machine - slide-up side panel with louvres? Two flimsy plastic wheels and protruding flat bar handle on top? Overly-sensitive wire feed knob with markings in a square shape?

I'm not an expert but to me, your welds 6, 7, 8 seem better than original spot welds in strength and quality, look tidy to me, and you're getting a similar diameter of penetration on the back with nice even HAZ.

Why not just drill and blitz those failed OE welds on the new subframe in the same way - bound to be an improvement?

I'm really impressed by all the work evident in drilling out dozens of spot welds and getting everything to fit just so.

-Alex

 

[redwine300]

Your description and experience with the Clarke 135te sounds exactly like my Telwin (130A), I'm wondering if they're the same machine - slide-up side panel with louvres? Two flimsy plastic wheels and protruding flat bar handle on top? Overly-sensitive wire feed knob with markings in a square shape?

I'm not an expert but to me, your welds 6, 7, 8 seem better than original spot welds in strength and quality, look tidy to me, and you're getting a similar diameter of penetration on the back with nice even HAZ.

Why not just drill and blitz those failed OE welds on the new subframe in the same way - bound to be an improvement?

I'm really impressed by all the work evident in drilling out dozens of spot welds and getting everything to fit just so.

-Alex

I'm not too familiar with your Telwin machine, but your description does sound somewhat familiar to mine.
As for the settings? I think I will start with 6 and go from there.

Agreed, I have drilled the faulty spot welds out and plug welded them.
Since then I have made good headway with welding the crossmember into position.

Thanks for your comments.

 

[redwine300]

Nearly there....

 

[redwine300]

Well that's all the welding done, just hope it all holds together!
Now the homeward journey begins.

 

[redwine300]

Slightly off topic.
My daughter was admiring my recent posts, when she asked me, do you know you have over a 100 unread messages?
What messages I replied? surely not!
OMG she was right! I felt awful to say the least.
All I can say to all those who wrote to me and did not receive a reply, I am truly sorry.

 

[redwine300]

Whilst I was waiting for the paint to dry, I reminisced a little.

From this....
To this...

 

[redwine300]

Now that the paint is now dry, I roughly brushed some seam sealant around the top section of the cross member.
And I mean rough.

 

[redwine300]

Finished the painting ready to start putting her back together, sorry about the overspray.