Welding Tips and Tricks

When I got a Speedglas 9100fx helmet with the papr air system my welding career got a lot better. So it got me thinking what are the tools you don't think you could do without? I wouldn't weld inside for eight hours a day ever without the papr air helmet. I also love my Estwing chipping hammer. Not a major tool but I love it the same. Maybe some of yalls tools are something I might need to check on myself.

Hmm...

Welper-use it everyday for everything. Clean nozzles, change tips, cut mig/tig wire, use as a regular plier

Vise grip -7CR-use-everything-best vise grip in my opinion.

Miller digital infinity-switched to other helmets and hate them all.

That's my top three.

Usually doing fab work I carry a 6" combination square,lufkin tape measure, scribe, sharpie, striker, vise grip, and welper on my hip in a pouch.

Edit-and my jets haw and leatherman wingman are with me all the time. Work, church, school , out shoppin around.

The two things that are ALWAYS in my pockets are a cheap Harbor Freight LED flashlight, and a folding knife. The folding knife has two blades, one is a standard blade with serrations at the base for cutting cord and rope (and the tip broken in a very convenient spot so I can use it as a 1/4" standard OR #2 Phillips screwdriver), and the other is a holder for disposable utility blades.

I almost always have a pen and a Sharpie, too. I deal with a lot of paperwork in the morning, so the pen is with me for at least a while every day, and usually stays in my pocket all day. The Sharpie is an obvious choice.

On Saturdays, I always have my digital camera and my laptop, too. Saturdays I'm in charge of the shop, so the camera lets me document surprises like the foreman usually does, and the laptop lets me communicate them if I need input from the boss.

Steve

I always have four items in my pockets that come in very handy. Pen and Sharpie, as well as my 'Green Brain' which is a pocket notebook that has all of my chicken scratch in it. Also I carry a 3' tape which I use allot. For the shop I use dial calipers all of the time. I started out as a machinist, so I am used to working in decimals, and they are quick and easy to use, and if you have cheap ones that work great for scribeing lines and doing layout work.

Another tool that I was given and I thought that I would never use because I don't like gimmicky tools is a set of 10" Robo-Grip pliers. They actually work very well and I find that they are great when picking up hot metal. They automatically adjust their size and so when you are fumbling around trying to size a set of channel locks while you want to quench a part, instead you just grab and go with the Robo-Grips. Not a show stopper, but they are handy.

I have an Leatherman pliers tool that I keep on hand all the time. It gets used for everything from picking up hot stuff to trimming/bending the ends of filler rod.

A pair of Knipex Cobra 150mm water pump pliers. (Anything by Knipex is good.)

Also, a big snap blade cutting knife, a tiny pair of Pro's Kit side cutters and a small LED torch.



K

I'll second the Knipex recommendation. I have several sets. I Cary and like the ones with the push button adjustment. You can adjust them one handed. The jaws are a little narrower, open farther, and the metal quality is better than even Chanel lock brand.

Poland308 wrote:I'll second the Knipex recommendation. I have several sets. I Cary and like the ones with the push button adjustment. You can adjust them one handed. The jaws are a little narrower, open farther, and the metal quality is better than even Chanel lock brand.

Yes indeed. Without meaning to make this into a Knipex love-fest, their stuff really is in another league. I have the Cobra push-button pliers, the plier wrench, force-multiplying pliers and the mechanic's long-nose pliers.

Great design. Very close tolerances and jaw fitup. And the metal jaws/teeth shrug off serious abuse. I have many sets of pliers, all of them except the Knipex have jaws full of butchered teeth. My Knipex pliers all still have sharp, defined teeth.



K

This is my standard kit with me always in three pockets always in the same place. All of them get used just about every day.
(Lots of other tools of course but it their appropriate tool bag/box/bucket depending on the job.)
And of course there is always a note book in my pocket that is used for making fab sketches and recording measurements and everything else I'm gonna forget.

I have the non-contact voltage sensor, too, but rarely carry it unless I'm on "maintenance day". I also require much too large an inspection mirror (3" with a 24" solid handle) to carry it until it's in the bucket to a task requiring it. However, on the whole we have the same kit, just different priorities.

