Anything welding

Got my gas cylinder and a new 12# roll. Ready to burn!

 

Well, we’re waiting!

 

Soon

 

Ugh, I’m impatient Matt. Go stack some dimes.

 

I have to tub my wheel wells again and have a question on what size wire to use. I normally use .035 flux core for evreything but damn it sucks blowing through sheetmetal once I gets hot enough to even strike an arc. Will stepping down the wire size help? If so what should I be looking at? I have a Hobart 140.

 

I’ve tubbed two trucks now. One I used 035 and one 030 just because that’s what was in the welder. I did have an easier time with the 030 wire

 

Since Flux core only goes down to .030 your kinda limited to going that small.

Smaller wire is always a better choice on thinner material on vehicles in most cases .

might be time to go to hard wire and .023

 

With that said^, no way am I using flux core wire on an automobile. The fear of fire is too high.

Call me "chicken" if you want, but the expense of going with solid wire and gas, easily outweighs the extra risk of an unitended fire.

You will love the extra control and quality of your welds going with the gas.

 

Now this was very challenging for me. I had to crouch on the roof of my truck between the garage ceiling. Not no IG weld porn, but that shit ain't ever coming apart.

 

This weekend I finished up my "spare parts bin" welding cart. it feels a bit big, but I wanted it to be stable. Also its a bit of a minimalist design. I just need to figure out how I want to store the gun and ground clamp.
I'll see if I can get some pics of it tonight and throw them up

 

Thanks!

Fortunately enough, my father wants a surface rust finish to go with his timber framed and rustic style in the house. These welds wont be getting covered up any time soon. Ill post photos when the table moves from the garage to the house.

 

Friend sent me this yesterday, my how welders have changed.

 

More expensive stuff to fail.

Engines to meet tier 4 emissions over 25 horsepower

In the olden days you were rebuilding the engine a few times.

Now front end parts are obsolete before the engine needs attention

 

I bet this is a new one.

So I was putting together a small gate for a pony wall to keep my dogs out of the yard when I dont want them there. I pulled up a chair to make myself comfortable while welding some long seams of perforated steel against the main frame of the gate. I had some devil driver blasting in the background so I was in the zone! My wife came home early from work and came into the shop to say hi. Well..... it startled me and I managed to jam burning hot welding wire into my leg lol.

At least the gate turned out nicely! Little more grinding to do tomorrow.

 

That's "metal" on so many levels.

 

I did that once while welding inside a tank, I slipped and the wire went in my leg. Didn’t bleed a drop cause the wire burnt it.

 

Wife and I had that talk years ago. I've had the shit scared out of me many times.

It was much worse when single shade hoods were the norm.

Pop up the hood and find someone standing in front of you scared me many times.

 

oops, I meant the fan works okay, powers on like normal

diodes and everything else checked out good, so I replaced the jack and it works now
Problem solved and welder is happy again

 

As promised, here are some pics of the scrap bin welder / Plasma Cart.

Welder Cart:

• Made with 2.5" Square Tube ( Was supposed to be 2" square for some sliders, but the supplier messed up when they gave it to me, and I messed up by not checking it for months..)
• Those are some heavy duty casters that come off those wire shelves you put together. the ones that can take a few hundrerd lbs per shelf.
• the plate is 1/8" plate, feels sturdy enough.
• Yes I'll round off the corners.......later...
• I need to figure out something better to keep the bottle on the back, I also made it a bit taller to accommodate a bigger bottle later on. Are all bottles a standard size, meaning I could just google what the next size up would be?
• I still need to figure out some type of handle, and gun holder. I don't like putting my gun on the bench, it seems to find a way to fall on the floor..

Next up some welds,
what do you think? i've never really asked anyone's opinion on my welds, mostly because I only welded "non life threatening" things like carts, or doinkers. But now things are getting serious! I'm getting ever closer to finishing up my first set of sliders and wanted some feed back.

This one is one of my better welds, and kind of what I've been able to pull off for most of the round tube welds ( man that stuff is a bugger! I thought I was decent until I had to get all out of position to get all the nooks and crannies! lol



This next one went a bit funny, That indent is where I stopped welding before repositioning. While Welding, it looked / felt like I was on the brink of welding through the upright tube ( admittedly, there was a bit of a gap I was welding up. I wanted to give it another "zap" once cooled, but then was second guessing myself wondering if it was necessary, Thoughs? what would you have done?



Here is a few welds on the welding cart. just checking to see if any of you keen eyed guys see anything blatantly wrong with them. They all felt good for what its worth.


Well, maybe that last one isn't soo good.... looks like I was day dreaming in the middle, lol!

 

Almost forgot! the finished product!