Removing Warping In Aluminum Sheet Metal

Arc welding mig and tig entails fusing a filler metal with the materials being joined.

Removing warping in aluminum sheet metal.

Spot heating is ideal for removing warping in your thin metal sheets. Long story short the sides have to be welded together to make a full side. The warping of metal during the welding process is due to the high levels of heat involved. Wanted to build with sides made of full sheets of 1 4 6061 aluminum but the engineer had other plans.

A 5356 filler metal also works for 5052 materials specifically. Typical aluminum alloys for sheet fabrication are 3003 and 5052. Use anti warping devices and techniques. Even seasoned pros who perhaps haven t had a serious issue with a warped piece of sheet metal in a long time can gain new insight from some of these tips.

That heat spreads out making the metal expand. Then as the bead cools and solidifies it contracts but by this time the metal pieces are fused together. Sheet metal warping because of heat peening of sandblast abrasive in my honest opinion sheet metal may warp when sandblasting due to a little bit of both reasons. To prevent burn through and warping don t whip or weave the torch.

Thermal correction of metal warping is premised on the idea of creating local stress that is high enough to pull back the metal warped back to shape during cooling. Filler metals for either of these would be 4043 or 4943. I started welding one side today a 15 piece to a 48 piece 77 5 long. When welding steel this weld bead is laid down at around 2 500 f 1 370c.

Techniques for welding sheet metal. This restraint creates high residual tensile stress that causes the weld to act like a stretched rubber band with the workpiece holding the ends figure 1 for this reason when the clamps that hold the workpiece are removed the base metal is allowed to move or spring. Clamp or hold a straightedge or square along the cutting marks and score a line with the tip of a sharp utility knife blade. Then bend the sheet back and forth a few times to snap it.

An ounce of prevention the battle between hot cold. And you can use the same technique anytime you need a straight cut on aluminum or other light gauge sheet metal even steel. When i experimented sandblasting etched designs into plexi glass plastic acrylic glass with aluminum oxide abrasive i noticed it actually start to melt the plastic.