I finally decided to build a locost recently and just started to cut and weld up my book sized chassis. I have a few questions about welding up the chassis.
I've done some welding a few years ago, just exhaust piping with a mig welder. This would be the first time I would be doing such a large welding project.
I picked up a Miller Challenger 172 MIG welder, which works great, but I have a few questions:
1. I did quite a few practice welds on scrap box section for a few days before beginning on the frame. I came up to the conclusion that upping the power level and slowing down the wire helped penetration, as did the swith to a thinner wire. However, I managed to blow a few holes on the chassis bottom rails. One of them was rather large (maybe 5-6mm). What would be the largest hole I can fill with a mig weld?
2. After my last welding session, I went to shut off my welder and noticed that the gas gauge showed the tank was empty! I have no idea how long I've been welding without gas, but I did notice that there was a tiny bit more splatter than usual (I thought I was just getting sloppy
) Should I be worried and cut those welds out and lay on a new bead? Other than the splatter, the base weld (for a lack of a better term) looks just
as good as the first few welds where I knew the gas was on. 3. There was also a slight warpage to the chassis after I was done with the welding. I would say that the front end has about 1mm of warpage (enough to slide 2-3 sheets of copy paper under the front) Should I be concerned about this?
4. For the T joints and L joints in the frame rails. Should I be laying down more than one bead?
I will try to post up some pics later on this week.
Thanks in advance!
