How To Weld Sheet Metal Without A Welder

Just kidding this tip is to explain how to weld sheet metal with a stick welder.

How to weld sheet metal without a welder.

Welding is not an easy process and not everyone knows the proper way to do it. This is when the alternatives to welding can come in handy. A wire feed or tig welder is ideal for sheet metal but we will assume that you don t have one. The process of spot welding involves two copper electrodes that hold sheet metal together.

Don t attempt to weld thin materials like sheet metal with flux cored wires which put more heat into the base metal. For sheet metal i use ine welding wire and it is just as good as their flux cored wire if you want you can grab one here. The best two electrodes for welding auto body sheet metal is either ceriated tungsten or thoriated tungsten. To weld sheet metal with solid wires use electrode positive ep or reverse polarity.

Other than this nano metals and adhesives can also be used to join metal pieces together without welding. While wire feed welding sheet metal go for short bursts of welding instead of a going on a long bead. Aluminum will start to melt at 1200deg fahrenheit but the brazing rod will melt at around 700deg so we want to get the aluminum hot enough to melt the rod without melting the tubing. It is possible to join metal pieces by methods like riveting soldering bolting or brazing.

Want to weld your car exhaust pipe and only have your old grandpas stick welder. Getting the tubing hot enough may take 4 to 5 minutes. Because it will have you a lot more control over the whole process and it is more forgiving in case you do anything wrong. The real trick to weld sheet metal is to use a wire feed.

Thicker sheet metal is more difficult to spot weld because the electric current emitted by the two copper electrodes has more space to flow to. The majority of the sheet metal welding i ve done was with a 90 amp 110 volt welder. Tig welding sheet metal forget the larger 1 8 inch tungsten electrode and use a smaller one. Mig welding is the preferred method for most automotive bodywork and since sheet metal is the thinnest of metals a large expensive mig unit is usually not required.

Short bursts or tacks will help. Sheet metal that is not very thick is a lot easier to spot weld on. Clamp up the tubing and start heating the aluminum with a propane torch. Ditch a 1 8 inch tungsten electrode for something much smaller like 1 16 inch tungsten.