Toyota RAV4 GX "Jack" - Day the pub opens, I'm stuck on my driveway welding an arch.

[St.Jude 2619]

16 minutes ago, rickvw72 said:

I’d try to do it as originally intended, so I’d fold a run of steel to go from the remains of the intermediate sill, down to the bottom flange.
Repair floor or inner sills, plug weld to this new bit, grind and then plug weld the outer sill or patch to it. You’d then have three seperate 1mm bits joined, and full strength. 
Welding 2mm to Japanese tin would be a challenge I’d guess, without blowing a golf course amount of holes anyway.

That makes more sense. I'll get on it tomorrow

[St.Jude 2619]

Combination of things, like it being fucking cold, snowing, and my welder playing silly buggers with the wire, meant today was incredibly frustrating.

I've sorted the inner sill, I've a repair panels for the inner reinforcement thing, leaving me with this:

Welded both sides so make sure it was solid.

Depending whether it decides to snow tomorrow, I'll look to weld the reinforcement panel. Then outer sill, then the bottom of the arch by Friday.

[jonathan_dyane 1688]

You’re making great progress but I have to say (and I’ve hesitated to do so up to now because I don’t want you to feel like this is an awful criticism or insult-it absolutely isn’t) but your welding still looks like shit.

It may be solid enough but there is a fundamental problem here, whether it’s technique or your machine I don’t know. I wish I was closer so I could give you some pointers and try to get to the bottom of things and help set up the welder.

The welds you are laying are too big and nasty looking which I suspect is because you either have the wire speed too high or the power too low to avoid burning through HOWEVER this results in a substandard weld. You need more heat but when welding something like Japanese tin you need a staccato on/off approach where the torch is only for something like 2 seconds then a 4 second gap. Also what I do is dance the torch around in tiny circles to promote a good weld shape and to avoid burning through.

Hopefully as you progress things will get easier and neater, please don’t give up or feel demoralised.

[jonathan_dyane 1688]

PS your fabrication work is excellent! Also if you haven’t got one already buy a powerfile, it will change your life.

[St.Jude 2619]

22 minutes ago, jonathan_dyane said:

You’re making great progress but I have to say (and I’ve hesitated to do so up to now because I don’t want you to feel like this is an awful criticism or insult-it absolutely isn’t) but your welding still looks like shit.

It may be solid enough but there is a fundamental problem here, whether it’s technique or your machine I don’t know. I wish I was closer so I could give you some pointers and try to get to the bottom of things and help set up the welder.

The welds you are laying are too big and nasty looking which I suspect is because you either have the wire speed too high or the power too low to avoid burning through HOWEVER this results in a substandard weld. You need more heat but when welding something like Japanese tin you need a staccato on/off approach where the torch is only for something like 2 seconds then a 4 second gap. Also what I do is dance the torch around in tiny circles to promote a good weld shape and to avoid burning through.

Hopefully as you progress things will get easier and neater, please don’t give up or feel demoralised.

Yeah I'm well aware it's shit. I don't understand it really. I thought it was a gas issue, and in fairness the small canister I had the regulator is fucked. But I use the Hobbyweld 5 gas now and I can hear the gas coming out, so that's not a problem now. The wire speed is set to 3, I put it up but that was too much. I don't think I've put it down further than that though, and with the two switches one is set to min and the other is set to 1. I selected 2 earlier, and that just put holes in the steel. I think it's technique, as I am capable of creating welds where they're just slightly proud of the steel and looks nice, a bit like a pimple. The top of that perforated sill that I put on has those welds. 

One thing i will say is that I'm struggling with my mask, as in when it's not darkening it's quite dark. So I see the metal, position the gun, flip the mask, zap it, open the mask, and I've welded next to where I should've done it. I need to look at the helmet again, plus it pisses me off because it's bigger than my already fat head, so when I go to position myself I can't put my head in the space because the mask fowls it. 

So the right hand side with the nasty welds, that's one that is the result of the helmet being too dark. I'll have a look at the settings for it tomorrow. 

[St.Jude 2619]

Short day, as it decided to snow and rain and generally be shit weather. 

I cut a bit of steel for the outer sill before the weather turned, welded it on and tidied it up.

Fiddled with the welder as per @jonathan_dyanesuggestion, turned the wire speed down, it helped a bit. Not burning through anything but sometimes the welds just don't want to stick, like I'm putting oil in a non stick pan. Turned the gas way down and it seemed to weld better, as in it was giving the bacon sound not the zapping sound I had before. 

I also welded in the reinforcement panel as well, so that sill is done!

You can't see it, but the outer sill is slightly long, as I want to see if I can turn it up to form a lip. But that can wait for the good weather, whenever it is.

[St.Jude 2619]

Making me some repair panels now for the arch, starting like all good people do with me cardboard.

It's now dawned on me, how the frig am I meant to do this?

This panel, and the subsequent ones on the arch are easy enough. It's how they join to the outer arch is where I'm starting to get stuck. Originally, the inner arch would go out to the outer arch, 90 degree turn down, then another 90 degree turn so it met with the outer arch lip. 

