Plug Welding Sheet Metal With Mig

When welding thin metal the main objective is to avoid warping burn through and excessive heat affected zones while still ensuring the weld has enough mechanical strength for the application.

Plug welding sheet metal with mig.

I keep it short and to the point in this welding instructional video and show how ve. Hold the panels in place. This will fill the hole with a plug and join the two sheets together at that location. Learn how to mig weld automotive sheet metal in about 5 minutes or less.

Learn why mig pulsed mig tig and pulsed tig are the ideal choices when welding sheet metal. The backside of the patch should be sprayed with etching to prevent rusting. After cutting and fitting the new panel you are now ready to weld the patch panel in place. In plug welding you drill or punch holes in your top sheet clean both surfaces and overlay it and do a small dot or spot in the hole which should fuse the two together.

Start by marking out even spacing of where you want your spot or plug welds on the metal. Place the wire electrode from the mig welding torch in the center of the first hole so it touches the lower metal plate. For thinner gauge sheet metal like 18 or 20 gauge we suggest 023 6mm wire in your mig welder. Start off by drilling 7 5mm holes in the front sheet of metal at a spacing of normally 25mm to 40mm or whatever the original spot weld spacing was.

Keep the stick out short stickout of your mig wire is important when welding any type of metal but especially sheet metal. A plug weld with mig works very good and is a superior way to attach thin sheets together. Short circuit transfer mig short arc tig and pulsed tig welding processes provide the most control over the heat to address these challenges. You can than take a drill or a metal punch to make holes in the top layer of the metal.

I like to try and center the weld in the flange or weld seam. Below we show you the process for making a spot weld with your mig welder. When mig welding sheet metal it is important to set the proper parameters to prevent warping and burn through or else it will create excess heat and easily blowholes on the metal. Holding the tip too far from the surface will cause the wire to have to come out too far to touch the metal.

Then clamp this sheet onto the back sheet. Pull the torch trigger to start an arc weld for 4 to 6 seconds until the hole in the top sheet fills with liquid metal.