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Cracked my 5th bumper in a row using the same dent puller before a guy at the shop in Denver pointed out I was spacing the studs wrong
Been doing body work for 8 years and never once questioned why my welds kept snapping until some new kid showed me a 1/4 inch gap works way better than 3/8ths, has anyone else had a simple trick like that totally change how you do something basic?
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bettyroberts27d ago
Wait, are you telling me I've been spacing my welds wrong this whole time too?
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the_joseph27d ago
yeah no joke, most people don't realize weld spacing matters a ton. it's not just about how strong the weld is, it's about heat control too. if you put them too close together you can warp the whole piece or even mess up the metal's temper. i've seen guys do perfect beads but then the whole part is useless cause it's all bent out of shape. you gotta leave enough room for the metal to cool down between passes or else you're just cooking it. spacing it out right also helps with stress cracking down the line, especially on thicker stock. it's one of those things nobody tells you at first but once you know it you notice everyone else doing it wrong.
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susan_wright3427d ago
Read somewhere that in shipbuilding they actually map out the whole sequence of welds before they even strike an arc. Crazy how much planning goes into it just to avoid the metal pulling all over the place. It's like you said, one guy doing it right can save a whole project from getting scrapped. Never thought about it until I saw a video of a guy doing a giant frame and he was jumping all over the place with his welds, not going in a straight line at all. Made a lot more sense after that.
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