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MIG welding upside down. Advice.

odin

odin

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I just cant get the hang of this. What advice to you guys have for MIG welding upside down?
I am building a crossmember for my truck and will have to finish it up by welding overhead. Carrying the bead inverted seems to be a PITA for me.:mad:
 
It's also a good way to set yourself on fire!
Don't ask me how I know!

I haven't been able to get anything I liked or trusted welding upside down. There is no way to take it off?
 
Ive only had a problem welding upside down when i was burning way to hot. The wire would just drip down. My little 220 lincoln doesnt get that hot and works the same usde down vertical and right side up. Did you try using the recomended settings for you material thickness.:dunno:
Can you tack it and remove it for finall weld?
And there is the red hot dingle balls trying to burn a hole through skull.
 
I will either run less wire speed to reduce the amount of "dripping" or turn the heat down and wire speed down. I try to avoid it as much as possible.
Odin: You know you will have to remove that crossmember of yours sooner or later, so I urge you to get a hole saw and cut out access to your crossmember bolts, that way you can tack - then remove - then final welding. Yes.....I've seen your PBB thread, hell I've even responded to that one. Do it once, do it right. It's acually less work in the long run. I mean this in a friendly CK5 way and not a bash fest PBB way.
 
I guess youre right. I plan on using 2x3 1/4 thick tubing for the crossmember and 3/8 plate at the frame mounting points with 1/4 plate inside the frame where it bolts. Im not finished with the design of the new crossmember yet.
But it will mount at the stock location and about 10 in back with legs tying the two together.
 
There you go.....you need to remove the crossmember that is in there now to install your new super beef crossmember so you might as well get access to those bolts now. It's probably less work then welding upside down and needs to be done anyway. Once that is done, a stock crossmember comes out stupid easy.
 
Odin, I got a question that I've always had but your thread never covered it. I know you said that you were going to keep it on the street and no heavy wheeling, so my question is, why? Why did you decide to link up your truck for street use? Better ride, cool factor? Have you given any thought at all about sway bars. I good friend of mine has a linked up FJ40 with coilovers and loves to drive it everywhere, but the body roll is bad without the sway bars engaged and properly preloaded. Just a FYI.
 
For overhead keep the voltage the same as you normally would, but turn up the wire speed about 10%. This drives it in a bit better and allows you to move a bit faster to minimize having the puddle drop out on you.

Best tip for not getting burnt is to not stand or lay directly under it.

Rene
 
i am with the other guys on this one... the best position to weld in is the flat.


edit:
on a side note i would not use mig up side down... you lose the gas you are yousing if you use any gas.
 
Uh...no you don't. "Flat" position is great, but there is no reason not to weld something just because it isn't in the flat position. My overhead MIG looks as good as my flat and horizontal MIG does.

Uphand is a bit more challenging, takes a bit of practice.

Rene
 
depends on what your used to i guess but if your having trouble with over head it would be a better idea to do it in the flat.

Personaly i rather use stick. I can lay perfect beads with the stick but no as good with the mig. I have not used a mig alot.
 
Alot of times I have to turn my gas flow up. The inert gas is heavier then air and sinks really fast. To weld up start at the bottom and push up then you have control of your pool. With flux core you shouldn't have this problem.
 
step and fetch.. long horshoe shapes keepin steady motion pause at the bend of the shoe. trick is gettin out of the puddle before it drips and back into the puddle before it completely cools... by that i mean just as it stops glowing orange. don't have to be wide just step out slow enough to keep the wire still welding but back in don't worry abou anything but the puddle at the bend and remeber to pause so it can tie in
 
I usually avoid trying to run continuous beads when welding inverted. I prefer to stitch weld instead. It takes a bit longer, but the welds have good penetration and look good.
 
As stated above push the weld puddle,,don't drag it.
Up the wire speed a little,,work in shorter segments..
 
Why did I link it?

79chevyk10 said:
Odin, I got a question that I've always had but your thread never covered it. I know you said that you were going to keep it on the street and no heavy wheeling, so my question is, why? Why did you decide to link up your truck for street use? Better ride, cool factor? Have you given any thought at all about sway bars. I good friend of mine has a linked up FJ40 with coilovers and loves to drive it everywhere, but the body roll is bad without the sway bars engaged and properly preloaded. Just a FYI.
Click to expand...



Thats a good question. Noone else thought to ask.
I effed up my back about a year ago, Herniated disc in L1. So the ride was nearly killing me. I built this truck from the ground up about 17 years ago and love driving it. So I had to come up with a better ride. Coils seemed the way to go.
What suggestions do you have for sway bars??
Thats the only part I havent looked into yet.
 
odin said:
Thats a good question. Noone else thought to ask.
I effed up my back about a year ago, Herniated disc in L1. So the ride was nearly killing me. I built this truck from the ground up about 17 years ago and love driving it. So I had to come up with a better ride. Coils seemed the way to go.
What suggestions do you have for sway bars??
Thats the only part I havent looked into yet.
Click to expand...

While it's cool that you're linking it up, I think this would be a pretty effective way to smooth out the ride of you're truck.

LINK

AND cheaper too!!

Later,
Buddy
 
Cover your ears , hot molten balls of crap landing on a lobe will make you smack your head on the frame , axle , exhaust , whatever is in your damn way :doah:
 
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