[lwlevens]

^^^ Yeah that'll probably do it. I think I tightened mine down to tight, this was on an angle grinder.

 

[railroaderman]

Safety has to be intentional. You have to take precaution every time. Just last night I was cleaning up some valve covers I got from salvage yard to go on a motor I'm selling (took the bling ones off). After sand blasting there was one spot with some rust I missed. Whipped out the angle grinder with a wire wheel on it and first pass I made, one of the wire strands flew off and hit me on the cheek just below my eye. Drawer full of safety glasses/goggles and I didn't get a pair to put on. What an idiot I am.

Thankfully no harm but it scared me into doing what I should have done in the first place. WEAR Eye Protection.

 

[Stroker Ace Ventura]

Safety has to be intentional. You have to take precaution every time. Just last night I was cleaning up some valve covers I got from salvage yard to go on a motor I'm selling (took the bling ones off). After sand blasting there was one spot with some rust I missed. Whipped out the angle grinder with a wire wheel on it and first pass I made, one of the wire strands flew off and hit me on the cheek just below my eye. Drawer full of safety glasses/goggles and I didn't get a pair to put on. What an idiot I am.

Thankfully no harm but it scared me into doing what I should have done in the first place. WEAR Eye Protection.

We've all done it, then scared oursves into vigilence... Until we become complacent yet again... The cycle continues. I mask up, eyes, breathing, hearing, face protection, gloves, leathers, etc. It's hot, uncomfortable and sometimes I can't see well from the steam from breathing but I know better than to remove it. The fire department drilled PPE into our minds for years and I continue. I yell at my kid when he changes oil without the nitrille gloves... Cumulative damage... Ya don't see it until it's too late. Really glad you didn't catch that tine in the eyeball, my friend!! Really glad!

 

[76Ponti-X]

saw this recently... is this too thick for working w autobody panels n etc? seems indestructible...
I can’t believe he can touch it after all that! #shorts #amazing #gadgets

also, that 275 rear tire looks bad azz even without a quarter panel! .. or is that the 295?

 

[unstable]

saw this recently... is this too thick for working w autobody panels n etc? seems indestructible...

@76Ponti-X much depends on your workflow. If you use a thicker cut-off wheel, you're going to vaporize more material, which probably doesn't matter as long as you account for this with your patch. A video of what I'm talking about would be much more useful than words here but I'm going to try.

Imagine if you had two pieces of construction paper, one is blue and one is red. The aim here is to cut some piece off of the blue sheet and replace it with a section from the red sheet.
Does it matter if you use a razor blade, scissors, really thick bladed scissors or really thin bladed scissors to accomplish this?

In most cases, the more precise you can be in preparation, the better off you're going to be when it comes to fitment and then welding. A fraction of an inch in one place can add up to being many inches further down the panel. But technically, no I personally would not say the disc in question is too thick for working with autobody panels. It's not what I would prefer because a grinder or cutoff tool of that size is a little too unwieldly for me. I'd prefer to use one of the smaller (3") pneumatic cutoff tools. The disc is about 1/16" thick which isn't a bad size for easily matching up cuts. But you could use a disc that is much thicker, you just want to account for it.

 

[CAPTAIN18B]

76ponti, thanks for the video, gonna have to get one of these blades since i use my cutoff wheels alot for many different things. As far as body panels go, doesnt matter the thickness of the cutoff wheel as long as you account for that when you cut out metal and cut out the replacement patch.

 

[Stroker Ace Ventura]

As for blade thickness, I use 1/16" cutoff wheels on my angle grinder and have been for years. I typically cleco my panels where desired, then cut at an angle with the blade so the two panels newrly fall together on the long thin side of the angled cut (Thanks, Fitzee!! Cut and butt he calls it). Works great, never an issue and my finished product is nearly indistiguishable from a complete and unmolested panel. Once I get these together, I'll post some pics. Been rained out for a bit her and before I weld up any body panels, gotta get my rust prevention program on point on all interior metal surfaces.

Cheap and easy!!

 

[Stroker Ace Ventura]

 

[J Mark]

Different technique at least for me but makes good sense. Does this guy have self darkening glasses?

 

[Stroker Ace Ventura]

Different technique at least for me but makes good sense. Does this guy have self darkening glasses?

Safety squints! LOL

 

[Stroker Ace Ventura]

Another one of my favorites!

This is how he can touch that rotor after cutting on it... Because he can't!

 

[Stroker Ace Ventura]

 

[unstable]

Butt welding sheetmetal the easy way...12:08 is classic.

Interesting technique. You can't argue with his results. As we've discussed and there was some debate with other members on other threads, With the time I spent with Wray Schelin, he was a proponent of putting about a 45 degree angle on your butts so when it's butted together you get a V and you lay your weld bead in there and end up planishing it flat. I think that your standard mig wire is probably too hard for this planishing if I remember correctly but with a tig or even a oxy/acet torch and a welding rod you can pull this off.

A similar but different technique that I've seen for patch panels is overlapping the patch and cutting through both the patch and the original panel in one shot to create a perfect alignment (in theory). I guess anything you do enough times you can become proficient with.

 

[Stroker Ace Ventura]

overlapping the patch and cutting through both the patch and the original panel in one shot to create a perfect alignment

I've used this technique many times and it works, although I do enjoy the angled disk on the metal better, it permits me to have a much tighter gap (if any) and then I can use an autogenous weld rather than filler at first to tack everything in place without blowing huge holes in that thin steel. I am really loving the TIG but MIG is my skill level at the moment with steel. Working on the TIG on aluminum more than steel for my interior and need about another good 80+ hours to get my chops dialed. Wray knows his stuff for sure, I'm going to try out my jeweler's oxy/acet torch soon to see how much easier/harder that may be for some of the easier less critical repairs. Fingers crossed, just don't like an open flame in the interior of the car at the moment.. LOL... Go figure (fire marshal thoughts...)

 

[unstable]

If it were me, I'd use the jewelers method on visible panels versus interior. For most folks, the end-game for an interior is going to include carpet, which gives you plenty of room for some pretty nasty welds on floor pans etc. I am by no means an expert with the jewelers torch / method. I was up at Wrays once and he fired it up and handed it to me and had me weld a couple scrap pieces of metal together and then walked me through planishing it. It wasn't perfect but it was pretty damn close. On the backside, you could see a few small pockets that weren't 100% but on the opposite side it looked like a single piece of sheetmetal that had never been two separate pieces. I am not sure what rod he uses for welding but I could probably find out.

 

[Stroker Ace Ventura]

If it were me, I'd use the jewelers method on visible panels versus interior.

For sure!!

 

[Stroker Ace Ventura]

I am not sure what rod he uses for welding but I could probably find out.

that'd be great! I use RG45 for gas on some of my stuff if I need to have a more malleable weld, and ER70S-2 or 6 for tig for anything else that needs more tensile strength in the bond.

 

[unstable]

email sent brother.

 

[Stroker Ace Ventura]

email sent brother.

You're awesome, Ken! Thanks, bro!! Curious to see if he has any variables for what he uses...

 

[Stroker Ace Ventura]

So, after a little messing around with gas settings and position as well as getting my tungsten point dialed in for tiny welds, here's two first passes for a trial on some scrap from my quarter panels... Still running a bit cold and my lighting sucked so I couldn't see my pool too well but, (I think I need more gas flow too... #8 cup 1/8" lanthanated tungsten at about 1/2" stickout... 13-15 CFM pure Ar...

I used a scrap pair of dikes for reference... Tiny welds indeed! The far lower left and the top right are about what I'm looking for. I need to mess around before I get any virgin panels in front of me or they'll go POOF!