How To Grind Sheet Metal Welds

Slap a grinding wheel onto an angle grinder and get started grinding on the weld.

How to grind sheet metal welds.

Using a grinding wheel on a weld. At this point your gaps should be about a quarter inch apart. The aim here is to grind the joint down to a level and continuous surface with the rest of the parent metal. The neater your weld was the less grinding you will have to do and after you have spent a whole day grinding you will see why it s worth it to keep your welds neat in the first place.

I ve always used angle grinding discs to finish welds but the ordinary grinding discs are very coarse and difficult to control so i tended to grind almost back to the parent metal then use a little body filler. I carefully ground down the weld making sure not to grind into the thin sheetmetal around it. In effect you grind the spot welds and remove part of the metal to make the actual removal process easier. Clamp the metal to your work surface.

Once it s welded solid you just have to grind the weld down flush. Smoothing welds on sheet metal. How to grind metal method 1 of 4. To achieve this initial stock removal and if the surface finish is not essential the metal worker might choose to use a simple grinding wheel with an angle grinder.

Before you close up the gaps on your next time around grind the tops off of the welds with a 24 grit disc. Once you have removed the majority of the first layer of metal use a punch or chisel and hammer to break the rest of the metal free. Set one end of a c clamp on the. Choosing the right grinder.

Join the ccrc community to access a huge library of instructional classic car restoration videos. Grinding finishing outer corner welds of 304 stainless steel sheet as in fabricating a cabinet to match the 4 grained finish of the rest of the cabinet. Using an angle grinder remove the metal directly above the spot weld without burning thorough the panel. I prefer to use a thin cut off wheel for this as it seems to be more precise and puts less heat into the panel than a grinding disk.

Effective grinding requires operators to apply enough pressure at the correct angle to let the grains the cutting tool of a grinding disc remove the most metal in the shortest time while not prematurely wearing the disc or burning out the grinding tool. This is a slightly worn they come with straight edges 40 grit flap disc. Use an electric grinder to be fast and efficient.