Hi guys, Question for Oxy welding experts. I have been welding with Oxy for about 6 years, went to a night college course to learn and have done a few repairs on old Ford bodies and new steel. I have a Henrob/Dillon/Cobra oxy torch. The problem I am having is when welding rust repair patches into a 32 Ford body I am repairing. I make sure metal is clean and make sure get good penetration with welds and take my time, to not get too much heat in the metal. The weld looks ok, but then when hammering and cleaning up, some of the weld joint falls out like slag. Does not happen with new metal. Is it just old Ford bodies with the old steel and inconsistent properties or am I doing something wrong? Can use my mig, but would rather use oxy. Hope someone can give some advice. Thanks
i've had that happen because I didn't have my torch adjusted right. I'd go and practice on some scrap sheet metal and make some adjustments so that I got it working the way I wanted it to. I have a mig now but have always welded sheet metal with my torch and my top was welded on with a torch 31 years ago and the welds are still ok.
That's what I am thinking that you have too much oxygen to acetylene or too much pressure but hopefully one of the guys who has used that torch quite a bit will chime in and give you some detailed info.
really sounds like you are drawing some impurities into your weld from the back side of the old ford metal. could be torch setup but if its good on new steel its probably fine
I cut a piece out of an unknown frame once to patch a T frame and ran into similar problems. The weld looked fine but if I flexed the rail the patch would crack along the weld. Tried different things....ended up cutting it out & getting a different piece to use as a patch & it was fine. I think it was just impurities in the metal.
sounds like there could be impurities in the weld. check the backside for old underseal etc and if poss, scrape it away from the join areas. Have a look at my thread linked below ...I've oxy butt welded new sections into my F1 cab and theres a few pics of the backside of the welds. It might be a help for you to gauge how weld penetration should look ?
The body has been blasted and etch primed. I clean off the primer on areas to weld patched. So not really any old gunk. I did some repair on the dash and it went perfect. Just rust repairs on body I am having problems with. I will make sure before i start that the flame mix is good.
What filler rod are you using? I have had that issue with poor quality rod Actually coat hangers Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
sounds like too much oxygen and your oxidizing the metal lots of that older steel has a real high carbon content in it and the newer stuff I am seeing is low carbon . if it sparks like a sparkler the metal is fatigued .
One bad problem I see with most people is they have way too much pressure at the torch. Adjust your pressure to the lowest setting and that should help with your welds and also save you money