Thread: There must be a better way - mesh to shs

In case it's not clear, I'm using a stick inverter, thin material, 3.15mm weldmesh, generally 2.6mm RB-26 rods. It's not an option to weld the mesh directly to the shs at a right angle - I have enough trouble welding it onto the flat bar without blowing through, particularly when it's not super tight fitting (e.g. the alternate mesh bars that are raised off the bar). Even tight fits the mesh doesn't melt, doesn't melt, doesn't melt then bam! and it melts completely and is gone. Very hard to control the weld pool. Weaving and whipping and tight fitment works best, with a whole lot of luck to produce a nice weld.

Probably not the answer you're after, but my solution would start with "M" and end with "G"

weld some tabs onto the shs, and use some mesh clips to bolt/rivit the mesh on? You have way more patience than me! haha

No mig machine unfortunately, and I do all my welding outside so probably not ideal anyway.

Clips might work but I like a tight, solid structure. E.g I wanted to make a floor grate on the weekend as part of a gate structure. 1000mm x 700mm. I wanted industrial catwalk, but the steel shop didn't have any, just some thin stuff that I was told was" a couple of hundred a sheet". More than I wanted to spend, especially since I had plenty of weld mesh at home and the thin stuff would've required a frame anyway. So I ended up with a 1000mm x 700mm 25mm shs frame with four panels (like an old school window frame) with about 6m worth of 25mm x 3mm flat bar for the mesh flanges. Just the outer frame alone meant the mesh was too flexy, hence the double cross bars. It came out really nice, but took a lot of effort and I still need to paint it. Good enough to stomp all over (which was the intent) but took about three hours (including a lot of stuffing around - e.g. some of the shs and flat bar was too short so I joined odd leftover pieces to minimise waste). Pleased with the outcome, not with the effort, looking for a better way.

I have done a lot of that type of work in the past and you are on the money when you identify the need for close fit up.
This is well within the realm of your stick welders capabilities. Here is what i would do, use an E4112 electrode, (by preference, your RB26's will do it, just a bit harder, so I go with Austarc 12P of similar), start your weld arc on the SHS or flat bar and then wash onto the mesh once the weld puddle is established. You will need a bit of practice to get your timings right, but once you've got it you will be able to consistently weld your mesy without burn through.
For the best strength, weld every wire rather than stitching the longitudials, (look at commercially produced farm gates as an example of how not to do it), this way each wire must be stretched to bend the mesh rather than simply bending a wire.

It mite be bit more work but if i want a neet job i drill the shs to suit the spacing of the wires and poke the wire inside the shs.Then weld the corners of the frame.
Looks good and you dont disturb the zinc on the mesh.

Kev

Originally Posted by Legion

In case it's not clear, I'm using a stick inverter, thin material, 3.15mm weldmesh, generally 2.6mm RB-26 rods. It's not an option to weld the mesh directly to the shs at a right angle - I have enough trouble welding it onto the flat bar without blowing through, particularly when it's not super tight fitting (e.g. the alternate mesh bars that are raised off the bar). Even tight fits the mesh doesn't melt, doesn't melt, doesn't melt then bam! and it melts completely and is gone. Very hard to control the weld pool. Weaving and whipping and tight fitment works best, with a whole lot of luck to produce a nice weld.

Something similar got me into 6011 (E4111) electrodes. These have very high penetration and a fast freezing slag, and are normally used for one sided root pass welding. They are designed so a whipping technique can be used which allows the weld to cool a bit then you come back to it to add more. The 6011s can be used on DC+ for max penetration or DC- for less penetration with higher deposition. Some guy uses only 6011s day in day out to weld vertical down thin sheet. With 6012 or 6013 rods, I've often experienced the frustrating situation where at the start of the weld it seems to take a while before the two peices of metal "flow together" with the weld puddle. I do seem to be having some success counteracting this by starting a few mm away and long arcing near the start to sort of preheat without depositing much weld metal. But with the 6011 rods they just burn in straight away then you can whip to spread the heat.

Downfall is they don't leave a pretty weld like the general purpose rods can do, especially when whipping, which leaves a very scalloped bead. Many who don't know about the 6011 rods would probably say you can't weld to save your life but unfortunately weld quality seems to be often judged on how nice it looks.

Many also use these for rusty or painted metal because the high penetration arc burns through all of this (they get called farm rods). Whether that causes junk to be mixed with the weld is another discussion.

If you do decide to try some I'd recommend Austarc 11 over the Cigweld 6011s. You can buy them in 2.5 kg packets in 2.5mm whereas Cigweld only sell 5kg packs. Plus the Cigweld ones seem to stick a lot easier, at least with my welding machine. Some welders have a mode specially for using these cellulose electrodes (6010 / 6011).

WARNING: you may initially hate 6011s until you get used to them, but for many that hate turned to love, LOL.

Keith

Some good info here. Thanks everyone.