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Item # 21130 BRAND: Eastwood

Eastwood Perfect Panel Prep Tool® Butt Weld Helper

Provides a perfectly beveled 45° to achieve solid, full-penetration welds.
Provides a perfectly beveled 45° to achieve solid, full-penetration welds.
Eastwood Perfect Panel Prep Tool® Butt Weld Helper is rated 3.7 out of 5 by 15.
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$42.99
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Provides a perfectly beveled 45° to achieve solid, full-penetration welds.

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Eastwood Perfect Panel Prep Tool® Butt Weld Helper
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Product Overview:

Description

Eastwood PERFECT PANEL PREP TOOL

The Eastwood PERFECT PANEL PREP TOOL® is an exclusive, patent pending, design provides a perfectly beveled 45° weld-prepped edge in 20 or 18 Gauge sheet metal to achieve solid, full-penetration MIG or TIG butt welds.

A must for the beginning welder and professional like. Minimizes blow through and warpage when joining panels. Great for patch panels of full quarter panel replacement. Simply cut patch or full panel. Overlay panel over repair area, scribe and cut panel on vehicle and use the Pneumatic Weld-Prep tool to create the “perfect weld edge”. The formed edge of both panels is now created that will accept the full penetration MIG or TIG bead with almost no post grinding or leveling. Minimizing warpage and crack potential. Patent Pending.

Panel Prep Tool Features:

  • Each strike forms a perfect 0.062” x 45° beveled flange
  • Works great in 22 to 18 gauge
  • Proper weld-prepped edges allow strong, flush, crack-free welds in sheet metal
This hand tool was developed for the novice and professional MIG and TIG welder. Eastwood new Perfect Panel Prep Tool® quickly and easily creates the exact 0.062 inch length x 45 degree offset needed for full penetration welding in 22 to 18 gauge materials assuring a structurally sound and invisible welds even for beginners. You are assured of full material thickness after the repair and elimination of the cracking and paint related issues. Butt welds will now need less grinding and paint prep while also gaining strength.

Save your hands and check out the Eastwood Pneumatic Perfect Panel Prep Tool.

Warranty

1 year China

In the Box

Contents

  • One Perfect Panel Prep Tool®

Guides & Accessories

Instructions

Click here for product instructions

Safety Information

  • Always wear appropriate eye and ear protection. Keep fingers away from moving parts.

Accessories

Eastwood Perfect Panel Prep Tool 18 20 Gauge Sheet Metal TIG MIG Butt Welds Creates Clean Holes

Reviews

Rated 5 out of 5 by from Friendly edges In use this to set the edges of sheet metal sculptures so they look and feel more solid.
Date published: 2022-08-17
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Easy to use and great results The perfect panel prep tool is easy to use and leaves a great recess to lay a weld in to.
Date published: 2019-07-23
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Big help! I think this tool will make a better welder out of me. I used it on some 22 ga stock and once I made the adjustments it worked flawlessly. There is a lock nut to hold the adjustment. This panel prep tool is well made and should give long service.
Date published: 2019-07-02
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Good Piece of Gear I received the Perfect Panel Prep tool a week now. The bends form nicely on 22 gage with very little effort on my part. I am experimenting with some different gas welds and hope to try some 18 gage this week. All-in-all a nice tool, glad I bought one.
Date published: 2019-06-03
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Excellent! This tool did exactly as advertised, it created a valley for the spot weld puddle to fill into between the two pieces of sheet metal which made the joint stronger than it would have been without the valley. There is also a locking nut so that you don't have to keep readjusting the closing pressure like normal vise-grips require.
Date published: 2018-05-04
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Works well, helps produce a stronger weld joint I've seamed about 3-4 feet of sheet metal with this tool so far and once the initial adjustments are made (read the instructions!) its been super easy. I even found the sweet spot in the set up of the tool to make the prep work almost effortless in 18-20ga body panels and numerous patches. If you're having to fight it or feel like you need popeye arms, your settings need a tweak. Makes clean bends and the resulting welds are stronger than I expected and seem much stronger than butt welds I've laid in the past. If you're good with your welder, you'll have minimal mud work to do on the panel once you've laid the bead and ground it down. The tool feels well built for being a stamped steel vise grip clone. It doesn't feel cheap or have imprecise cheap movement in the mechanism. The locking mechanism holds well and the jaws have a quality precision about them that makes the bends clean and crisp. I was actually surprised it sold for the price Eastwood sells them for. I would have guessed it to list for 50-100% more than what I knew I paid.
Date published: 2017-11-03
Rated 5 out of 5 by from PERFECT PANEL PREP TOOL is great!!! I've been using a flange tool for years now, for smaller, tighter detailed jobs this Prep Tool is perfect! The bead will be just sub-surface, so minimal grinding/distortion. I've done jobs with flat sheet and now curved and the panels actually stiffen up a bit, which is great (no "oil canning") to preserve body shape.
Date published: 2016-08-11
Rated 4 out of 5 by from Panel prep tool Should have had a machine shop fabricate a wider tool for me, but this works as designed.
Date published: 2021-10-31
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Questions & Answers

Will this tool work on 16 gauge metal?

Asked by: Robin Hood
It works great with 18 gauge steel, 16 gauge steel may be a challenge. Heat would help if its difficult.
Answered by: Nick BC
Date published: 2022-12-16

with the two edges beveled, how do you clamp the two pieces together to get a tight fit without mashing the bevel ?

Asked by: Donner
Eastwood offer several different types of panel clamping tools that would work well to keep the beveled joint securely held while welding. Go to www.eastwwod.com and type in item# 23009 on the search bar and you will see the Eastwood's 10 inch locking welding clamp (visegrip type) which is the most commonly used edge clamp for this type of weld. you can also check out our Super Strong Welding Stitch magnets(20421) that will hold your beveled panel together. Another good choice would be the Eastwood Intergrip Panel Clamps(19016) these come in a set of 4 and will work well to hold the panel together.
Answered by: vince
Date published: 2021-03-10

What do you do when you come to a 90 degree corner in your patch panel.?  Do you leave the corner unprepared and do a standard butt weld at that or nip the corner and make the bend?

Asked by: ridrides
you would normally just do standard a butt weld at the 90.
Answered by: vince
Date published: 2021-01-02

Because of the shape of the tool, i can't get it in to bevel the edge on the wheel arch of a car I am restoring. Is it still beneficial to just bevel the edge of the repair panel i am fitting in? Or leave it and butt weld the regular way?

Asked by: Dom271
A Butt weld will certainly be fine to use. The important thing is to have your metal properly lined up and fitted very well with no gaps. .
Answered by: Bob G
Date published: 2018-11-23

When you prep the edge, how much do you loose in the over all length of the patch? example: if you scribe the patch on the original and patch, trim them, do you have to provide additional size on the patch to keep all equal?

Asked by: IVoh
You will not need to worry about having extra metal when creating a patch. If you check out the first video on this page and fast forward to 1:40 you'll see we only used the Perfect Panel Prep Tool on half of the patch. This still leaves plenty of area to fill without a large gap even though the metal is turned down.
Answered by: Scott C
Date published: 2023-01-15

Will this tool work on curved patches or panels

Asked by: shine on
This tool will be difficult to use on curved patches. It would just take some time to bend smaller sections down at a time.
Answered by: S Church
Date published: 2021-02-18
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