Any way to weld the thin metal on tractors and attachments?

[Dan.Cassidy]

I have to constantly be fixing parts on the tractor such as the latches, seat, fenders, hood or attachments such as posthole diggers or rotary cutters, etc.. My buddy told me any welds would not hold on such thin metal for the like, but there has to be a way to do it rather than pay for a new part

 

[Dan.Cassidy]

Yes! Thin sheet metal can be mig welded. Body shops do it every day. But understand, you are not going to weld an inch or two at a time. Use argon/co2 mix with .023 wire. You will need to practice the wire speed and the heat. The heat needs to be hot enough to get thorough penetration. Check the underside. Just a quick pull of the trigger, like tack welding, and not so long that you burn holes. Then continue making tacks alternating spots so the metal doesn't get too hot and warp. Let it cool between making spots welds if needed. A little practice and you're good to go.

 

[blake vedder]

Ok, here is a example, when I tipped my tractor over last time, I crushed the left fender. It rubbed against the wheel and so I used my other tractor to pull the brace back up, but fender is barely holding up, and I either have to weld it to the brace or order a new one.

it really depends on how thin or thick the metal is if is thin and all you have is mig light taps of the trigger and if it is thick metal tack the top middle and bottom and then you can weld the rest

 

[lostcause]

Just to add an additional clarification for the OP if they aren't already familiar - many people toss out the term "mig" related to anything that uses a spool of wire. mig requires gas, hence the name "metal inert gas". some less expensive wire feed welders may not support mig, or could require the purchase of a gas solenoid and/or regulator to perform mig welding, not to mention requiring the gas bottle. if you are using a wire feed welder without gas it is "fcaw" or flux cored arc welding. performing body panel welds without slag will require mig.

 

[Vigo327]

Judging by the comments so far it appears i will have a real easy time when i finally start using the 'right' stuff because ive welded a fair amount of thin sheet metal with a 90a harbor freight flux core machine they used to sell for $89, with flux core wire of course, and i've never run a wire thinner than .030 and recently did some welding on a sheetmetal gas tank with .035.

Many of the older cheap machines did not have enough adjustment range to go low enough to weld thin steel. But high quality machines did.

I think that's the main factor. Who has a nice machine and doesn't know anything about welding? Oh boy here come the jokes, but i mean anyone with a welder that has good adjustability almost certainly knows enough about welding to not be asking the question.

I know it was always the main problem with that $89 HF flux machine. Me being an automotive instructor who teaches electrical, I came up with a pretty cheesy solution... just add resistance to the ground until it won't arc any more, then back up a little. If you have a fairly large piece that's not clean, you can do that pretty easily just by moving your ground clamp further away or onto worse surfaces. Doesn't work if the workpiece is small and clean.

Since I already have them, i use automotive jumper cables for this, in between my ground clamp and the workpiece. You're just adding a bunch of wire into that ground path. A pair of jumper cables has two wires which can be run parallel (least added resistance), using only one wire (medium added resistance) or in series (highest added resistance), so you kinda have 'settings' from moving the clamps around.

You do still have to stitch weld instead of trying to run continuous beads. Getting a feel for the heat of the metal that's NOT glowing is how you stop (ok, greatly reduce) blowing holes through thin metal. Even when I do blow a hole in something thin, I can always close it right back up with the welder as long as i am going slow enough (letting it cool enough between short welds).

 

[Teachu2]

Again, there is no welding process for thin, DIRTY metal - and the OP kinda indicates that he's not interested in cleaning off the years of buildup prior to welding. That's why I suggested a quick and dirty solution using pop rivets.

 

[RoninB4]

I find it amusing that so many folks on this site consider Mig to be less satisfactory than stick for penetration and longevity. Fact is every Skid loader, Backhoe, Bulldozer, Cement truck and Farm implement is "glued" together with Mig.

Not a welder but had to interact with the welders when designing welding fixtures. All welding (except robotic) on all the towing/recovery vehicles for Miller Industries is done with Mig and is good enough for commercial and military vehicles. Wish I could weld like some of those guys.

 

[etpm]

MIG gets a bad reputation because it is so easy to lay down a weld that looks good but is actually barely sticking. But that's what happens to inexperienced weldors. Like all the other arc welding processes wire feed welding is capable of producing xray quality welds. If a wire feed weld has any porosity, inclusions, or other defects it is because the weld was done incorrectly. Wire feed welding is not intrinsically a process that produces lower quality welds. Heavy industry depends on wire feed welding to make products quickly and of high quality.
Eric