Anything welding

did it myself....kinda, my dad helped me. We have a main panel in our house and 3 sub panels. The sub panel in out garage is 220V and all we had to do was get a 220V 30A circuit beaker and wire it to the plug.

 

Ahhh memories..welding arc is hella fun lol. Used to weld some gnarly ass solid 5/8 thick plate together lol..it'd burn in no problem in one pass.

 

yup, pretty easy stuff,,even if you wire right off of the 110-120V main panel.

I had two 30A single pole breakers not being used, so I wired right off of those in the old house. A couple connections, ran the wires, wired up the plug.

Big juice,,always be careful and do plenty of reading. 9 amps can kill you.

 

alright I tried TIG for the first time about 30 minutes ago. Its pretty awesome how much control you have but man is it difficult! I was an expert at laying practice beads on sheet metal first try, but then I tried welding a butt joint between 2 pieces of 1.5" round tube. I could never find a comfortable position and the non-auto hood didn't help lol. It just takes practice I guess.

 

comfort is important also focus on relaxing. Try pushing the puddle, you can direct the heat with the point. Also the point: not too blunt not too long like a pencil. Practice. Of all types of welding I think tig is the easiest. Definitely not the fastest for piling it on...

 

Yeah I was pushing the puddle, seemed easiest. I didn't really have any instruction except on how to grind the tungston. And yeah I guess I just need to get patient with those seams since Im so used to MIG. Hopefully I get a chance to practice some more in the school shop next week.

 

another thing to be aware of is if the rod is too thick you'll need too much heat and melt the pipe before the rod melts. have fun bud! also try holding the torch perpendicular to a butt weld and criscross back and forth/weave to get both sides.

 

thanks for the tips. I was using all different thicknesses of scrap rod laying around lol. I did notice the thick stuff was a pain to melt though.

 

A good (not the most expensive) auto hood with the largest viewing field plate you can find.

Bought this one a few years ago on sale. great hood!.
http://www.millerwelds.com/products/welding_protection/head_face/helmets/performance/

Some folks just buy the Harbor freight stuff, but that didn't work out for me,,to many trips back for a return.

 

yeah harbor freight and auto welding hoods should never go together, at least not if you value your eye sight

the school actually has a pretty nice jackson auto hood that just needs batteries. Ill bring some up there next time I practice.

 

I've never had a problem with my harbor freight helmet and I can still see

 

really? well good to hear. I know the stuff they sell there is hit and miss as far as being worth the savings.

 

Way less than that. Anything over 5mA can kill you

 

I picked up a nice package that included this helmet. It's awesome.

 

For my cutting torch, I just throw on a pair of extra dark tinted saftey glasses, and they can be used for wire feed in a pinch and for short beads. You get into those tube frame areas where your clunking the hood side to side trying to see where you want to weld, the glasses make it a bit easier for tacking and short beads.

 

Stopped by Alliance Welding to pick up some consumables for the plasma cutter. Saw this...



Hockey and Welding. Who knew? Too bad there's no USA Hockey version of this.

 

Yeah x2 the HF auto dimming helmet is pretty dam good for the 39.00 bucks it costs. I never had any issues with it not dimming fast enough or turning off in the middle of a bead. Id say if you want a low cost auto dimming helmet the HF is a good choice.

I'm not the type for fancy air brushed helmets but the Miller DIGITAL ELITE™ SERIES Digital Camo may just be my next helmet. I like the grind & cut modes the Elite Helmets have.

 

That's what my HF hood was doing,,clicking off and unshading during welding. yikes!!,,the eyeballs. After the 3rd hood, I cashed out.


The welding store had the Elite with the camo pattern. I was checking that one out and almost pulled the trigger. It was a extra $125 over the performance hood I picked up. You can get a hydro-dip kit online to add camo to just about anything now.

 

Yeah I probably wont buy the camo one unless i fine it cheap online but i do want to pickup a new hood so I don't have to keep changing my hoods when cutting and grinding.


I do really like the Viking helmets

 

http://eastnc.craigslist.org/tls/2626766116.html


is this a good deal/welder? im looking into building and welding my own stuff and armor for the truck