What do you use for a welder?

[William1]

I feel your pain, i have one eye going south,not looking forward to bifocals,being a mechanic with the bottom being the readers i cant imagine what im going to do when im working overhead with a vehicle on the hoist. Looks like i need two or three pairs to look at what im doing.
Have magnifier in my welding helmet, it helps.

Fortunately, I can do most mechanical work with my eyes closed. Having done it for so long I can tell from feel alone the difference in shim thickness and if it is a washer or spacer. Seeing double up close means I often turn my head and use feel. I've been wearing bifocals for over ten years now and they are still a trade off. I wear long distance contacts when motorcycle riding and flying. At home, a giant computer screen set on magnify is the ticket. A few years back, I wired up the house with a few miles of CAT6. Punching down those wires was a nightmare. Glasses off, held up an inch from my face to figure out the color code. For me, the worst part is reading. I used to be able to sit down and read for hours. Now I am lucky to read a few pages before my head hurts and my vision goes kerfluey. Boo hoo, poor me - Ha!
You'll get used to working by feel. It negates the need for a work light. Think positive!

 

[Newlyme]

Have magnifier in my welding helmet, it helps.

You too, huh!
I bought the whole set of lenses. Sure helps.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Finally got time to do some "metal burning." I am working my way up to the "welding stage." LOL...

I had 60 more tons of material delivered for my driveway. The box scraper got it spread around but it never ends up "flat." So, I welded up a driveway scraper out of a livestock gate frame, some bed frames, four training wheels, and some fence runners with the stiles cut off. What could possibly go wrong?

Things I learned early on:
1. The welder works better when turned on.
2. The welder welds better with the gas on.
3. Cheapo HF welder "hemmits" suck.

This is what I made up. It has frames for three cement blocks to add weight. The next morning I welded on brackets for the training wheels. They keep the sled away from my new extruded curb.

This is what it made a bunch of bumpy material look like... My wife said it felt like she was driving on concrete the first time out.

Then, I needed to rake that down lightly, so I welded some more. A couple years back I raked my driveway and it took 3.5 hours. With this I can rake it in fifteen minutes...

Amazingly, no welds broke anywhere and I am very happy with the outcome. Instead of a $1200 Land Plane I would hardly ever use, I think I spent $12 and got as good a result. All this material was given to me or I bought it scrap from the local welding shop. He sells me anything in his scrap/recycle dumpster for pennies on the pound. I have a nice supply in my barn and I can fabricate all kinds of fun stuff. Every piece of the "Rayke" was scrap except for the fan rakes. I am going to fill the 3/4 EMT tubes that the rakes fit on with mortar when I tile my workshop bathroom. That will add a couple pounds to each rake making the weight about perfect. What is weird, all five of those EMT tubes were in the barn when I bought the place. Nothing goes to waste.

I am now rebuilding our entry gates after cutting them down to just the frames. Gotta finish weld the first one tomorrow after tacking everything in place today. Then I'll start the other gate. Will post pictures of it when I git 'er done.

 

[Lil Foot]

Nice use of what's on hand. I really like the "Ranger Rake"!

 

[BruceP]

What welder do I use?

I just recently got this welder ==> http://amicopower.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=54

I specifically chose it because it does
1) Constant-Current SMAW (stick)
2) Constant-Voltage MIG (and flux core)
3) BOTH 120volt and 240volt input.
4) Portability (35 lbs)

I was able to get it including shipping to my home for under $300

There is NOTHING ELSE on the market which can do both CC and CV for under $700. (let alone dual input voltage capable)

OH - and the very purpose I even got a welder is to repair the swiss-cheese mower-deck on my Kubota 5200HST

Now... I just have to relearn to weld since I have not lit a stick since college in 1981.

 

[Tooljunkie]

Ray, thats some nice driveway you got there. Good job on the grader. I prefer re-purposing previously enjoyed metals as well. When i do fabrication jobs i usually quote 20 % plus for cutting errors and stupid mistakes. Leaves me with drops to weld to other junk.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Oh... I forgot. I am using a Lincoln 180 220v I got for a steal (under $500) at Home Depot. So far I am running on the lowest power level and the second lowest feed rate. Otherwise, I burn holes in the tubing I am welding. I am getting there.

Yeah, bits and chunks of material too small for the fabrication guys is often just what you need at home or in the shop. I cruise by once a month to dumpster dive in the welder's two dumpsters. Funny, I pulled out two fence sections that looked awfully familiar and found out a month later those were from my old house that we sold five years ago. What are the chances? LOL

Bed frame steel is VERY strong stuff but its cheap and full of impurities, similar to cast metal. You can weld it up fairly well but it doesn't tolerate bending. I made the cement block holders out of frame and every time I bent it 90 degree it cracked. Again, I was using a few scraps I would have otherwise chucked.

