Anything welding

Decided to build me a "scrap iron" trailer. Not to haul scrap, its just made mostly out of excess iron that I had left over from previous trailer projects. I always buy just a little extra every time I buy the materials for a trailer. After a year of so, I build me a trailer to keep or sell.

Here is an hour and half of work. Took me some extra time because the axle was way too wide. I had to cut it down and weld in a sleeve.

 

This is this mornings progress. I only get an hour or so a day to work on the thing. Been working 12 hour night shifts for the last 5 nights.

 

The tube steel is 14 gauge, so burn thru is a pretty big possibility. To save time moving from thicker to thinner iron, I just do more of "spot" type weld.

 

Damn, that thing is coming up quickly. Looks like you have the right tools to make cutting easy/quick though.

 

Got a roughly 4 foot by 5 foot piece of 10 gauge steel leftover from all my work. Trying to come up with a project to use at least most of it on. Don't mind picking up a few other bits if needed. Ideas?

 

starting a collection lol!

 

If you say so !! A real collection does not start to you have at least 1/2 a dozen !!!

I still have my first Hood from a long time ago 40 plus years .

 

Well it's gonna be 30 years till I can say I've had a hood for 40 years lmao!

 

Looks good. Details?

 

No details really. 3" pipe. 6G position. 1/8" gap. Trying to get a job as a combo welder since it pays $5-$10/hr more than structural so just went back to school for a few days to practice. Getting used to welding with my left hand is tricky lol

 

Its tig also.

 

Well once the test coupons were cut out How did you do??

 

I came up with this idea for my swing out - a tapered pin that can reduce the stress on the hinge once it is clamped down.

Does anyone know where I can find something off the shelf like this? Otherwise, custom = $$$. I wish I could have a lathe...

 

It's the same taper as a 3500 lb trailer axle hub, I use axle hubs to make my swing out carriers. And you have bearrings that will never rust and bind up.

You can weld to a axle hub just fine, grinding on them is the pain.

 

Cool I learned something new !!!

 

Anyone have any recommendations for a starter tig rig? I need to practice my tube welding and can't keep going back to my college to practice. Gonna buy my own machine so I can practice at home. Carbon steel, chrome, and steel tubing is what I'll be practicing on.

 

It all comes down to how thick of tube you want to weld?? How much money is in the budget??

Used or New ??

What if any constant current welder if any do you have??

Do you want to go Transformer rectifier or Inverter based ??

Ample electric service to run some of the older Transformer machines

At any time in the future do you think you might want AC output to do Aluminum ??

If your welding tube I know I want a thumb control it can be done without a remote but is a pain.

Are you spoiled from the newer high end machines at school??

It can be real frustrating when your used to all the controls now you just have output.

What is your preference in brand of welders ??

It comes down to just what your needs are do you want a stand alone Tig welder??

I no longer do very much Tig welding because of the prep time involved In case I need to at this time I have a Miller XMT-304 and The Miller HF-251D-1 with both a air cooled torch and a liquid cooled torch set up.

If I need to use it in the Field it works well with my Miller Trail Blazer as well .

I can only say stay away from the made in China ones it seems some work great some fail out of the box.

If it is only to practice your eye hand coordination lower output like the Miller Maxstar 150

Lincoln Invertec 155

 

Alrighty I answered em all ^^^!

 

Yea you Texans seem to be die Hard Lincoln People!! I got my Start with Lincoln way back when it paid off my property..



Then I would say Talk to your Local Distributor see if you can play Lets make a deal

Not real sure how used machines are to find in your part of the country.

Like anything else used make sure it works like it should

To do .600 wall your gonna need some serious output which might push a new welder out of your price range.