The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop welding

I know practically nothing about welding. With that said, let's move on.

I have read plenty of posts praising MIG welders for doing repairs such as patch panels and filling holes on stovebolts.

My Dad has an arc welder (I believe it is a Lincoln) that goes fom 40 amps up to about 215 amps. Can this type of welder be used to do the same type of repairs and if so, what setting and rods would need to be used?

I don't plan to "jump" right in on my truck with this thing, but I would like to learn how to weld so I can do some of the repairs that I need to make. Would I be better off just letting a pro do the work?

Stick (arc) welders don't do a very good job on thin sheet metal. Without the gas shield you end up with many holes in your weld. You end up welding and griding, welding and grinding, rewelding where you burnt a hole in the sheet, and more grinding. Before the mig welders, body shops used gas and brazed everything. Far easier than using a stick.

Is there somewhere you can take a welding class, such as a vo-tech school or a junior college? I would start a fund for a wire-feed welder, then buy one. You just can't beat doing it yourself.

You can buy a good working inexpensive mig and get your co2/argon bottle practice alittle and I swear you will be a welder in no time.

Alan

You can buy a good working inexpensive mig and get your co2/argon bottle practice alittle and I swear you will be a welder in no time.

Alan

A gas welding set would be better than stick but not as good as a mig set up but it would cost less. Many of the great metal fabricators gas weld only. It takes more skill for the welding and working the metal after the weld. Is your stick machine AC or both ac dc if it is ac only I would forget about it for body work. DC you might get by doing a few little jobs

Metal Man - What about the wire feed welders?

I have one on loan, but so far welding around on the old hood from my donor hasn't turned out so good. Wire feeds to slow or too fast and it won't maintain an arc to run a bead. It's a 75 amp/110v Lincoln wire feed. It's not fancy enough to be convertable to true MIG. Too little?

I just need to spot in some patch panels. I'm going to cut out the cancer, so it should be good clean metal to bold to. I can finish it from there. I've thought about using steel flush rivets and doing it aircraft style, but I don't want to have a bunch of rivet bucktails to catch mud and such on the backsides.

Thanks for the help.

Your talking about flux core wire. I do not think it works very well on light sheet metal. You need one amp per .001 thou. of metal thickness to weld in a single pass. So you should be able to weld 16 gage. I do not think the duty cycle will let you weld for more than 2 or 3 minutes at a time but that should be plenty. Most sheet metal on older trucks is 19 and some 16. Licoln makes a good machine. In my opinion it would be worth converting over to a true MIG. Rivets are just not right to use on a vintage truck. Save the hack work for the 84 something get to work car or truck. Thanks for asking, Glad to help if I can

C1534, I know some here on the board use the 110 welders but friends of mine warned me to stay away from them when I first talk about a wire welder. I bought a bigger unit and never regreted it. One question is the metal your having trouble welding clean? The wire feeds just don't tolerate dirt (rust, paint etc) like stick or gas will.

Metal Man,
The machine my Dad has is AC only so I guess I can scrap the idea of using it for the work I need. As for buying a MIG, the investment in such a machine for me would not be worth it. I only need a few minor repairs done and can pay a pro to do them for a lot less than a new MIG would cost. There is a welding shop just down the street from my Dad and he knows the guy that owns it. I should be able to get the work done at a fair price. Thanks for the advice.

If you fit the parts, do the grinding and hammer - dollie work You can save alot of $$$$

I have a Lincoln Migpac 130 and it works great off 110 volts, but it requires a 20 amp circuit. I have not reached it's duty cycle maximum even welding pretty heavy square tubing, but then I wasn't welding any beads more than 3" long in one pass. If you are having problems with your flux core wire not keeping an arc, then your polarity is wrong (flux core and mig welding require opposite polarity) or your feed speed is wrong or your gun tip is worn out or your ground clamp isn't clamped on right. You have to clean the metal where you put it on too, and a lot of people overlook that. Also, clip the end of the wire off if you are having trouble striking an arc, because if it gets a ball end it won't strike well. A pointy end makes the arc strike much cleaner.