Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi new to the forum (as we all are on this page I suppose). I have been running my own small welding and fabrication business for a couple of years now after I was made redundant from my salaried job. I was in the inshore commercial diving industry at the time so I decided that I had would have to start something myself if I wanted to be home more for the family. I had been involved in the trade previously but due to going diving I wasn't concentrating on it. so I started watching youtube videos to brush off some of the rust and came across "welding tips and tricks". I quite literally Bought the T shirt and I have been at it since. I have a small work shop in Dorset in the UK that I work from. I have been lucky with my location because no one else in the immediate area has the equipment to weld aluminium and the workshop next door builds race engines that need a quite a few custom parts welded together in steel and aluminium. They also rebuild air cooled Porsche engines so I get a reasonable amount of magnesium casting build up work.
I can't see that I will be a millionaire any time soon but I can see my wife and kids everyday, also I can proudly say that I am responsible for all my own fuck ups.

Also here is a link to me welding up a sump for one of the race engines. Don't worry it's in in high speed so it won't bore you for long ha ha .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBlp9l5Cibk

Welcome aboard mate!
That is one hell of a gig you have going on there. Now the real question is why you aren't an underwater welder? You weld an dive-that would be cool. But then again it would take you from your family again.

Welcome...

Farmwelding wrote:Welcome aboard mate!
That is one hell of a gig you have going on there. Now the real question is why you aren't an underwater welder? You weld an dive-that would be cool. But then again it would take you from your family again.

I have done a reasonable amount of underwater welding but the weld standards that were required by most inshore construction jobs were pretty poor. always an after thought so they don't allow a budget for the job to be done by a genuine wet welder. I have been on quite a few jobs where the surface welder makes more than the guy diving and welding. If a good gob came up I would get wet again though. I will see if I can dig out some footage of some jobs and get them youtube'd then get a link on here.