oxy acetylene
 

Oxy acetylene welding..

Anyone here do it? I've never done it, always used a mig. Is it pretty easy to do? How strong are the welds?

I was researching body repair and came across some pages where some guys preferred to use oxy acetylene welding over mig when doing panels and sheet metal.

I'm curious how the more experienced welding guys here might feel about it. What are the limitations of oxy acetylene welding? Can it be used to weld big stuff?

It's one of the original methods. It takes a steady hand. It can use but does not require the use of filler like arc or mig. In general terms, you are melting the two pieces into a single puddle.

I am more of the opinion that body work is a MIG process rather than oxy-acetelyne. MIG allows for a distribution of heat and reducing warpage in thin materials. Oxy process requires the concentration of heat.

Oxy-acetelyne can be used to join pieces of great thickness and is a good tool to have. My welding instructor taught that first to teach weld puddle control. Then we moved to arc, mig and tig.

My personal experience is that I wouldn't try anything but mig on sheet metal.

Personally, no experience with oxy acetylene welding so I can't comment on that....

...but, I would vote for TIG for fine sheetmetal work or non-ferrous metals simply because it's easier to control the heat...

...but, if it's "big stuff" like 1/4" plate, or monster brackets or something... 220V MIG all the way... without question.

I can.....

I have shakey hands. I'm a migger and not a tigger. Tig welding takes a bit more skill i believe but is the best at most applications.

Make sure you disconnect the battery and important electronics before welding.

The best method to weld anything is to use whatever welder you have available. All types,stick,tig,mig, oxy/acetylene, and so on all have their strengths and weaknesses. For the average guy in his garage MIG would be the best choice.

As far as big stuff, flux core is the best way. You could do oxy torch welding, but you would have to may so many passes it would get really hot. Oxy welding is fine for thinner metal. Old school car guys used to lead body panels with a torch. But I've never heard of welding with one unless you had too..... tig is a better option, you can tig pop cans together

I might pick up a torch set up and give it a try. I could use the torch anyway and some of these kits come with the welding tips.

I was watching some videos on YouTube on oxy welding and it doesn't look terribly hard to do. It seems like a pretty slow process compared to just laying a bead down with a mig.

This is just going to be for body work right???? No bumpers or other heavier steel projects, gas welding isn't so good for them.

I tried to braze some body panels once. It melts with less heat than gas welding, it warped the **** out of the panels. I can't imagine how bad it would have been if I tried to gas weld it