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Help welding on frame, pics inside

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Old Dec 8, 2013 | 09:58 PM
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Default Help welding on frame, pics inside

I need some tips to help me properly weld a mild steel plate to the frame in the rear of the car. I bought a 12 bolt that had a anti roll bar on it and I'm in the process of welding the tabs on the frame and they are not turning out so great.

I'm using a mig welder and mild steel wire with a flow meter running 75/25. My welder has 4 settings, all have been tried and the speeds also adjusted with the same results. I have tried 5-12cfm on the meter with no change in the welds. The first pic shows my welds with 8cfm. The surface was properly prepped and good ground too.

I have attached two pics, first is the tabs welded to the mild steel plate that turned out great for my welding skils and the second is me trying to weld it to the frame.



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Old Dec 8, 2013 | 10:01 PM
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doesnt look like your welder is capable of welding that thick of a material. have you tried cranking it all the way up and lowering your wire speed some?
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Old Dec 8, 2013 | 10:03 PM
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Yep, lowering the speed helped very little but this could be the case.
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Old Dec 8, 2013 | 10:06 PM
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what kind of welder is it?
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Old Dec 8, 2013 | 10:11 PM
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What voltage did you turn it up to. Crank that sucker up
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Old Dec 8, 2013 | 10:11 PM
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just checked the welder, says it goes up to 3/16" at max. The plate is 1/8" thick but the welder just acted real funny when it came in contact with the frame and also the inner wheel well. I cut out my bump stops and tacked a few areas around it and the welder acted the same as when I tried to install the plates. the areas on the wheel well were very thin.
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Old Dec 8, 2013 | 10:14 PM
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Originally Posted by jasonz28camaro
just checked the welder, says it goes up to 3/16" at max. The plate is 1/8" thick but the welder just acted real funny when it came in contact with the frame and also the inner wheel well. I cut out my bump stops and tacked a few areas around it and the welder acted the same as when I tried to install the plates. the areas on the wheel well were very thin.
Was it bouncing around on you?
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Old Dec 8, 2013 | 10:18 PM
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Originally Posted by NnOoSsSs
What voltage did you turn it up to. Crank that sucker up
I ran it at the highest setting of 4. it only has settings 1-4, see the attached link for the welder details, it is the same as mine.

http://www.minnesotawaterfowler.com/...ic.php?t=29862
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Old Dec 8, 2013 | 10:20 PM
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Originally Posted by NnOoSsSs
Was it bouncing around on you?
yes, bouncing, popping and would become silent and sound very strange once it kind of started to want to weld but would not pool nice at all.
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Old Dec 8, 2013 | 11:08 PM
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where are you grounding it at?
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Old Dec 8, 2013 | 11:10 PM
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About a foot away on the frame. Also tried the tabs on the plate.
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Old Dec 9, 2013 | 01:53 PM
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Originally Posted by jasonz28camaro
About a foot away on the frame. Also tried the tabs on the plate.
Play around with your grounding a bit. I would get as close as you can with the tip to the metal and make sure you have enough of a angle
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Old Dec 13, 2013 | 03:33 PM
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With the 75/25 mix that welder I'm pretty sure you're at or beyond the max with 1/8"; the 3/16 rating is with FLUX core wire, not gas shielding; Gas shielding actually is colder welding, thus can't weld as thick materials.

Looks like there's not enough power/heat there with the 75/25 mix to properly weld. Grab a roll of flux core, and you should be able to burn it right in.

Also, what did you use to prep the surface on the car? Did you get it down to bare metal? (I'm assuming you did, but always have to ask!!)
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Old Dec 13, 2013 | 04:35 PM
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Originally Posted by 97FormulaWS-6
With the 75/25 mix that welder I'm pretty sure you're at or beyond the max with 1/8"; the 3/16 rating is with FLUX core wire, not gas shielding; Gas shielding actually is colder welding, thus can't weld as thick materials.

Looks like there's not enough power/heat there with the 75/25 mix to properly weld. Grab a roll of flux core, and you should be able to burn it right in.

Also, what did you use to prep the surface on the car? Did you get it down to bare metal? (I'm assuming you did, but always have to ask!!)
Yes bare metal.
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Old Dec 13, 2013 | 04:41 PM
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Guys I thought I'd let you know I figured it out last night.

I spoke to the guys at Wolfe and they said to practice welding on a seam around the wheel well area to get the welder set. I found a spot and dialed it in on the hottest temp and wire speed at about 70%. This did the trick, strange how the wire speed being increased would fix it but it did.
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