Mig Welding Wire Size For Sheet Metal

Learn how to mig weld automotive sheet metal in about 5 minutes or less.

Mig welding wire size for sheet metal.

I keep it short and to the point in this welding instructional video and show how ve. Mig welding sheet metal always use the smallest wire diameter possible since smaller wires take less heat to melt and heat the metal less. The material also determines the wire size and material as well as the gas needed. For thinner gauge sheet metal like 18 or 20 gauge we suggest 023 6mm wire in your mig welder.

From automotive parts to fabricated structures shipbuilding metal buildings and sheet metal applications all have often reaped benefits from the switch to mig wire. Keep the stick out short stickout of your mig wire is important when welding any type of metal but especially sheet metal. In this video we cover which size welding wire you should use when to change sizes and how to adjust your mig welder machine settings for different wires. The main reason to use a smaller diameter wire is that it takes less heat for melting and hence the metal around the weld is not heated to a very great extent.

Advantages include slag free welding with less clean up even in multiple pass operations. The majority of the sheet metal welding i ve done was with a 90 amp 110 volt welder. The type of metal that you will be welding has a great influence on mig welder settings. Mig welding is the preferred method for most automotive bodywork and since sheet metal is the thinnest of metals a large expensive mig unit is usually not required.

The metals that can be welded with a mig machine can be grouped into three basic classifications. In addition mig requires lower operator skills levels than stick or tig.