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[wildwood]

After much searching and googling and you tubing I have now found that many race car builders use Mig for racing body approved cages.....

the welding Nazis on Pirate with say Tig .........BUT....... Everyone seems an expert there(NOT!)

Mig is fine and approved in UK if done correctly for mild steel CDS

Chrome Moly which is stronger and allows you to use thinner wall to give a weight saving has to be Tig welded..... In a crash rather than deform there could be a fracture near the weld as is has a property of being brittle.

So the long and short of this is that I have cut a wheelbarrow full of off cut tubes....coped or fish mouthed them and tried soooooo many settings on the Mig to get full penetration......a good hot weld and a neat appearance that mimick s the stack of dimes.......just a lot less defined....

Tick box.....job done.....settings recorded.......

Now .......
Just got to get on and do the roll cage

[xr6jeeper]

What size wire, 0.8mm? i do what i call the spot method, loads of amps and as you say you can get it looking really good allthough this is tig 

[wildwood]

0.8 wire amps up high and wire feed down low....... Allows for a weave pattern or cursive 'e' s if you prefer to almost get the molten dimes look, good shape, good root and good penetration......

Took me ages as the 'gurus' on web said turn everything down low......... Which gives you loads of filler wire and snotty beginners welds

Tig would be my favourite method........ But I don't own one and I would 'pulse weld' to get penetration and dimes...........


 Blame it all on the 'Welding Nazis' on Pirate....... If it don't look aerospace robotic it ain't good!!


nice chassis and all

[YT]

A mate was a welder in the shipyard in Belfast, (X-ray standard welding), that was the method he used, series of spot welds overlapping. Really neat finish, good penetration, and as it wasn't in full runs, kept the heat down round the weld area. He said it also kept the chance of  porosity in the weld down. 

[Dave69]

0.8 wire amps up high and wire feed down low....... Allows for a weave pattern or cursive 'e' s if you prefer to almost get the molten dimes look, good shape, good root and good penetration......
 

spray welding then.

[JamesH]

Guy I work with used to weld excavator buckets, thick wire, 4ft+ single welds, new gloves each time stuff and his tips to me were to crank it 1-2 notches higher than the book says and just concentrate on what you're doing!

Sounds like you've got it right, maybe cut through some practice welds for a true inspection?

Or weld it up and do a Ponyracer test - take it on the rocks and roll it to see what happens 

[wildwood]

Yup, done the cut thro test and the check the burn underneath evaluation.

going to see the man at Stakesys .....ltube bender   in 10 days! Only 2 years later than planned
Breakout in May seems a bit closer than I thought

[bluevanman]

for hints and tips its worth looking on the esab site just be sure to use the correct argon/co2 gas and all should be fine

[xr6jeeper]

Allthough you dont need them, we use these, makes life a lot easier when you a weird angles and different size tubes
http://www.pipemastertools.com/viewall.html
We also use a tn 250 tube notcher, makes life a bit more bearable
http://www.americanmachinetools.com/pipe_notchers.htm

[wildwood]

Yes.
got those from the US when I was shipping parts for the build........ The TN250 is excellent for the coping/ fish mouths...... Also got 2 pipe masters 1 3/4 and 1 1/4 but up until now they have only been shelf decoration.

looking forward to using all this stuff in anger........

[xr6jeeper]

I look forward to seeing it  are you going to put slight bends on the end of each tube like the yanks do, i think it looks much more proffesional as opposed to just straight tube welded to straight tube.

[wildwood]

yes, especially over my head ....straight forward with a slight 60  degree down bend to meet the windscreen bar.

[xr6jeeper]

 

[paulbaron]

hi, not been on for a while so only just seen this. what make of welder do you have and what is its peak amperage ? the bigger the amperage the more work it will do before the power starts to drop off.

[wildwood]

Portamig 235
running from own 30 amp supply....

Seems to do 6mm with ease....... But most stuff I do is 2-4mm so can work quite fast sometimes too fast if positional...... Not used to lying upside down in the dark trying to lay a good bead

[paulbaron]

being in a comfortable and stable position whilst laying down a weld is an important part of your overall set up. if you are trying for full penetration welds leave a 1mm gap in your weld prep.
remember that mig is a voltage control process, that is the step dial/s on the machine, the amperage is controlled by the wire speed.