Fabricating a Belt Guard for that old Compressor- part2

This is part 2 of "fabricating a belt guard for an air compressor".

Last weeks video left off with the sheet metal all tacked up and ready to weld.

So this week , its time to weld it out.  I started off using ER70S-2 1/16" (1.6mm) filler rod.

But I ran out of that and since 3/32" (2.4mm) was too big and .030" was too small, I twisted up some .030"  er70s6 mig wire to finish the job.

I have ordered some more Tig wire from Amazon but until it arrives, this will let me finish this welding project.

If you missed part 1 you can see it right here

I have twisted up mig wire several times in the past when I ran out of 1/16" diameter filler wire and it works like a champ.

Just get a small eye bolt and chuck it up on a drill motor and secure the other end in a vise or around a worktable leg .  But wear safety glasses while you do it in case something comes loose.

Outside corner joints in thin sheet metal need to be fit up with a slight overlap and no gaps.  That usually means lots of small tack welds.  I tacked most of this piece up with no filler metal so that the tack welds would be smaller than the finished weld. Thats a good practice for most jobs.  If the tack welds are small, they don't mess up  the uniformity of the finished weld.

ER70S-6 has more silicon added as a deoxidizer than other ER70 wires.  The higher the number on the end, the more silicon. So a 6 has more silicon than 2, 3, or 4.  Silicon helps to scavenge impurities like light rust, dross, or oil but that doesn't mean you don't have to clean the metal first for tig welding. Tig welding goes better with clean bright metal.

The cleaner the metal, the better the weld will flow. But ER70s-6 rod does help a bit though when you cant get to the back side of something.

The reason I bead blasted this thing was that my friend ( who owns the machine shop ...and air compressor ) was thinking about a black oxide coating on  the guard.  He does black oxide coatings on some of the tooling he makes for the aircraft industry and he thought it would be cool to do.  But then things got busy and we both just wanted to get finished with this non paying welding project....so I shot some black paint on it and then went to eat at Waffle House while it dried.

Here in Georgia, We love us some Waffle House.

All in all, this welding project went pretty well thanks to 2 previous projects I have done in the last year or so....The portable bandsaw stand, and the Downdraft Cutting table.

See more tig welding videos