What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

Maybe my shielding gas wasn't flowing, it had a regulator that was either on or off. No adjustment whatsoever.

Or maybe I'm just not good at welding.

 

Sounds like it, and might have too much of a draft blowing the gas away, too.

 

Yeah, that's what I thought. That 'bead' really resembled a weld without any shielding gas.

 

What kind of Lincoln do you have? I can't imagine it's the problem- first of all, if it won't do 3/16", multipass process is a thing... and I can just about guarantee it will do 3/16"

I built my SAS'd S10 with a Lincoln 3200HD. There's plenty of 1/4" plate and angle on it, and I had no problem welding things properly with my 120VAC MIG (the one mentioned at the beginning of this para)

 

If gas is flowing, you will hear it at the nozzle.

I don't want to harass you here- but if I can learn to weld, anyone can. There's plenty of Youtube videos that will teach you the basics, and more. You just need to do a bit of reading and learning, and spend time under the hood.

 

Even my Lincoln 140HD that claims it is only good to 3/16 will happily weld 1/4 if I notch it or multipass.

 

Yes,. I know

I am just giving you hell, because I hate you because you're hogging up all the Caddy horns.

I was wondering why I'd seen the price on old 70's Cadillac horns increase by something like 400% in the last couple years. Now I know who to blame it on. You, mister!

 

Trust me. It's a cheap econobox 120v 88 Amp welder from Home Depot. It was underpowered.



I bought a Miller 180 220v to replace it. Restored it myself.

 

This.

Bevels forgive a whole hell of a lot of ills in weldment.

Too thick a plate for your welder? Bevel it, and then multipass it. Sure it takes more time, but it does a fine job, and you get more time under the hood, thus end up being a better welder.

Bonus points if you figure out "walking the cup" is a thing in MIG as well.

 

I know it's easy to pickup. I just haven't practice much is all. My picture with the seat rails is the best I've done so far.

 

Nice. I am not a fan of Miller/Hobart products, but they work well when they work.

Glad it worked out for you- though it should be pointed out we are comparing apples and oranges here.

 

Yeah yeah yeah, let it all out.

 

MIG like TIG is kinda overrated though, it's nice for beauty but a couple tests have shown the penetration can be lacking

 

?? Am I missing something again?

 

Everyone likes to make fun of me because I bought that Miller welder that worked perfectly fine, and did useless restoration work to it to look nice. Plus I've used it for a grand total of five minutes.

 

I agree, and wasn't referring to that.

You can use a TIG practice, walking the cup, in long beveled joints.

It's an old pipeline welding trick, and no I do not claim to be able to do it (I've never had to weld anything that large, that long).

Should point out that I am NOT a weldor. I am a dude that happens to own a welder, and has stuck a lot of mild steel together. I can manage stick and MIG pretty well for structure's sake, but have only seen a TIG machine in person. I hope to change this soon- my son is taking a class and I am picking up info from him, and may well buy a multiprocess machine in the next year or so, maybe even take a night school class.

 

Oh, glad you said something. I was about to make similar statements- "it looks nice, what was the restoration, a bath?"

Or how about "weak sauce, everyone knows real welding machines have lots of heavy metal stickers on them".

 

I sandblasted all the panels, stripped it down to bare metal, ordered all brand new decals from Miller, threw on a new ground lead + wiring, a new gun, and wired it for a NEMA 10-30R outlet to match my air compressor drop, and painted it in industrial Safety Blue.

 

I love chrome, if the chrome side mirrors weren't so expensive I'd get those in chrome. I shed a tear when the chrome front bumper got junked for an ARB. Women like chrome. I like like chrome. I like women that like chrome. There becomes a point where too much chrome looks like shit.

 

He’s like a crossfitter when he talks about his welder