Outer Limits 4x4 Board

A while ago there was a thread on welding tips and I cant seem to find it.

What I'm looking for is what the best material to put behind the steel when welding to help you get it flat ?

I think it was copper or brass but I'm thinking copper would just melt.

Any help would be appreciated.

Nick

yeah mate its copper. the weld wont stick to it. good for filling holes etc, wont stop material distorting or anything though

Thanks champ

Hope no-one minds if I hi-jack this thread a little?

I am modifying a complete rear step/towbar to fit on the back of my GQ.

The mounting part of the towbar is effectively a box section (it is now I cut all the original mounts off anyway). And is exactly the same width as the rear crossmember on the GQ, so by welding plates onto the side of the towbar box section it will slide perfectly into place and can be bolted through the side of the chassis.

What is the best shape for the plates and should they be welded across all three sides or just top and bottom?



pic shows the setup from the side, which shape out of the two plates will be stronger and should they be welded all the way round on the three edges or just top and bottom? (hope this makes sense!!)

\end hi-jack.

I would be making the side plates bigger than the crossmember like the standard towbars are.

Nick

The side of the crossmember is actually a welded plate anyway, it measures 100 high by 150 deep. I cant go any bigger than that due to a chequer plate top etc on the rear step.

CWBYUP wrote:A while ago there was a thread on welding tips and I cant seem to find it.

What I'm looking for is what the best material to put behind the steel when welding to help you get it flat ?

I think it was copper or brass but I'm thinking copper would just melt.

Any help would be appreciated.

Nick

An old soldering iron (the pointy square ones) works well for mig welding holes up. Hold it behind the hole and weld away!
Brass or aluminium or copper will all work equally well, infact any metal that isn't steel or iron.

CWBYUP wrote: What I'm looking for is what the best material to put behind the steel when welding to help you get it flat ?

Any help would be appreciated.

Nick

is it distorting or wrapping?

I don't get the reason why you'd want something to keep it flat? all steel is going to bend when you add heat to it.

Have a look here

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/learning-mig.htm

CWBYUP wrote:A while ago there was a thread on welding tips and I cant seem to find it.

What I'm looking for is what the best material to put behind the steel when welding to help you get it flat ?

I think it was copper or brass but I'm thinking copper would just melt.

Any help would be appreciated.

Nick

um copper or was it brass , plat is only used when filling hole,s after somone counldnt read the tape wrong,
it dose take the heat out as well

when trying to keep a plate straight when welding stiff backs across the back of the plate and leave them on till it has cooled down on its own,

or tacking to a bench weld it then let it cool and cutr it off after

but you cant stop distortion

as for welding it with mig keep the gun at 45deg angle always push so that the gass is always there no crap forms in the weld , keeps it nice and neat, just play around with amps and wire feed to get it crackling nice

Thanks for the info.

Nick

The best way to reduce distortion is to simply reduce the length of the welds your doing.

This is called stitch welding some welders have this as a feature on the welder.

You set a time on a the dial maybe flick a switch as well.
You hit the trigger then start to weld as normal.
Then after a few seconds the wire feed is stopped, you keep moving along the seam as if your still welding.
The welder will start up the wire feed again after waiting X seconds and you'll be welding again.

You do this along the whole seam, that's the automatic version of stitch welding.

You can do it manually as well.

You simply weld for X length then stop then move to the other side then weld for X length then stop then move to the other side.

If your doing a weld on both sides of a 3/5mm plate, you simply tack one side then tack the other side then back to the first side and keep tacking along.

Then stitch weld up the sides changing sides as you go.

Putting heat into metal wil bend it towards the source of the heat.

An example is:
get a 5 meter bar get an oxy then heat one side it'll bend the whole bar towards you.

Heat the other side and you can bend the bar back to straight again.