Sparky
Promoted Users
Had a couple of hours after work to address the shrinkage. It has highs and lows in the HAZ and about 2-3 inches away from it. The panel is supposed to be flat front to back, and a low crown top to bottom.
I set a 36” radius bottom die in the planisher that I made a couple of weeks ago, lubed up the panel where the work will be done, and fit the panel in there. The rear brace was able to pull out just enough to clear the lower planisher arm. I concentrated the blows on the weld front to back for about a minute.
I’m trying to be careful not to over stretch the area so I pulled it out to inspect with a straight edge, and could see it needed more. One more 1 minute round and most of the distortion was removed. It still has a way to go but it’s amazing how fast the panel started to shape up. The rear had a high spot and middle was a large low, so I used a hammer with a 12” radius head and a dolly to move the high into the low with hammer off dolly hits (hammer on the high & push the dolly from behind on the low). It seemed to work. The straight edge showed that I’m moving in the right direction.
A close upof the planisher welds. I need to get better at my welding, and learn to use only the amount of filler necessary to control the chemistry of the puddle. It seems to me I will have to grind the filler down some. Tomorrow I’ll fine tune the highs and lows, and will need to hammer and dolly the areas the planisher could not reach around the rear flange and wheel opening details.
I set a 36” radius bottom die in the planisher that I made a couple of weeks ago, lubed up the panel where the work will be done, and fit the panel in there. The rear brace was able to pull out just enough to clear the lower planisher arm. I concentrated the blows on the weld front to back for about a minute.
I’m trying to be careful not to over stretch the area so I pulled it out to inspect with a straight edge, and could see it needed more. One more 1 minute round and most of the distortion was removed. It still has a way to go but it’s amazing how fast the panel started to shape up. The rear had a high spot and middle was a large low, so I used a hammer with a 12” radius head and a dolly to move the high into the low with hammer off dolly hits (hammer on the high & push the dolly from behind on the low). It seemed to work. The straight edge showed that I’m moving in the right direction.
A close upof the planisher welds. I need to get better at my welding, and learn to use only the amount of filler necessary to control the chemistry of the puddle. It seems to me I will have to grind the filler down some. Tomorrow I’ll fine tune the highs and lows, and will need to hammer and dolly the areas the planisher could not reach around the rear flange and wheel opening details.