trying to fill the holes in the engine bay. my problem is that i am constantly burning through the material. its get to a point where it burns the hole bigger, so i hold onto the trigger and circle over it several time till there is a mountain of weld over the hole, then i grind it down. is there some secret to this? the settings right now are "A" and a wire speed of 4. any input would be much appreciated

 

Are you using Flux Core wire or Mig/Gas? I have the same unit and I shaved my bay last year, it was impossible to do with the Flux Core Wire.

I used the small Mig wire and I cut out pieces for every hole and used a magnet to hold them and welded them up. You can use copper as a backing but i didnt like it too much when i tried it.

 

i'm actually using .023 wire with 75% 25% gas. maybe i just need to play with the settings more. i'm thinking my biggest problem is gas regulation. how do you know how much gas you need?

 

Pretty sure the gas flow specs are right on the material thickness cheat sheet inside the wire feed door. I used whatever settings were on that sheet, you have to make quick tacks you cant just sit there and weld the hole you will make a bigger hole. I think I had the heat on C and whatever the wire speed that was recommended on the sheet.

Like I suggested a piece of copper behind the hole being welded helps sometimes, the weld does not stick to the copper it just pools up.

 

i'll have to look at the sheet when i get home today. the problem is that the quick tacks are what makes the holes bigger, and no, i had the heat on A, not C, and i was playing around with the wire feed settings with not much luck. i'll try a few things tonight and see what works

also, where the holes are that i am filling right now, there is no way of getting a piece of copped behind it, so that is out of the question

 

idk, I physically learned how to weld in my bay and made maybe one hole bigger. I suggest practicing on something other than your car and use the cheat sheet, your going to make a bunch of extra work for yourself if you dont.

 

when i did mine( used my friends lincoln sp135), i followed just about the same proceedure you are doing (circle around it working from the outside to the inside). my feed speed was lower though, just a tad under 3. definately had to use the grinder. it worked in the end, but i pretty much convinced myself i wouldnt be doing that again

 

thin sheet metal takes practice as you found out it's really easy to burn a hole in. Find some copper to put behind it as been stated. The copper helps keep the metal cooler and work from the outside in as your doing.

 

^x2

 

so i looked inside the lid and saw the prefered settings for welding the specific material thickness i am welding, however i said nothing about gas pressure. so i got a piece of scrap and made bead after bead after bead with different wire speeds and gas pressures until it was right. still took some time, but have a base point helped alot

 

I think the Lincoln manual says to set the gas to 30-40 for inside IIRC.

 

ive been forced to weld engine bays this way for almost forever bc no one wants to buy me gas at work lol. the spots where bolts used to be are easy, just run a bead starting at the bottom of the hole and work your way up. thin areas like the apron and top of shock tower will need sheet metal in the back. tack them slightly all around then run very fast beads in small areas at a time. i use .35 on a high setting with high speed since i opt to tack them very fast. been doing this for years now and its been working great. welds may look ugly but thats what the grinder and BONDO/glaze is for.

 

i believe i set mine to 15 and appears to be doing very well. any higher and it started sputtering. i'm going to buy some different sized wire as well so i have most everything needed for all sorts of jobs. gonna be a busy Spring for me it seems