Hi All,

Could you cast your expert eyes over these and let me know if I should start a Chassis?

They've been done with a Clarke 151te on 1.5mm ERW using Hobbyweld 5 (co2/argon) with welder settings max 1 (4 out of 6) with wire speed 6.5.













Thanks!

Jon

[Edited on 1/9/13 by joneh]

Look spot on to me.

IMHO, you must make joints in corners, pics 1 and 2.

looks ok you just need to learn how to weld round corners now

I would say that the wire feed is a tad too low - you get a granular finish (possibly a weaker weld) when the progress is too slow. (and a bigger Heat Affected Zone than is necessary)

Speed up the feed a tiny bit and move a tiny bit faster.

That looks pretty decent to me. Far better than an awful lot of kit cars on the road.

Has anyone got this months Practical Performance Car? Look at the welding on the roll cage of the Reliant Robin, it's some of the worst I have ever seen.

Thanks for the comments, will do a few more getting around the corners and try increasing the speed a bit!

If you've done that with a hobby mig then it's good enough to have a crack at a chassis, I've seen a lot worse from those that claim they can weld.

Although I own a mig welder, and have some tuition on welding, although I done get much practice would not consider myself an expert, or a welder. Although I have some experience in inspecting welded joints it is on a larger scale, aka, around 10mm plate.

However, with my limited knowledge the welds look neat and the penetration on the sectioned samples looks about right for I would expect for 'full penetration' on thin material. If you wanted to go to town on it, you could/would linish the cut section smooth, acid etch it, and lacquer.

Also agree about getting the corners to meet and or run into each other. In an ideal world I would personally like to see a chassis being basically air/water tight to prevent corrosion. Although typically this is not afforded on a kitcar where you have mounting hole and panels secured with pop rivets, but it can be achieved at the welds.

I also agree that appalling welding it rife in the field of kitcars and diy car/welding projects including structural parts welded so badly I wouldn't trust it as a headlight mount let along a chassis/rollbar. But that doesn't mean you should accept 'ok-ish' welding as being good. Not that im suggesting the photographed is only 'ok-ish' .


Daniel