Steve

I stick to my meters. I have had several different test pens like that but I've seen to many false positives or worse yet false negatives to trust them. I still have two or three of them but I took out the batteries so they don't corrode.

I work primarily with 480V. I've never had a false negative. That said, a "positive" is assumed to be correct, and a "negative" gets a meter check.

Steve

I trust my meters too but the Fluke volt stick has been reliable for me, not so much other brands, goes for meters as well. I only keep Fluke instruments. The stick is handy for fault finding solenoid valves etc and also when the grinder suddenly stops working its a quick diagnosis whether its the grinder died or some bolt-neck that stole the power point!

Also I shouldn't really be walking around with the folder in my pocket cause I can easy end up in a place where you don't want to drop the soap... (you know cause I might be an axe wielding crazy or something)
But its so handy I persist. I once forgot to take it out of my pocket when I checked into a flight. Set the walk thru buzzer off, I had a handkerchief in the same pocket so I took it out wrapped in the snot rag and held both hands high while they rubbed me over with the hand held scanners and sent me through. Don't think I'd get lucky twice so I'm more careful these days.

LOL! I can just imagine the TSA trying to decide the threat level of a folding mirror!

Remember, they have a spotless record, catching exactly ZERO terrorists.

Steve

I recon if they found the folder they would've tazed me, dragged me into a back room and proceeded to beat the snot out me with a rubber hose.
Whilst I'm the first to admit a good beating every now and then helped to keep me on the straight and narrow (thanks dad), I really didn't want to miss the flight.

What I absolutely positively must have is my Stanley thermos full of coffee

Otto Nobedder wrote:LOL! I can just imagine the TSA trying to decide the threat level of a folding mirror!

Remember, they have a spotless record, catching exactly ZERO terrorists.

Steve

Yep, they do a great job- my dad came from Puerto Rico I believe and landed in Florida and changed planes and then came back to Chicago all the while having a stainless steel spoon he forgot about in his back pocket. Security twice and no one found it

They always manage to find the razor blade I keep in my wallet. These days I just hand it to them before the search starts (if I forget to remove it on the way to the airport).

Artie F. Emm wrote:They always manage to find the razor blade I keep in my wallet. These days I just hand it to them before the search starts (if I forget to remove it on the way to the airport).

Yeah anywhere I go with metal detectors or big security I have to remember to take out my credit card knife in my wallet. I hope i don't forget sometime

Since we've jacked this thread, here's a serious question.

Do ceramic knives have metal imbedded in them to trip a metal detector? Even the Chinese ones at Harbor Freight? Is it a metallic ceramic that will be detected, or could we walk right through?

Inquiring minds want to know...

Steve S

I'm also pretty sure I could make a very deadly knife out of obsidian or flint that no metal detector would alert to...

I hope we don't have terrorists reading this thread...

Steve S

Otto Nobedder wrote:I'm also pretty sure I could make a very deadly knife out of obsidian or flint that no metal detector would alert to...

I hope we don't have terrorists reading this thread...

Steve S

Naaah...just cranky old miners and welders who would jump at the chance to go one on one with a terrorist or 2

I think with the density they will show up on the walk through X-ray machines.

Poland308 wrote:I think with the density they will show up on the walk through X-ray machines.

Good point. Though carefully knapped obsidian might be capable of refracting x-rays, if one knew a shitload more about material science and optics than I do...

Perhaps a knife made of bone (preferably pig, for the muslim terrorists...) concealed along a pant seam so it's density was masked by the femur? A matching set, so both femurs show similar density?

The last time I was on a commercial flight, I could still smoke on the plane.

Steve

If you are on united and you see a terrorist, just tell the hostess that they are sitting in your pre purchased seat and that facker will be strong armed and frog marched out of there, post haste.

weldin mike 27 wrote:If you are on united and you see a terrorist, just tell the hostess that they are sitting in your pre purchased seat and that facker will be strong armed and frog marched out of there, post haste.

Or just bring Jeff with you he'll take care of the problem