Quote:
Originally Posted by citationtech
..... Welding is always preferred ....
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No it is NOT....
This has been thoroughly discussed in the archives.
I will find the reference threads if I have a chance..
The bottom line until that great thread can be found.... is that welding takes away any corrosion resistance made into the metal being used.... a better plan for floor replacement... for the plug ' welding ' mentioned below there is also the chance that brazing would be more appropriate for the same reason...
proper spacing and sizing of the solid rivets combined with moisture protection will be plenty strong to hold the floor pan..... Aircraft are still put together with Rivets...Automobile FRAMES were hot riveted until unibody was invented..... not welded... for exactly this reason.. even aside from taking away any built in corrosion or strength designed into the metal used... only xrays can tell if a weld is proper....( talking airplanes )....
which is in an area prone to moisture and even salt some places..
is to find the good metal by using a ' pick' hammer...take out all diseased metal
then provide plenty of Overlap to the good metal with the new metal replacement.... then use a pneumatic plug cutter available cheap from Harbor Freight.. it also FLANGES your sheet metal for the overlap..... and turn it around and it cuts the holes for plug welding..
http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result/index/?q=flange+tool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_4I9Kyk09Q
Note that the flanger can reach into a small space one direction and not the other.. thus you will need to plan which sheet metal is going to be offset which direction.
to make holes appropriate for plug welding .. which would be placed according to engineering standards for sheet metal...and IN Between those plug welds.... use SOLID STEEL Rivets .. no pop rivets.. the solid rivets are used by Experimental Aircraft builders ( as one example where strength is important ) to attach the overlapped metal . In getting the various sheet metal panels lined up and held exactly while accomplishing these processes.. use Cleckos in the holes which will be filled with the solid rivets... check out this catalog.. solid rivets require an ' anvil ' behind them... so plan ahead on access for proper installation....
http://www.aircraft-tool.com/
Send for their Paper Catalog also... really nice to have as reference....
The thread I am and would look for involved a discussion which Larry Bible was arguing for 100 percent welding in a new sheet metal floor plan. Larry Bible quit several times and came back under new names to get rid of infraction points he had built up...and it messed up using his name for searching...
Over the years several things have happened which may have lost that thread... at one time a huge number of threads were lost due to a hard drive failure.
At one time OP's could delete their first post in a thread and it would delete the entire thread .... TXBill did that in a fit of anger and the forum lost lots of good information. Some of us woke up one morning to find we had a thousand less posts than the day before.....
Some people have made a habit of saving to their computer informative threads... if someone has the one I am remembering please share it with us..
thanks, Greg