controlling warp in 1/8" thick angle iron

by Tom Hall
(Piedmont Oklahoma)

I am building shelving supports out of 2" X 2" X 1/8" thick angle iron. I am taking a piece 6' long piece(vertical piece that will be bolted to the wall) of the angle iron and welding 5 horizontal brackets that are 14"- 20" long( the part that the wood shelving will be screwed to)and welding them together and my problem the last time I made some of these brackets, the vertical piece warped a lot and made a arch shape. Fortunately I was able to pull out the warp with the lag bolts that I bolted them to the wall with. I caught the problem early on and varied where I placed the ground clamp and skipped around from one bracket to the other, thinking that I need to distribute the heat, but it did not make much difference. It's not too big of a problem since I can pull out the warp, but I would like to know any tips that can prevent this. I am using a Miller model 422 wire feed welder with the wire that has the flux in it (no gas) wire size is .035, feed is 40, and using 30 volts. I am a novice welder and would appreciate any tips you may have.

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wtt response,

unless you can clamp the piece that is warping to something really thick that will pull heat out as well as restrain, its just gonna warp.

also, if you were using short circuit mig with bare wire and 75/25 ar/co2 gas at around 19 volts and 250 ipm of .035 er70s6 wire, it would warp considerably less. you are putting in a lot of heat with 30 volts and flux core wire.