Metal 1.5 mm-polish, as welders call it colloquially. Such a thickness will often be in profile pipes, which are bought for a house or summer cottage for welding structures. the material is lightweight, inexpensive, but welding it with an electrode for a beginner is not an easy task.
There will often be burn-throughs, which are even more difficult to brew. But there is a way out in any situation, I will show you a non-standard method of separation welding. If you weld like this, then the probability of burning is small, and the welding speed is quite high.
A clear theory first
I drew 2 parallel lines with chalk, these are the edges of the parts to be welded.
This piece of round timber will act as an electrode, sometimes they make fun of them in the comments - take a pipe for 200! But this is only 25 round timber.
Abnormal electrode position
When welding, the electrode will not be led along the direction of the seam. We hold the electrode approximately at right angles to the welded edges of the product. The arc melts the edges of thin metal quickly, especially if there is a gap. If you hold the electrode in this way, then we will slightly reduce the rate of edge melting.
We start welding.
We light the electrode at the beginning of the future seam. We have a little time while the metal is cold. A weld pool is formed, the edges are fused, plus the metal from the electrode and a bright red lake is obtained. At this moment, we tear off the electrode.
We light the electrode again. Now we make special movements with the tip of the electrode. We will quickly make 2 or 3 loops with the end of the electrode and plus at this moment we move a little along the edges. After these 2, 3 loops, we again tear off the electrode.
Exact re-ignition location
The place of re-ignition of the electrode is very important - to reduce the likelihood of burning through the metal. We do not take the electrode beyond the border of the previous weld pool. The border and the electrode, the end of the electrode, must be on the same line.
Now practice - weld metal 1.5 mm
I will take an electrode with a diameter of 2.5 mm with a rutile cellulose coating of OK-46 grade. The current was 55 amperes, I have a Torus 200 welding inverter. Let's weld, for example, a seam on a professional pipe 40 x 40 mm, 1.5 mm thick. Gap edges.
Welding takes place quite quickly, just with a point-to-point separation in speed is noticeably lower.
We beat off the slag, we look at the result. The seam is completely welded, there are no burn-throughs and slagging. Yes, it is not as beautiful visually as the seams with a separation point to point, grind with a grinder, we will make beauty! But we have significantly increased the speed and reduced the likelihood of burns. In the photo below, there was a point-to-point welding with a separation - there was an article recently.
A couple more important tips
We weld thin metal with a separation with rutile or rutile cellulose coated electrodes. They have easy re-ignition. Electrode brands-ANO-21, MR-3S, MONOLITH, OK-46.
We connect the holder with the electrode to the minus of the welding inverter. This is straight polarity - so in itself there is less chance of metal burn-through.