Anything welding

Look on YouTube channel weld.com. They have so many good videos and footage of what the welding looks like under the hood.

 

I second this. Watch some YouTube videos to get a rough idea of what to do. Get some hood time and weld, and then watch more videos. Rinse and repeat. Hands-on learning is effective and practice practice practice. A local kid stopped by recently to take my old welding table off my hands and I was giving him pointers. I said buy a piece of bar stock, maybe 4’ long and cut it into a bunch of 3” strips. It’ll give practice with an angle grinder, and allow you to try a bunch of different joints.

 

I will definitely check them out

I have a few pieces but I will grab something like that. I’ve had quite a bit of practice with an angle grinder but more is always good. Thanks.

 

Don’t buy metal from Home Depot or a hardware store. They’re crazy expensive. Get some from your local metal supply. Tell them you’re new and learning, they may be able to sell you scrap for cheap.

 

Another thing to do is experiment! Prep a LOT of cheap coupons (I use 1x1/8” hot rolled strip) and try changing feeds, flow, power, and positions. (Size of wire if you have it?) go for extremes, not just fine tuning... then you’ll start to develop a sense of what too much heat or too little gas or whatever looks like.

Being a self-taught hack, I still don’t know what to do with a new joint or geometry so I will usually make a mock-up of the thing I’m going to weld and get a happy result before I go for the real thing. I also do a lot of “air welding” to just practice the motion and work out the kinks of positioning. If I can’t comfortably fake it, it’s only going to get worse when I’m actually trying to weld.

 

I got a bunch of scrap from them for about $20. felt bad bc it was a lot they were willing to give me for free. plus ive had neighbors with side projects they finished and i grabbed it from them before they tossed it

 

Does anybody have epoxy floors? I just bought a new house and the entire garage has epoxy coated floors. Just curious if welding, grinding, cutting etc ends up burning or melting the coating. If so, is there anything that can be done to prevent it.

 

Not sure if there is anything you can cover it with (realistically). I chose not to epoxy my floor for this very reason.
Best I can think, as a want to be welder, is to use a welding table and cover the immediate floor with welding blankets.
I'm sure the experienced ones will check in, in a bit.

 

If left unprotected it will damage the coating. Either by discoloring or if its a hot piece of slag it will bubble/burn through/ect it.Even just grinding and having all the sparks hitting the same spot for a bit will cause damage.

There might be some brands/setups that will resist it better than others so just depends what was actually installed. but either way the above still applies...will just be a matter of how much it takes to damage it.

As for protecting it...just keep the hot stuff off it. Even just a welding blanket over the floor is probably enough for the sparks

Its a win-win for them. They give away the scrap for free instead of getting scrap prices. But establish a relationship with the customer. Customer remembers they were good them and goes back to buy their metal/gas/whatever from them in the future.

 

Exactly. When I did a lot of metal work I would ask for scrap to practice on before I ran welds on my real work. Shops definitely like to have a good relationship with customers since you will likely be a return customer.

 

It's gonna take a lot of abuse to cause much damage to the epoxy floor. We use it all over. The only real way to damage it is to drop a sharp piece of metal on it and stab the coating and causing it to chip up.

Covering it up is a waste of time. It's some tough stuff. Abuse it and it just asks for more.

 

I think that all depends on the quality of the coating and how it’s applied. I’ve worked in a lot of hangars with expensive coatings and cheap coatings, some applied well and others not well. The good stuff that is properly applied is super durable while the good stuff that is not applied well will be less durable that cheap stuff properly applied.

For me, the coating is nice for home garage but not super necessary. Plus, a garage floor that already has some oil stains will be harder to properly prep for the coating. Another thing to consider, wet epoxy coatings are super slippery.

 

Yeah, I think I'd prefer a bare/polished concrete floor over coated. It already has the coating applied though and I'm definitely not going through removing it. I was just curious if or how any of you guys protected finished floors during metal working activities. Sounds like a welding blanket or a large piece of sheet metal are the way to go.

 

a bare concrete floor has its advantages. You’re not gonna hurt it, it’s not slippery if wet, and it can be cleaned well and looking nice with a pressure washer. My vote for a home garage is always bare concrete. For a shop where you want a bright floor to reflect light to aid in inspections for vehicles or aircraft, sure... epoxy all the way. If you need something presentable for a customer, sure... epoxy.

 

Perfect, I see nothing wrong here.








jk big Bertha will sit here until I build a cart.

 

Man those 300 tanks are massive. I got one years ago and still haven’t had to refill it.

 

This ones a 390. It’s a fucking bear lol

 

How do you like that compressor?

 

I like it a lot. It’s pretty damn quiet and like that it has two outputs and a built in regulator. So far the only air tools it can’t keep up with are my little right angle doe grinder and my da sander. It’s good for intermittent use but not long, continuous sanding.

 

jeez. You’re going to have to build a 3/4 ton welding cart for that monster.