Am I right in thinking I could just make panels that go around the inner arch, then make a separate panel that replaces the curve of the inner arch that would then attach to the outer arch? Then weld the two together?

I might have a google of inner arch panels, see how much they are in case I get lucky and they cost £10.

[bunglebus 16130]

Just a thought, but what gas are you using? I find argon or an argon/CO2 mix much easier to use than CO2 alone

[St.Jude 2619]

2 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Just a thought, but what gas are you using? I find argon or an argon/CO2 mix much easier to use than CO2 alone

I'm using this: https://hobbyweld.co.uk/products/hobbyweld-5-mig-welding-gas/

[St.Jude 2619]

Started on the inner arch today by welding in a new plate. I welded it, knocked it back, welded where I missed, knocked it back, blew holes, welded them, knocked them back.

Now I have the fun job of making the arch. I decided to remove more of the outer arch.

As the steel behind it was rotten:

The outer arch itself isn't totally solid, so I thought I might as well. Plus it means I have more access to make the arch properly.

I've cut a panel to fit above that, where the curve starts. I need to get a sand bag tomorrow to hammer a curve in to it. I also need a new welding glove, as it's torn. But it saved my finger from the guard less angle grinder earlier!

[Dick Longbridge 10627]

Kudos to you for sticking with this. It must be a labour of love* for you to have continued! At least when you're finished you'll know that it's likely more solid than every other tidy looking Rav 4 of similar vintage. They certainly seem good at hiding their grot well. 

[juular 2302]

I had similar problems in awkward areas regarding missing the weld area. Good lighting is essential and changes everything. Pick up one of those cheap led floodlights and get it right in where you're working. It will trigger the helmet darkening but that's ok because it's still very bright. Also strapping a small LED flashlight to the gun helps a lot in seeing before you light the arc. This was £4 for a pack of two on eBay.

With good light you'll be able to see even if the helmet has auto-darkened.

Does your welder have a table of settings for certain wire / metal gauge / joint type combinations?  Usually that will get you really close to optimum and you can tweak from there.

In my opinion you should be burning through occasionally. I try to aim to burn through initially and then back off a bit, either by nudging the voltage down, reducing the length of weld time, or moving the gun further away from the metal. On my Celica - same steel as yours probably - I needed really short bursts, 2 seconds, move, 2 seconds, move. It's just  a series of joined up tacks.  2.5 seconds would blow through and 1 second resulted in a weld that just sat on top!

I also found penetration increased a lot and blowing holes reduced when I paid attention to the gun angle. I aim almost 90 degrees straight into the joint to begin and then tilt slightly back towards the previous weld to continue.

Don't give up. If you smack the finished pieces with a hammer and the welds don't shear off its better than rusty steel. 😇

[rickvw72 951]

Wow, this has out rusted the Fourtrak! 
In awkward areas, I’ll hold the torch and wire where I want it, and tack it. Try and hold your torch so you can see the wire from  the tip. Then as said before weld as a series of tacks. 

Ive used of load of welders and sizes of machines, I usually find 1 or two on the power switch, and 3-4 wire speed is the start point. 10 psi gas with the trigger pulled, about 15-20 if outside in the wind or laying underneath a car.

 

[St.Jude 2619]

Jeez I like that @juular, I'm going to get a torch for my torch I think. I've got two LED floodlights but they're bulky, so it's hard to get it right in there. Really I want a suit full of super bright LEDs and just wear that, but they don't exist. 

The welder (Clarke MIG 106 Turbo) doesn't have it on the welder itself, think it had it on the book. I'm at MIN 1 right now with the wire speed down to between 2/3. I used a higher setting and it was leaving too much wire. The wire itself is 0.6mm.

With the gas, I've had it at 10psi and I found it blowing the weld away. I'd get the blob on the wire, and it'd blow any other way but where it was needed. So it's turned right down and it seems to be alright again. 

I've taken a hammer to these welds and none have popped. Which I'd say is good! But like me they're ugly, although they're getting less ugly. I haven't a photo at the moment, but the piece I did first on the rear has nice welds that aren't high. So I'm capable of it.

I only saw your Fourtrak this morning @rickvw72 and i felt better about this 😂. 

As for today, I carried on with the repair panel.

The yellow sack is full of sand. Made a fairly good panel here with a good curve, and it fit snugly to where it should be going in to. I've tacked it in, but as I was about to grind it back the wife wanted to know why I wasn't painting a cupboard for her, as we are having the bathroom done tomorrow. So work stopped, for today at least. 

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get the grinder to it, and get the next section of panel done for Tuesday weld day.

 

[juular 2302]

Excellent impromptu beater bag! I might steal that idea..

I'm about to tackle exactly the same area on my Volvo and it's leaving me head scratching staring into space wondering how I'm going to make it all fit together.

[rickvw72 951]

You may need to go to 2 power if it’s 106 amp. Don’t be afraid to move faster with the weld formed. You can see by the blue heat marks how much your weld is burnt in as such, on the Daihatsu you can see where I started and stopped. You won’t get much consistent seam on Japanese tin.