Anything welding

I do what I want

 

Hopping over to the guard unit back home. Gonna take a class at a local community College. I look for reasons too, just don't have the equipment to get it done. I've done side projects on some rigs for guys in the unit. Bumpers, sliders etc...I want a plasma table so I can do more projects like you've got going. Those dinos turned out fucking rad.

Definitely get where you're coming from. I've had this machine since 2019/2020 and as of this year finally have the confidence to do stuff for other people. But like you said...the projects are few and far between. Definitely want to get better at mig before even thinking about trying to learn tig.

 

or use a copper backing plate. I had decent luck with that for small sections.

 

Good idea, I've only ever use aluminum for heat soaking never copper

 

I need to buy some PVC pipe, drains, strainers, a filter, and pump but the big item is here -



With the Crossfire XL, I was only dealing with 7ish gallons which was easily dealt with a 5 gallon bucket.

The Crossfire Pro holds about 15 gallons so getting this done will making drain and fill much easier when I need to clean scraps out.

 

I bought the 220 because of the HF start and AC TIG thinking that I wanted to get back into TIG welding again. Took a year of welding classes at the local community college about 20 years ago and had a blast working the different processes. Did one quarter of oxy/stick, one quarter of MIG and 2 quarters of TIG.

That said, I've yet to use TIG once on it. Have everything setup, but always find myself using MIG cause it's quick and easy. One of these days I'll bust it out if I can find the time.

 

He t

I took the easy, but a bit more expensive route, over the PVC. I used Sharkbite and made individual drain connections so I can easily disconnect from my tank and take it out from under the table for emptying/cleaning the crap from it.



That's the fill wand hanging there. I just lay it in the tray and connect a battery charger to my pump to refill after draining.

 

I haven't planned any part of it, and really I can only do that once the table is drained to figure out the size of the drain opening in the pan.

I don't want enlarge the opening at all and would like to find a drain with strainer to drop in place (without modification).

 

check the dollar store for solutions.

drain strainers are pretty common, could even use a piece of window screen as well
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=mesh+drain+strainer&crid=2Y10XAJ925FVS

 

Oh for sure, I'm replacing the actual drain though so I'll need to find the right sized sink drain which will probably be an RV style.

Just won't know until she's empty; emptying the table via conventional means is just a chore.

And just for kicks, I'm going to wire up and mount a switch on my table for on/off for running the pump to fill.

I could go beyond and add such a thing for opening and closing the drain too.

 

Turn the wire/amps down a ways and turn youre volts down about 2-4 volta probably. U can also put a little tack weld down to have a shelf to start on can help. And u can weld a very wide gap like u have going up hill. U can have the biggest gap actually out of all the positions going uphill. This was Thursday at work running .052 flux core wire with gas, we run 1/16 wire too, overhead you can run hotter then uphill, I did turn the amps up a pinch but didn’t feel like going to climb for the inverter and turning it up but could have used another volt or so, and uphill welding u can make a really big weld and u weld it kinda slow and the weld may look like it will drop but won’t unless the welder is set to hot, it will drop right away

 

I’m all self taught and mainly got the 215 because it was a sema demo and a good price when miller debuted it. I tried to learn dc tig but struggled with the scratch start so picked up a miller dynasty 180 I think it is and tried to learn tig again only to realize I have no real interest in learning it. I’ve kept the machine mainly to learn ac tig to do small aluminum jobs or maybe learn tig in general for those few occasions I need it. Overall, mig is my go to

 

Never heard of a dynasty 180. I take it u mean diversion 180??

 

Yes sorry. Auto correct didn’t help me on that one.

 

55" long x 33" tall

 

Did you make your welding table and tabletop?

 

I made everything about it, minus the holes as I got that laser cut.

If I had cut it out on my cnc table like I did my 21" x 21" mini table, I would've had to ream each hole out.

 

@Scott B.

When I first welded it up

Table top total was $158 ($171 with taxes) for the material and labor of cutting; 2' x 3' at 3/8" with 5/8" holes at 2" centers



Square tube was spare stuff I had left over along with what a friend had left over so free



This stuff I cut out was also scrap/left overs from previous jobs so also free





When I welded it up





I have $175 or so once you add the welding wire used lol

Much cheaper and significantly thicker than those thin ass tables you find at online or even at Harbor Freight

 

What do you think it would have cost you if you didn’t have all of the free materials?