Welding spoon

[Backwoods Welding]

One of the most common weld repairs I face is filling holes. This handy tool cost $10 at Harbor Freight tools and is a copper bracing spoon that you place on the back side of the hole and you can fill the hole in quickly with a mig welder.

 

[PILOON]

Hmmm, gotta try that.

 

[oldpilgrim]

I used to use a shiny penny and then would lead in the hole. I can't do that anymore unless I use a real old real copper penny.

 

[oldpilgrim]

I used to use a shiny penny and then would lead in the hole. I can't do that anymore unless I use a real old real copper penny. There's more than one car out there with pennies soldered under their hoods and trunks !

 

[Oldpath05]

If there's a lot of holes to fill, or if you have two pieces of steel to weld together, self sicking flat ceramic for backing works good to. Comes in 2 ft. lengths, with 24 mutable's of 1 x 1 inch flat tiles on one strip so it can be broken apart in 1 2 3 4...... sections, comes in flat, round, triangle etc. Not sure where it's bought or how much it cost, and it only can be used once. I use a ton of it at work and the weld comes out great on it.

 

[Jim Timber]

Stuff that size I'd just hit the edge and build it over until you can swirl in the middle and stop. Ugly as sin on the underside, but when you can't access the back it works.

I'll use scrap aluminum for a backer from time to time too. It pulls the heat out and leaves a pretty flat surface most of the time.

 

[Backwoods Welding]

It literally takes 2 seconds to fill a hole and this is sheet metal so you have to be careful edge welding sheet with mig

 

[Ed of all trades]

Thanks for the tip. I have always used a piece of carbon. This would be handy. Ed

 

[dieselcrawler]

Buddy at work found an old piece of 3/4" copper pipe, split and flattened it, and used it in that application a few months ago... worked well enough for the 'one time use' it was needed for. Never thought about that option a few days ago, when I had to weld up a crack/split that widened out to about 3/8" in sheet metal, I ended up using sheet steel as filler/backer, and built up off that.