BMW Rallying Forum

Hi all, been a long time since ive been on the forum, thought i would have a try at welding some plates in my car, trying to rectify half arsed jobs(good welding just couldnt be bothered to finish) so i finished but have a feeling this welding is to put it bluntly SH!T

Any feedback apreciated thanx in advance

Looks like a combination of too low a setting on the amps and too high a setting on the wire feed speed. remember also that you want to aim to melt both pieces that you are welding in proprtion to their thickness. So the thicker plate will get more of the arc focused on it and melt to the thinner one. At the end of the day welding is an art that only gets better with practice, just like anything.

THanks for the advice, do i take it Mr scrutineer will say NO! to giving me a log book with that welding???

Do i start again? If so hows best to go about it? Do i just smooth it off or do i stop being a divvy and bite the bullit and take it to a proper welderer man???

Thanks again!!!!

whereon the car is it? rust repair or cage plates?
probably best to have a practice on some scrap then try again.
looks like there's a lot of splatter, were you using gasless wire? it still looks better than my efforts though!

My gass welder packed in so yeah it ended up being gassless, the plates are part of the spreader plates ive added up the inner sills for more strength, just dont know if it would pass scrutineering!

martine30rally wrote:Looks like a combination of too low a setting on the amps and too high a setting on the wire feed speed. remember also that you want to aim to melt both pieces that you are welding in proprtion to their thickness. So the thicker plate will get more of the arc focused on it and melt to the thinner one. At the end of the day welding is an art that only gets better with practice, just like anything.

Never a true word spoken, it all comes with practice, im a Certified welder and done all the tarining etc BUT ive met people who have had no training etc and are just natural at it so KEEP AT IT !!!!!!! Never weld with no gas as its the gas that sheilds the weld from the inpuriteis (sorry spelling is s**t LOL) within the air making the weld weak as it cool's etc, Gasless migs use a flux coating within the wire to create the gas as it burns to shield the weld (same as Arc / Stick Welding) which in my opinion is CRAP, and many people use Pub Gas (straight CO2) as a cheap alternative to Argoshield but again this dosent shield the weld properly, thus it does the job from the naked eye but it makes the weld weak etc.

To someone starting out turn it up as much as you can until you start burning holes then turn back slightly fill in the hole and carry on as then you know you getting a decent amount of penatration. Sorry i find it hard to explain over the tinternet without hands on explanation / showing you how etc

Cheers Dave aka Daishag Rallying 07805835655

Thanks for all the advice, my gas welder when i say packed up i mean it just constantly splutters, new gas new wire real and new tip, could it be the liner in the handset wire stopping a nice continous feed, the welder has hardly been used but the wire keeps getting stuck causing it to tangle inside the machine, alsoany tips for grinding back the crap ive already sh!tted on, cant get me head round how im gunna go about it.....

Right then before you go bird shitting on yer car some more or blowing holes in it, get a piece of thin plate same sort as the floor of yer car and then a thicker piece same as yer cage foot spreader plate and practice etc.

As for yer problem with the wire getting tangled inside the feed rollers of the welder you have 2 problems there,
a) as someone else mentioned you are trying to feed to much wire into the weld for the power setting you are on, thus the wire instead of melting into a pool of molten metal it goes through the pool and hits a dead end on the metal you are trying to weld thus has no where to go and backs up into the machine etc.
b) yer feed rollers are set to tight, as when the wire backs up ie hits a dead end as described above the feed rollers should slip on the wire and not force the wire through causing it to tangle etc, there should be a little knob on top of the feed rollers that sets the pre load / squeeze on the mig wire, to set this screw it off all the way so the rollers are spinning freely without feeding wire when the trigger is squeezed. Hold the trigger down and screw the knob until the feed rollers start to feed the wire etc and leave it at that and if you find it dosent feed when welding or it is slipping etc give it 1/4 of a turn max !!!!!

What size / make is yer welder ie 100 amp mig 130 amp ???????? post what ampage size she is and also what power settings you have and also what marks are on the wire speed knob and one last thing what size mig wire are using ???? 0.8mm wire is a good all rounder for welding on cars as you crank it up for cages and slow it right down for rotten thin metal etc. If you give me the above info i should be able to give you a start base / setting to start from etc

Cheers Dave aka Daishag Rallying 07805835655

Cheers Daishag, il post a pic of me welder tomoz to save explanation errors lol

Hi Daishag, here is a couple of pics of my welder

Right try switching the Ampage to "A" on 1st switch, 3 on the 2nd and Min on the 3rd and depending on what wire thickness you are using (should be a small sticker on the wire reel) if its 0.6mm try wire speed 6 and if its 0.8mm try 4.5 / 5 etc

When you start welding start on the thicker piece and feather it into the thinner metal of the car floor, all ways when welding with a mig clean all paint and rust as much as you can off the metal to be welded with a grinder fitted with either a abrasive paddle disc or wire brush attachment etc.

If you find its burning holes turn the power down to 2 on the 2nd switch, and also if you find its spitting a lot try turning the wire feed down slightly ie 1/4 to 1/2 a point ie 4.5 down to 4.25 etc you should get a nice buzzing / crackle sound when welding a not a sound that replicates a spitting noise etc

See how you go bud and let me know

Cheers Dave aka Daishag Rallying 07805835655

Hi all, i had to call in a favour from a mate as im struggling and i want it to get done sometime this decade, so he srarted and spent most of his time chasing holes around the car because he had to grind the last effort rite down that i did, so he decided now to put in a much bigger plate so he can weld to a bit of the sill that hasnt already been touched, can anyone tell me, does it matter how big the plates added can be, is there a MAX size they can be? Pic of his welding(and the holes i did below)