Sheet Metal Welding

Question: You’re lucky at All County Sheet Metal in that you have a couple guys that are really skilled welders. What are the different types of welding that your mechanics can do?

Jim: Mainly we do MIG welding which is a lot of production. It’s a wire-fed welding device. It uses gas and it’s very highly effective and it’s quick. The other form would be TIG welding which is more precise. It requires a lot more skill and hand and eye coordination but the weld is so much nicer. We use that especially when we do aluminum work, custom aluminum work.

If it’s production aluminum work, which we do, we do custom ladder racks that we sell for standard cargo vans that we also manufacture and ship. That’s where we would use a MIG welder because it’s definitely a production item and you’d need to be able to mass produce them as quick as you possibly can to pass the savings on to the customers.

What different types of materials can you weld?

Jim: Our shop mainly does galvanized steel. We also do aluminum and we also do stainless steel, but mainly aluminum and galvanized steel.

Question: It’s hard to weld stainless isn’t it?

Jim: It’s very hard to weld stainless. Especially sheet metal welding. You have to have special equipment. Not that we can’t do it, we do from time to time but it’s usually a heavier gauge, 20 to say 14-gauge is what we would weld. Then generally you have to be able to grind it and clean it up and so it’s more time intense than aluminum or galvanized.

Do you do welded ductwork?

Jim: Yes, we do.

What’s the material that you use for the welded ductwork?

Jim: More times than not it’s going to be galvanized steel. We use a G90 series which is nothing more than the amount of actual coating that is on the steel that has the zinc in it. That can be used. Usually when you weld duct that’s galvanized it’s for maybe a ventilation system and it’s usually in a restaurant situation where they need welded duct.