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  #11  
Old 04-30-2017, 04:55 PM
skintkarter skintkarter is offline
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A friend showed me how to do this with the Tig and I've used the method quite a bit on the racecar build. I've also used the mig for some of the thicker sections (sill lower pinch welds through into the box section frame behind).

For the tig plug welds, I drill a 3.0mm hole through the top panel and if it is a thicker section (say 3.0mm for some of the suspension tags) I'll also counter drill the 3.0mm hole to around 4.5mm about 2/3rds of the way through, giving a bit more clearance for the tungsten.

The secret seems to be very hot and very fast - ideally with a pedal. Poke the tungsten down the hole, hit the pedal and don't move until the base material has puddled a fair bit. Then its a quick circular motion to melt the top panel into the puddle. If it is 0.8 or 1.0mm that I'm attaching, often I won't use any filler rod. If it's a bit thicker, then I'll have a short bit of 0.9 mig wire and just give the puddle a small dab. If I'm able to use the pedal, I'll finish by giving the pedal a stomp and have virtually no downslope. Most times they come out looking like a spot weld. Very tight clamping is a must.

20160807_130631.jpg

20141102_170626.jpg
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  #12  
Old 04-30-2017, 09:10 PM
John Buchtenkirch John Buchtenkirch is offline
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We covered this some 3 or 4 years ago. Basically you flood the plug weld hole with molten metal by turning up your migs heat range 2 or possibly even 4 gauges (I use my 110 volt Lincoln flat out). More so than watching & welding up the hole you become robotic and just swing the mig gun in a fast circular motion in the hole. It happens so fast it’s really more about the timing than welding so I highly suggest trying a test piece in the same gauge metal. Experienced mig welders can become pretty good at these mock spot welds in an hour or two of practice once they know the technique. The only problem is it only works on horizontal panels, if you try it on a side panel the molten metal will sag down and loose the appearance of a spot weld. Below is the sample I showed years ago. One weld is too high and the one on the upper left didn’t flood out to the edge of the hole 100% but I think the other 12 could pass nicely as spot welds when painted . ~ John Buchtenkirch
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Last edited by John Buchtenkirch; 05-01-2017 at 01:49 PM.
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  #13  
Old 05-01-2017, 04:14 PM
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Marty Comstock Marty Comstock is offline
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^ John's pictures are worth 1000 of my words. Thank you

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