Blown a hole in a quarter panel with a welder yesterday, what a mess

I was patching rust on a 2002 F-150 in my shop and cranked the heat too high on my Miller 211. Burned straight through and made a hole the size of a quarter, had to grab a bronze backing plate and start over. Anyone else ever cooked a panel like that with a MIG gun?

3 comments

3 Comments

clark.robin8d ago

Happens to the best of us when you get that puddle too hot. A bronze backing plate is the right call but sometimes you just gotta let the panel cool and try again with lower wire speed. That filler metal sags fast once you hit that sweet spot of too much heat. Live and learn, man.

zaram978d ago

A whole quarter panel just from a little too much heat on a patch job? Sure the bronze backing plate is a solid tool to have around, but it sounds like you were just plain cooking that metal without watching your puddle close enough. Next time just run a few test beads on some scrap first to find the right settings, saves a lot of hassle. Could have been worse though, at least you didn't warp the whole door skin in the process.

felixfisher8d ago

Oh man, been there too @clark.robin, that puddle gets away from you so fast. Same thing happened on my first patch job on an old F-150 cab corner, thought I had the heat dialed in but ended up with a saggy mess and had to grind it all back down. Test beads are definitely the way, I just get too eager to dive in and skip that step half the time.