While sheet metal is primarily a tig welding job there are times when it s handy to have an available mig welder to fuse sheet metal.
Best welder for thin sheet metal.
If the metal is around 3 16 inch long we recommend you to use the stick welder.
It s one of the highest quality machines available and comes incredibly low priced.
A good heat setting for 1 8 6011 rods on thin material is about 80 90 amps.
Tig welder for thin sheet metal buyer guide.
Forget the larger 1 8 inch tungsten electrode and use a smaller one.
Just grab a piece of sheet metal to get the heat set correctly and go to town.
The hobart handler 140 mig is the best affordable mig welder for sheet metal.
The stick welder is available for getting the right finish and doing more than rust removal from the surface of this thin metal.
For 3 32 7018 s it s about the same.
How thin is this metal.
Everyone is different but those settings will get you in the right ballpark to weld sheet metal.
It is recommended that a welder should use 023 or 024 inch wire for light gauge sheet metal work.
Don t attempt to weld thin materials like sheet metal with flux cored wires which put more heat into the base metal.
The backing bar is used commonly by welders to cool the welded metals and they are generally made up of a copper or aluminum metal and clamped to the base of the weld piece whether it is just a piece of thin sheet metal or a body panel you can use it either way.
However if you are dealing with materials that are 18 gauge or thicker one should be able to use 030 inch welding wire.
When you are welding thin sheet metal with any welder either it is tig or mig the primary purpose is to avoid the sheet from burn through warping and extreme heat affected area while still assuring the weld has sufficient mechanical capacity for the application.
Many brands make these welding rods.
To weld sheet metal with solid wires use electrode positive ep or reverse polarity.