If your going to hire somebody to work on your house(this applies to alot of things) educate yourself on what the bulk of the material is going to be and go source it yourself-anyone that has to buy material for the job is going to charge you a premium to offset his own costs and add to his profit. ...

Thanks for mentioning that guys I forgot about the corrosion inhibitor.

Nothing is wrong with aluminum cable, it's just sized differantly than copper cable because it's not quite as good a conductor. If you run a 70amp breaker be sure you size your cable correctly. It's dangerous to run a cable that is to small to trip the breaker when it heats up. I ran a 50 amp breake...

Hey 6013 is great for teaching people how to strike an arc and run a bead. That's what it's for isn't it???

All good advice. Ive had to rip off one of my sleeves before because I didn't check for paper...had to rip off the other one just so I didnt look like an idiot. Hey I got an idea...lets play a game? Whats the strangest/wierdest thing you've ever found in a portajohn? I'll go first-Used needle. That ...

Thats messed up dude. I woulda beat the crap outta him if he was doing that around me.

Money ain't everything dude...money aint everything...

Ah, so the forks aren't going to be adjustable?

I think you could weld some stops and make slots the forks could sit in on the top edge of the bucket, then you could just roll the works down and slide em over if you wanted to adjust em.

I was thinking about the cost too. Maybe as a side idea(or in addition to this) we can make up a list of some international welding suppliers? That way you could buy the rod directly from the supplier, and maybe get a better deal on shipping? I know I'm having a hell of a time finding a good, reputa...

Bill Beauregard wrote:The project at the mill is ongoing. I had one piece of strut to fasten. I have concluded that a fouled up MIG is easier to use vertical and overhead than a perfect stick machine.

Depends if your eyes are open or not. And what rod your using.

I cant find it Link?

Thank's again for the responses guy's.I really need to start visiting this site daily.Lot's of knowledge.I heard 7018 was alot better/easier than 6010 but I haven't quite got the speed and consistency down with it.Didn't have any problems with 6010 fillet in the flat position but I'm stuck with the...

Where I'm at you don't really need certs for what your talking about (repair work or light fab work). Just a business license and if you do bid work, a contractors license(and bond, and insurance). Usually the Customer is the one that demands the certification, not the authority having jurisdiction....

I bought a 50 pound can of unmarked 1/8" 7018 for 50 bucks off my brother..unopened. Opened it up, yep, Lincoln Excalibur...sealed it back up! Seriously, I would also like to see a rod exchange set up. Mainly because I would really like to try some 7010 or 8010 or 8018. Ya know, that "exot...

how are you going to keep the forks from moving horizontally on the bar? Doesn't look like theres anyway to lock them into place.

Love your sig, just think you should add one thing to the bottom-

Forge weld- Bent metal over without breaking, and bent it back over again. Turns out modern welding aint got shit on thousands of years of blacksmiths.

:):)

I learned to use the technique Minnesota Dave refers to...maybe it's cause my hands are big, or the fact I just got tired of burning the shit outta my hands with tig gloves so I switched to stick gloves. It was the only way that would work with those thick stick welding gloves. Just gotta find what ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D89Hg5VRiI

Thought this guy deserved his 15 minutes of fame. Love the chicken hammer at the end

Hey you a local boy! I was just down in Phoenix this weekend. Local 469 has a great weld shop and some very good instructors. They will really appreciate your tig certs. What is big down there is your orbital welding, most of their work is at Intel and the other chip plants around town. They also ge...

3" pieces are fine for coupons. You might even be able to get away with 2" pieces. Just remember the less metal you have the faster it's going to heat up, so keep that in mind when your doing your hot pass and fill passes. As for 6010 and 7018 rods, not really sure what you mean. Size of r...

Looks decent enough bro. Remember if you stare at the Mona Lisa long enough, you gonna find something wrong with it. Just work on consistancy and trying to keep the same ripple spacing and sizing. See the differance between the start of the weld on the left hand side and the end of the weld? You wan...

Definately would look into getting a "real" ground clamp. I used Jody's mig-ground trick(taking an old piece of stranded copper and wrapping it around your table and clamping to that) and that REALLY helped alot. Before I did that I was getting alot of arc blow, the arc would just wander a...

When it comes to pipe, my advice is to practice what you know you will take for a job. Again having a 6G on 2" sch 80 does not necessarily cover you on 8" and so on. Nowadays they have "super coupons" that qualify for all sizes and unlimited thickness. Its usually something like...

It really depends on what your comfertable with, because your land and gap determine your amperage and travel speed. The thicker your land, the more heat you need. Remember you can control the heat input to the joint by things like arc length and rod angle. Most of the older guys will like to run a ...

Everlast provides very good bang for the buck. You can pretty much buy the exact machine that will do just about everything you want it to at a price point that is the best around. It may not have all the bells and whistles, but you may not WANT all the bells and whistles. As for how long they will ...

Here the two near me will administer the tests and send them off to the lab. It's the easiest way to find a lab near you. Our community colleges use the same test lab as Lincoln. Thats more than our CC does. I asked our instructor while I was taking a TIG class, and he said they don't have anything...