I grabbed a heavy-duty 3" pipe section that looked like it came off some shop equipment. I am going to make a swing-arm hoist for the roof of my barn. Hauling heavy stuff up here like 5-gallon cans of roofing coating is tough on my old elbows. A pulley set-up would make that easier. I am going to set it on hinge pins so I can take it down when not in use.

I happened to be walking through Home Depot and they had a new out-of-box Lincoln 225a tombstone AC welder sitting in the aisle marked $200. I grabbed it and will try stick welding one of these days. It should do a better job on heavier steel like this swing arm I want to build up. Dang that welder is heavy. I could barely pick it up and get it into a cart. I need to weld up a cart for it...

BruceP,

Those new multi-task welders sure look neat. Keep us tuned as to how you like it.

 

[Tooljunkie]

That seems like a deal,Ray. Stick welding i find is very easy once you get the hang of it. It has the grunt for welding heavy material,and it works outdoors unlike a mig with inert gas.

 

[D2Cat]

Ray, if you can successfully weld the thin tubing used in farm gates you can easily weld heavier metal.

For the hoist in your barn, you going to us a winch to raise your items?

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Frank -That's what I was thinking. I could use the stick welder running off my generator 220v tap on low power around the ranch. Plus, it will help with welding heavier stuff, which I have a few projects for. My welder/fabricator for my shade structure gave me the four leftover pieces of 12"x4" 1/4" tube. I want to set one in the ground vertically and fill the tube with concrete and then weld another piece to the top to form a work table/bending table outside. I need to come up with a mount for the HF pipe and tube benders so I can mount them and then take them in when not using them.

Len -The heaviest thing I'll lift up is roofing goo which weighs about 75lbs per bucket. If I use a simple pulley set-up, that will cut the weight by half which is very easy to handle. I can set up on the roof, have my wife hook up each bucket on the ground and then lift them up and hinge them around to set them on the roof. I'll come up with a mount that will get bolted into the block wall and that mount will stay up there. I'll just lift the arm up and sit it on the hinge pins. I only have enough material to get the arm about 20" over the wall edge but that is plenty good for the stuff I'll haul up there. I'll load test it with my body weight. If it can handle me bouncing on the rope, it'll handle what I need it for.

 

[Tooljunkie]

Ray, my welding table has a 2"reciever socket mounted horizontal on the underside.nuts welded on and t bolts to snug whatever i need. My vise is mounted on a 2" square tube. I can set it so jaws are vertical if needed.
Any other thing i want can go on a 2x2" tube and be fixed to bench easily.
Right now vise is stowed upside down in bench out of the way.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Frank,

That is a great idea... I could weld a receiver into this contraption and mount the bender/rollers to 2x2 tubing. I could do the same with my welding vise!
Thanks for that "eyedear" buddy!

I have a 3pt frame I bought online for $79 shipped. Its heavy duty but I wanted to weld a 2" receiver to it for small home made tools like a weed drag. I have the gate that went with my driveway drag frame and I want to make it a weedie drag with a zillion sharks teeth welded on the bottom. It'll have to wait. Too busy right now.

 

[Racer X]

Oxy Acetylene gas torch/welder/cutter.

Hobart Handler suitcase MIG, great for sheet metal, exhaust, light steel up to 1/8".

Had a Millermatic 250. Wish I had never let it go.

 

[bastrawn]

Finally got time to do some "metal burning." I am working my way up to the "welding stage." LOL...

I had 60 more tons of material delivered for my driveway. The box scraper got it spread around but it never ends up "flat." So, I welded up a driveway scraper out of a livestock gate frame, some bed frames, four training wheels, and some fence runners with the stiles cut off. What could possibly go wrong?

Things I learned early on:
1. The welder works better when turned on.
2. The welder welds better with the gas on.
3. Cheapo HF welder "hemmits" suck.

This is what I made up. It has frames for three cement blocks to add weight. The next morning I welded on brackets for the training wheels. They keep the sled away from my new extruded curb.

This is what it made a bunch of bumpy material look like... My wife said it felt like she was driving on concrete the first time out.

Then, I needed to rake that down lightly, so I welded some more. A couple years back I raked my driveway and it took 3.5 hours. With this I can rake it in fifteen minutes...

Amazingly, no welds broke anywhere and I am very happy with the outcome. Instead of a $1200 Land Plane I would hardly ever use, I think I spent $12 and got as good a result. All this material was given to me or I bought it scrap from the local welding shop. He sells me anything in his scrap/recycle dumpster for pennies on the pound. I have a nice supply in my barn and I can fabricate all kinds of fun stuff. Every piece of the "Rayke" was scrap except for the fan rakes. I am going to fill the 3/4 EMT tubes that the rakes fit on with mortar when I tile my workshop bathroom. That will add a couple pounds to each rake making the weight about perfect. What is weird, all five of those EMT tubes were in the barn when I bought the place. Nothing goes to waste.

