Welding in cold weather
- Thread starter Mike65
- Start date
Hey Mike,
As stated you'll have no problems. I do some of my best welding in the cold weather.For what it's worth you may or most likely will have issues with using coatings and paints in the colder weather to protect your work.I have a heater in my garage for when I'm working ,but usually the actual steel of the car doesn't get up to a warm enough temp for most of the paints I use so I will then wait until I'm done and I'll let my heater crank for a long time to get it all nice,Then I'll coat stuff.Or in your case I assume your car is living in the garage,you can wait until some warmer days to coat stuff.
As stated you'll have no problems. I do some of my best welding in the cold weather.For what it's worth you may or most likely will have issues with using coatings and paints in the colder weather to protect your work.I have a heater in my garage for when I'm working ,but usually the actual steel of the car doesn't get up to a warm enough temp for most of the paints I use so I will then wait until I'm done and I'll let my heater crank for a long time to get it all nice,Then I'll coat stuff.Or in your case I assume your car is living in the garage,you can wait until some warmer days to coat stuff.
Tempurature has an effect on any materal you are trying to weld. Aluminum more than steel but steel is still effected. I would use a simple propane torch to pre-heat where your going to weld at least up to a normal room temperature. If not you will end up with a cold start. Probabaly not a huge deal on something like what you are trying to do but none the less I would heat it. I try and preheat when ever I can and in cases like cast iron, you have to no matter what.
that has to be one of the most ignorant statements here. please dont pretend to know things that you obviously dont know about
im a welder. when you weld, especially SMAW welding, the arc can reach a temperature close to the sun. i advise heating the metal to be welded to a temperature that is hot to the touch. anywhere from 120 -200 degrees should be good. a simple mapp tank will suffice. when you are welding, you are drastically changing the composition of the metal being welded. if you have ever noticed, things made of metal tend to break a LOT easier in the cold weather because the material becomes brittle. hot metal will bend. cold metal will fracture.
this is a weld i did recently inside a pipe. done from the outside through a 3/32" opening with a 1/8" rod
Filling it out
capping
all of this was done on pipe pre-heated to 240*
also, check out this site. lots of useful info here
Welding Tips and Tricks - TIG, MIG, Stick and a pantload of other info
Welding Tips and Tricks - TIG, MIG, Stick and a pantload of other info
were getting way out of the realm of what hes doing, theres no need to get into normalizing metal or any of that on a piece of 20 ga. steel that is a non critical weld. we dont need to break out the tempil stick or temp gun and go crazy, if he was welding a 1" plate on a bridge then there are alot of steps he'd have to take both before and after the weld but on a trunk pan youre just tacking or stitch welding so its pretty straight foward and simple.
yes but when welding any gauge of metal, when the weld begins to cool, it begins to shrink. would you rather have that weld pulling on metal that has been at least warmed so that it is pliable, or just left at the current temperature so that it starts to cause stress fractures. which in turn lead to cracks.