Boomer63, it sounds like I would love your shop. Rolling tables and stands are just so useful. I have visited some shops to pick up materials, etc, and have felt positively disappointed to see the fixed tables some people weld on. I'm sure they manage, and I keep quiet about the matter, but, to me, ...

I set up a new workshop about three years ago, with a concrete floor. The concrete is about 150mm thick, 50% up on a usual floor slab, and the centre and area in front of the roller door are level, but it tapers way at the sides. I haven't done anything special to the surface, but the locals I have ...

Well, I'm impressed: but, what exactly, is it? It looks like a portable/mobile BBQ, or outdoor oven. Or a mobile ice and beer ... nah. Some cultural distance coming into play here. (Last photo might have been the deal maker.) And, how are you going to finish it? Can't leave it like that, now. And, y...

I'm just trying to link this thread back to Jody's source chart. If I'm right, its here: http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/mig-welding-basics-3.html If I'm wrong, what the heck, it is still such a good lesson for people trying to bump through their first few weeks of welding, and using a machine t...

Toolman27 wrote:I am going to purchase a strong hand table soon, I am wondering if it is worth the money to go with the Nitride coating. Most of the fab work we do is aluminum.
Any opinions?

So, what was the answer?

Most of all, I love the theme that has evolved in this thread: go make stuff.

Sketch, measure, sketch again, measure, buy (find) stock, cut and weld.

This strategy works over and over. We just have to think of it.

Well done, team.

For years, I made passing grade with a DeWalt chop saw.

Then, following advice on this forum, I bought a band saw. Same price as a chop saw (portable band saw), and the precision is much better.

My chop saw has a layer of "dust".

I always use flux core, no gas. Often, more often than not, I'm outdoors, in someone else's back yard, depot, garden, driveway, etc But even in my workshop I weld with flux core ss. True, it doesn't look as pretty, but no-one has ever, not once, complained about the look of my welds (not that some o...

I'm missing something here. I often weld frames and fab other stuff that has to be square. Measure accurately, cut accurately, set up with levels and squares on a flat, level work table, manage the heat by tacking and welding in the right sequence. When you are welding sheet that is very thin, stitc...

Please do a couple of months of welding on "anything" before you start work on your Jeep. The Hobart welders have a great rep, and you will be amazed what yours will teach you in the next little while. The stress and strain that an off-road vehicle could experience could absolutely surpris...

Well, back to the program, I also like the swing, and I would like to see it primed and painted, with something.


Good one.


PS When the wind is up, go flux-core.

I like it, too.

Now, there is a softer side to a lot of welders, have you noticed? They're not all amps and sparks.

Good one.

I have found the guys in metal yards and auto wreckers, etc, are very interested in "odd" little projects. Show them some pictures, like the one you posted, and you might be surprised how often they will pick out a box of bits and let you see some photos of what they have. At several place...

Terrific, mate. Very interesting work, presented well, too. Thanks.

I just found this: great work.

And was that a die grinder I saw in one of your photos? Now, there's an opportunity: a little mill in the wings?

Well done.

Geesus, I love this thread.

Great stuff.

And, pokadot, you say. Nice.

In simple terms any Mig I've seen you set the voltage & then balance the wire speed to suit it - this wire speed & wire diameter then creates the effective current while welding - some wire speeds are loosely calibrated to indicate a current - I don't see how a machine accurately displays b...

Thanks for the look into your shop. Impressive (and clean, I'd say). The workshops that I (for one) am curious about, are hobbyists, (I'd say), who have half a dozen machines that in my experience create dust, and filings, and fumes and smoke, even slag, all jammed into a basement or shed so tightly...

Steve, thanks for your help. I am sure this voltage / amperage question is as old as the hills. But can we do a little more with this? Does the old "rule", one amp for every 1 thou of an inch of steel have any validity? I assume that if the rule has validity, then it is valid for all weldi...

Yep, I'm still at it, and still have a long way to go. In my wandering on the Internet, I found these sites, which might help other people getting started with machining. https://sites.google.com/site/lagadoacademy/home http://electron.mit.edu/~gsteele/mirrors/www.nmis.org/EducationTraining/machines...

WerkSpace gives us a good answer (he always does, and thanks for that), but I choose to chat on about this question. I suspect that several other questions lie behind this voltage / current question. Several people whom I have helped in the past have asked something similar, when it was just one of ...

I thoroughly enjoyed the pictures. A good insight into another way of the welding life. Now, I must be a pussy. In the first picture, there is a man MIG welding, no gloves. I melt the left hand glove every few months. It gets hot in there, and I spend big on a new one. Gauntlets. Ah well. Thanks for...

Nice work. Making frames like this always refreshes my basic skills. Especially if I have to purpose design the finished product, and then all of the details. From freehand sketch to finished steel, with a tolerance of 1mm. Well, that's the target, anyway. People new to welding should make lots of a...

I am just struck by how dumb I can be. I work with a lot of 4m and 8m lengths of steel, quite light usually, max 90mm square hollow section, and it sticks out of my shop roller door and I rest it on a roller stand, or on saw horses, or in a jaw horse. All of these are a nuisance: the steel slips whe...

First, I have only seen about two or three Hobart welders. While there is now an importer for them into Western Australia, they are not common in my state. And of the those I have seen, I used one for an hour. It worked a treat, and the owner was very keen on it, and he could weld nicely. So, my exp...