Anything welding

How good is your ground?

 

just fine. less than a foot away from where i was attempting to weld. I was using a small pice (about a foot long) of 1.5" diameter 1/8 thick round tubing to practice on and make sure the thing worked before working on my actually project

 

Alright, a bad ground will cause it to not hold a arc thats why i asked. If the ground is good, my next suggestion would be your power supply, are you using a standard 110 outlet? Also a extension cord will hurt it big time, a standard 110 outlet should be ok for the 3/32 rod not sure if it will conduct enough power to heat a 1/8" rod properly.

 

hm ok then ill try just being close to the outlet. I was using an extension cord on a regular 110 outlet.
Out of curiosity, why would an extension cord hurt it?
Thanks for the advice! I think I'll go run out to the garage and try right now...

 

the electricity has to travel the length of the cord and when it does , power bleeds off.

 

A cord wont "hurt" it, but depending on the size and length it will hinder how much heat your putting out, usually when using a ext. cord you will wanna turn the machine up a little hotter is all. id also recommend you use a 20amp breaker for the machine and only the machine.

 

well it worked! running a little more amps then I thought I would have too.. but I dont know how much I can really believe the labels on it. Thank you for your help though!

 

No problem, I tend to run my amps high to the point im blowing through almost, pulling the stick back helps keep it under control.

 

One thing that a lot of lower end units have in common is poor grounding clamps. If you look at

$18 WeldingCity 500-amp Zinc-plated Steel Ground Clamp for Arc Welding

this, you'll notice there's a copper strap inside the clamp to carry the ground to both sides of the material-this clamp is also capable of carrying more current than the stock clamp. The spring on that clamp is a hell of a lot stronger which means much better contact. It's a cheap upgrade and will help you complete the welding circuit.

If you want to use an extension cord with your welder, you need one rated at 30 amps. A standard cord you might find at Home Depot is usually rated for 15 or 20 amps. The welder is rated for 26A which means it probably draws between 20-30 amps when it runs-more when you first strike the arc. Anyway, the lighter cords (besides being unsafe) cause a current drop as they heat up and that means less current for the machine.

Anyhow, glad to hear you're able to start welding. Hope these couple of tips are of some value to you.

 

Definitely helpful! Thanks so much. I think by the end of tomorrow I should be completely done with my rack and can get started on painting it
Your hell has been great! Thanks again

 

Can't wait to see it.

 

Here is what I made at work today for our Head CEO for his office. It is out of Stainless Steel and copper tubing for the legs. I used silicon bronze for the welding of the copper tubing to the stainless steel.

 

pretty cool, good job.

 

Thanx. It was quite a project.

 

Hand cut with a plasma? I can never hand cut for shit. LOL. It's the one thing I can never do as good as I'd like, I probably just need more practice. I hardly ever do it

 

Cool looking rack!

 

Depending on the duty cycle of the welder you can de-rate your cord

 

Where do you guys recommend getting smaller portions of plate for some at home projects. I want to add some 3/16 or 1/8" plate to my front bumper, but I'm not sure where to buy it in smaller portions.

Basically I want to replace this flimsy plate that is bolted on now and also reinforce the bumper a bit more. Should I weld the plate on when the bumper is on the 4runner? I want to make sure it doesn't retract when welding and the mounting holes wouldn't line up after. Also is 3/16 too thick?

 

Depending on how much you need, Lowe's and Orchard carry the stuff in small sheets. I'm sure it's more expensive than buying it from Sims Metal in San Jose. But if you only need a small amount; cheaper than driving over the hill.

 

Looking at making some furniture. Anyone have recommendations on a metal finish that will blacken or darken the metal? I'd prefer to avoid anything that involves spraying, baking, sand blasting, etc.

Looked around on other forums and saw this...

http://www.caswellplating.com/metal-finishing-solutions/black-oxide-kits/black-oxide-kit-2-5-gal.html

And some results someone posted