General Steel-Tray Welding Questions

[Toyo Truck]

Hi Guys,

On my luxie, seen below,
I have a custom built steel tray with a chequerplate floor.
the chequerplate is about 1mm thick.
Problem is there are a few holes it the tray floor from previous
owners setup.

Been trying to weld the holes up with some chequerplate steel offcuts.
I have cut the plates to fit the holes, and I have started welding them
in place. I was just wondering a few things.

Firstly, a few holes exsist above the fuel tank,
if I weld these up, do I need to worry about the sparks falling through
onto the fuel tank? What precautions should be taken here?

Secondly, On one of the pieces I have welded in there is a 3mm gap I need to fill for about 4cms. How can this be acheived?

I am using a Telwin Arc Welder that does 55AMP-80AMP.
Is this enough? I have found it OK so far, but would it be easier with
more power? How do you know how much power to use? I always
use the 80AMP setting, when should I turn this down?

I am only just getting into arc welding so be forgiving of
my noob questions

Cheers,
Bart

[suzy]

wet the fuel tank with water and cover with a wet rag,I have welded deisel tanks that are full you just have to have big balls and just do it.

With the gap try and get a peice of copper and hold it behind it and weld,the weld should not stick to the copper.

when you weld thin shit with an arc try and keep your arc lengh short as poosible and don't weld for a long time.

if the tray was of the car you could tip it and do a vertical down and that is easy to fill holes and gaps.
just remember when welding to have it 45deg to the work with a 10-15deg pull.

[Toyo Truck]

Sweet can do with the water and rag,

How thick a piece of copper should I get from bunnings do ya think?

By arc length, you mean the length of the blue "spark" ie distance from
rod end to weld? If so cool, I understand.
So should I do like a 3cm section and then stop? let it cool, then
continue? My welder overheated like 3 times so maybe you are right

Cannot take tray off really, it weighs a fair bit.
So what you are saying here is keep the rod at a 45deg angle,
but what do you mean about the 10-15 deg pull?

Thanks heaps for your advice suzy

Cheers,
Bart

[suzy]

any piece of copper will do,just a peice laying around, about 5mm or so,i use old mig diffuser.

what i mean by 10-15deg pull is when you weld you will pull the stick along the work not push.if you push the weld it will get slag inclusions and not a good weld.pretty much dragging the stick is what you want to do.

if you were to weld a T piece like a bit of metal 90 deg to the other you would have it on a 45deg and pull it 10-15deg.

but if you are welding 2 bits of steel that are flat then hold the stick above the work 90deg then pull 10-15deg.

with welding you have cold starts and hot starts.
weld and bit left to right about 100mm or so the back step your welds so the stop starts blend in and the weld will look continous.

[ludacris]

Might be quicker cheaper and easier to get a large piece of checker plate and replace all.

LudaCris

[Toyo Truck]

Well I got the rusty bits of chequerplate from a mate,
so cost nothing,
plus I am getting some good experience with the welder.
One of my runs was really good, the other = crap, but I'm learning!

Going to have another go tonight
after I buy another flap disc from Bunnings on the way home.

If it is a little wet from the rain, can I still weld it? OR will I get
zapped or something? Should I dry it or will the welding dry it out?

Cheers,
Bart

[eliteforce32]

welding in general, and any electrical items stay clear of wet surfaces, not only risk of electricution(sp?) the weld penertraion, the pool of moulten metal will be faulity with inclusion into the weld, so try to stay dry as possible and keep electrodes in a VERY dry place, because this will affect welds aswell, enjoy the world or arc welding

[ludacris]

No worries mate.

LudaCris

[suzy]

when welding steel if it is to cold the grain in the steel is tight..never weld wet....if you can pre heat your rods in the oven for an hour at 150degs it will weld better, also if you can try and put some heat in the steel,it's only mild steel so it should only need about 50deg to help it,if it was bissalloy you'd probly go to 150deg's.

pre heating the rods get all the moisture out and helps with the deposition rate.

pre heating the steel opens the grain so the weld can penertrate good.

play around and weld a piece of steel with cold rods an steel
then weld with all preheated stuff.

let me know?

and wind is your enermy


also i was reading this thread http://www.outerlimits4x4.com/PHP_Modul ... hp?t=59525 and just wanted to let yous know that i am coded to ASME 1X (american society of mechanical engineers) and AS1554 part 4 which is Australin standards 1554 Quenched and tempered steel..

[Slayer]

when welding steel if it is to cold the grain in the steel is tight..never weld wet....if you can pre heat your rods in the oven for an hour at 150degs it will weld better, also if you can try and put some heat in the steel,it's only mild steel so it should only need about 50deg to help it,if it was bissalloy you'd probly go to 150deg's.

pre heating the rods get all the moisture out and helps with the deposition rate.

pre heating the steel opens the grain so the weld can penertrate good.

play around and weld a piece of steel with cold rods an steel
then weld with all preheated stuff.

let me know?

and wind is your enermy


also i was reading this thread http://www.outerlimits4x4.com/PHP_Modul ... hp?t=59525 and just wanted to let yous know that i am coded to ASME 1X (american society of mechanical engineers) and AS1554 part 4 which is Australin standards 1554 Quenched and tempered steel..

an hour in the oven?? u can cook a whole potato or a frozen pie in less than that... when i have put rods in the oven in the past they have been at the same temp as the oven after only 5 minutes... not much to dry, they are only 3 or 4 mm thick...

[suzy]

yeh spose i'm just used to work where we chuck about 500 in.

plus i have a shit oven.

[Slayer]

yeh spose i'm just used to work where we chuck about 500 in.

plus i have a shit oven.

fair enough.. no big deal, just hate to see the poor guy sittin round tonight waitin for the timer on his oven to beep at an hour...

[Toyo Truck]

Hey guys,

Couldn't do much welding tonight as it is wet everywhere.
So will put it off after reading your advice.

Ended up modding the toolbox for the tray instead.
I spouse the sooner I get it back on with the compressor inside
the sooner I can have my lockers back!
so all is not lost.

Bought some more rods from bunnings, got 2.0mm red ones
a pack of 50 should keep me sorted for a while.
I was gonna get 2.5mm rods, but the guys said with my 80AMP
welder, these ones are the go. Is he right? the 2.5mm blue ones
worked OK the 3.0mm ones did too, just took some more heating up
to get started. Whats the go here?

Bought some protecta elbow length lined welding gloves too.


Cheers,
Bart