</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by 4Crawler:
<strong>...try just putting small tack welds across the gap every inch, then tack in the middle of the gaps a few times then fill in the bad. You can fill some pretty large gaps this way.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">This has worked very well for me also... using the short tack welds to eventually bridge completely across gap.. Then you can go back over it using a wide weave pattern to layer up more metal..

Putting the first tack weld on the far side of the bend and letting it cool before doing any further welds will also help stop the joint from closing further as you bridge the gap.. This may be important if it already bent to the angle you want it to be and don't want the welding to further close the joint and change the angle.. Molten metal across a gap develops tremendous pull as it shrinks while cooling down, and will tend to close in the gap and change the angle of your bend. The first tack the furthest away helps block any further change as you progress..

Mudplugga's point is very important... you don't want to leave slag in there and make the next pass over it.. An air driven needle scaler is worth the money, saves a lot of time and works very nicely to clean the slag off before the next weld.

<small>[ 29 July 2002, 05:49 PM: Message edited by: Dandeman ]</small>