I am now rebuilding our entry gates after cutting them down to just the frames. Gotta finish weld the first one tomorrow after tacking everything in place today. Then I'll start the other gate. Will post pictures of it when I git 'er done.

On the bed frame that goes from front to rear on your plane, what did you use for the short spikes that I see? I don't have my glasses on so I may be seeing things.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[CaveCreekRay]

The far end in that picture is actually the front of the sled and the closer end is the rear. Hard to tell in that picture but that sled is over five feet wide and nearly eight feet long. I wanted the long dimension running fore and aft to better level out the dips in my driveway.

These are what I think you are referring to... They are my "rippers." They are fence uppers and lowers that had the verticals sawn out. I grabbed them thinking they would make nice rippers for high spots as the center of the sled slides over the peaks. They are slightly arched so the center is a tad higher. They came that way and I just incorporated that shape into my design. Three cement blocks add weight right over these teeth.

Hope that helps...

 

[CaveCreekRay]

My first real attempt at "wewdin."

Here is the rather nasty gate set I started with (its a twin gate)...

Wood never lasts in Arizona and the design didn't go with the house. My wife found a gorgeous gate in a home & gardens book that she wanted. I stared at the picture for a few minutes and realized that the gates we had were almost identical in outside frame shape. That was the reason I decided to get into welding, something I have long wanted to do. Having the two gates re-worked would have run about $3000. (We had a new wrought iron single gate made almost 20 years ago and it was $1600.) I figured the time and effort to cut these up and then have them re-built would pay for my equipment. So far I am ahead....

Here is what the "revised" gate looks like...

Its sister got the bottom completed this morning and I'll get the stiles in later this week. Amazingly, I am almost out of 75-25 gas. When I run for more I think I'll get the bigger bottle.

I have been a woodworker since I was in high school. Metal is a whole 'nuther animal. Getting the pieces just the right size and shape takes a little more effort. And, the assembly is done throughout the process where woodworking usually assembles at the end. Its been challenging but its always good to learn a new skill. After this gate, I have to create a new one from scratch and then modify a smaller entry gate for our back yard. Right now, I am out about $1600 in equipment and steel and have these two gates taken care of plus all the materials for the yet-to-be-created gate. At the local going rate, three gates would have run me over $4k. Momma's happy. Ray's happy.

Equipment: Somebody a few months back asked about saws. This HF saw has been absolutely awesome in cutting pieces for this project. I am not sure how I would have gotten these cut without it...

I even cut an eight inch piece of 1/8" steel plate along the eight inch dimension with this thing. Coulda cut a 12" piece. Very handy.

 

[John T]

I'm kinda diggin the tile shop floor.... but with my luck I'd drop a hunk of iron on it and crack it...

I heard good things about the HF saw.... although it pains me to shop there....

I must say, I do own a HF portable band saw... and it works great once I put a Morse 811 blade on it.... makes a hella racket though...

 

[John T]

Heres my old Lincoln...



run a scratch tig off it also, but haven't used that much since I got the HPT tig rig

 

[CaveCreekRay]

John,

LOVE THAT MACHINE! Is that from the 50's? Its amazing how many old ones are still out there doing the job...

The tile is amazingly strong.

I was pressing in control arm bushings for my car and I was using a 3" socket in the press. I kept dropping the socket on the tile. Stupid me, after about the twelfth time I chipped a tile. This stuff is easy to pop out and replace. So far, that is the only one boo-fooed enough to swap out. I dropped a tool steel panel cutter and put a tiny chip in one. Its a workshop!!! Every few years I can replace a couple tiles and it looks like new. Try that with high dollar epoxy goo.
-Don't get me wrong, epoxy is nice but after sending a couple grand on his workshop, a buddy practically wears slipper around his cars. Not me. I weld on it. Work on it. Drive cars on it. Its amazing.

I did the house garage too. Both the shop and the house had stains on the floor and a funny smell, even though the house garage was painted (and coming up all over). I washed it out this weekend before doing pre-summer service on the vehicles. It looks brand new.

 

[John T]

1961 lincoln.

completely taken apart and refurbished. even down to new Glyptal coating

My garage floor had cracks and imperfections... I opted for the racedeck type plastic flooring... LOVE IT!

need to be careful with concentrated weight, other than that it is tough...
I throw sparks at it on a regular basis and it's fine.

and they snap together, so replacement is a ... snap?