The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Micro Torch & Body Panels

Greetings All

Has anyone used a oxy/ace micro torch like the Smith Little Torch
to weld body panels (cab corners etc.)?
It'll make some Very small beads.
Seems most folks like the 800,000 spot welds with the mig...

Thanks

Pete

Pete,

I have a mini precision torch. It appears to be nearly the same as the Smith Little Torch. I think it would be WAY to small to effectively weld any body panels together.

With a MiG, there is so much concentrated heat it takes only a nanosecond to stick two pieces together. Not enough time for the heat to affect the adjacent sheet metal.

With the oxy-acetylene rig, you're playing your torch on one place for quite awhile until the metal becomes molten, which is a recipe for warping.

That's my unprofessional take on things.

Stuart

The key to a good weld is getting good penetration. I'm not familiar with the torch you are asking about but it sounds like it's too small to be effective. One danger is that you might put too much heat into the panel while trying to get the weld area hot enough to weld, thus ending up with a warped panel.

It is faster to put 800,000 little tacks in a panel then it is to try to straighten a warped panel from not applying the heat correctly. I was putting patches in place before mig was widely available or even heard of (salt country). Filler doesn't like to stick to bronze and most people don't have the skill to weld 20 gauge steel with steel rod. Tig would the best bet but right now is not in my budget so I'll stick to my mig...

I've used the Smith little torch to weld body panels. It plenty hot enough. But it does shrink the metal. I weld about 1/2 inch then immediately hammmer the weld on a dolly to flatten the weld and stretch the metal. Try it on some scrap metal. You'll be surprised how much it warps the metal unless you get right on it. That's why MIG welding is prefered by most people.

I think the inherent problem using a very small torch is that in order for the weld pool to become molten, the small heat source has to stay in one place a long time. Natural heat transfer starts to distort the adjacent metal.

If you have a much larger source of heat (concentrated) the pool becomes molten and the weld completed very quickly. This precludes the adjacent sheet metal from heating and warping.

This sure sounds impressive...I wonder if it's valid?

Edit: Digging around through my crap today I noticed that the little torch I have is indeed a Smith Little Torch!

Stuart

atomarc has it right, at least it's how I understand it too. just enough heat as quick as you can get it, and keep moving and jumping around.

I prefer to TIG weld body panels, as it does a superior job when compared to the MIG welder, much less cleanup and warpage.

A friend of mine is really good with a Henrob torch it's oxy acetylene, and has an aluminum pistol like handle, very concentrated heat. It can do almost as nice as TIG welding, but requires a fair amount of skill. He often uses it on sheet metal from the 20's and 30's that seems to be just low enough quality to make TIG welding difficult, but works fine with the Henrob. This torch will even allow you to weld aluminum if you are good.

Whatever method you choose should work well if you practice plenty. As you can see everyone has their own way, and each really likes it, just find yours and stick with it.

Grigg