Thread: Can I tack sheet metal with my stick?

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I know that I can't weld sheetmetal with the big Lincoln stick that I got for my frame, but could I use it to tack stuff together without doing any damage? My dad has a nice wire feed mig that I can bum to finish everything off, but I would like to try and just tack everything together with what I got.
Thanks,
CHAZ

With small rod, low amps and u are careful u could prob get away with it

MM64

Hoof,

Hows the welding going for ya???

You can tack sheetmetal, just becareful not to blow holes in it.... If you are tacking sheetmetal to a thicker metal, try to hold your heat on the thicker....

Thats the best I can tell you without being there...

Good luck
Harmon

buy really really little low amp rods turn it down real low and it will work , theres stuff called welding putty that acts as a heat sink seen bodyshops use it, i think it would work well in soaking up the heat .
i cut and welded my t bucket together it with a stick welder very slow tedious weld a spot here and move far away and weld it there and lined the metal with damp rags to soak the heat the idea is not to get it hot.
the above can be done but
next time i will buy a little mig and use it as i know it would do a better job

eastwood sells a tool that hookes to the machine that allows you to tack sheetmetal

I guess I should just take the time to go get the mig and get it set up, I was just looking for a shortcut. There aren't too many of those in this game!
Thanks,
CHAZ

Here is a trick I've been told, but haven't tried yet.

Take a 1/8" steel rod for acetylene welding, and put it between the ground clamp and the work. Be sure it is somewhere 'safe' because it will get HOT.

the purpose of this is: the welder will drop voltage across the long acetylene rod, and thus lower the power at the stinger.

Give it a try, and let us know how it works.

But if you drop the voltage, you wont be able to srike an ark , ive used the 1/16 rods at 30amps ,and it hard to srike an ark, but ill try it

Originally Posted by hoof

I guess I should just take the time to go get the mig and get it set up, I was just looking for a shortcut. There aren't too many of those in this game!
Thanks,
CHAZ

There you go. Shorts cut will take you down a road you don't want to travel

That thing Eastwood sells to supposedly "weld sheet metal with your arc welder" sucks with really big lips!!! It don't work worth a dirty damn!!!

You would be better off buying the 80 dollar wire feed flux core welder from harbor freight for tacking,the duty cycle is a little low for much else anyway.

Besides you will have the heat issues from the arc welder warping your sheetmetal. Go for the Mig with .06 mm wire max and just tack then stitch weld gradually to eliminate distortion.

I weld better with an arc welder than I do a flux wire welder ( partly because my HF flusx core, the feed is skippy because it dosn't tighten enough ) but I tought myself how to arc weld, I learned from my dad how to strike it ( even tho now I do it compleatly diffrent than him ) and that's all I was really tought. what I do is get a peice of steel ( I use 14ga sheetmetal ) and ground that with what your working on, near where your working ( if your welding a car, don't ground to the rear bumper when your working on the front fender, ect... ) then when you want to weld, turn the welder on and then strike the arc on the peice of sheetmetal you grounded, get the rod nice and hot, and quickly move to where you need to weld, you can spot weld or start a bead like this very easilly. you do NEED an auto darkening hood to be fast enough tho. if the rod is glowing, you do not need to strike an arc, it will automaticly start welding when the rod gets close enough, that's why it works.