Welding Tips and Tricks

I bought all new Makita brushless cordless tools in the last year. Home depot often has deals where you get extra tools or batteries.

When I was at Fabtech the Metabo guys said that their cordless grinders are made in Germany, but I had already bought the Makita stuff. I don't necessarily believe him either. If I was making my product in Germany I would make sure everyone knew about about it.

Turbo wrote:Metabo guys said that their cordless grinders are made in Germany, but I had already bought the Makita stuff.

This is not the cordless, but AvE always gives a good honest review.



Good to search his channel for "angle grinder", he's good a lot of good reviews...both good and bad...caveat emptor!

aland wrote:
Really handy to take to the big box, if you need to cut anything out of wood, it's very useful. If you don't have something to carry a full sheet of plywood or long timber, a cordless circular saw or chainsaw can come in real handy.

I will say, I've had some people staring at me when I fire up a chainsaw in the parking lot of Home Depot...LOL

Was just talking to a local fellow who is a master chainsaw wood carver. He travels all over Canada (don't know about US) with a group of carvers to put on demonstrations. He is sponsored by Husquavarna and says they are bringing out a new battery saw that mimics the handling and power of a gas saw. He claims it is a huge improvement over the current battery saws available. Don't know when it will be available but sounded good by his telling.

homeboy wrote:

aland wrote:
Really handy to take to the big box, if you need to cut anything out of wood, it's very useful. If you don't have something to carry a full sheet of plywood or long timber, a cordless circular saw or chainsaw can come in real handy.

I will say, I've had some people staring at me when I fire up a chainsaw in the parking lot of Home Depot...LOL

Was just talking to a local fellow who is a master chainsaw wood carver. He travels all over Canada (don't know about US) with a group of carvers to put on demonstrations. He is sponsored by Husquavarna and says they are bringing out a new battery saw that mimics the handling and power of a gas saw. He claims it is a huge improvement over the current battery saws available. Don't know when it will be available but sounded good by his telling.

Hate to run out of juice in the middle of the woods cutting trees down or cutting up firewood. I feel like for chainsaws I'll always be a gas guy. Unless you throw a V8 diesel on it like hey do for the lumberjack competitions.

Trying to picture the two gorillas who could handle a V8 diesel racing saw carving a grizzly out of a tree trunk. Methinks using a battery chainsaw logging would be akin to taking a very small knife to a very large gunfight! I have a little 20v B+D chainsaw that is great for limb trimming and rough cutting some boards etc. Also a fairly full selection of battery tools which are all great within their design capabilities. As said earlier "no cords". Can't beat that.

homeboy wrote:Trying to picture the two gorillas who could handle a V8 diesel racing saw carving a grizzly out of a tree trunk. Methinks using a battery chainsaw logging would be akin to taking a very small knife to a very large gunfight! I have a little 20v B+D chainsaw that is great for limb trimming and rough cutting some boards etc. Also a fairly full selection of battery tools which are all great within their design capabilities. As said earlier "no cords". Can't beat that.

Yeah I don't decorative cutting cause I don't possess the motor skills but I could imagine that it would be a heck of a time handling the saw to do that. I'm just a traditionalist in that regard though. Not a fan of change and new stuff.

homeboy wrote:Was just talking to a local fellow who is a master chainsaw wood carver. He travels all over Canada (don't know about US) with a group of carvers to put on demonstrations. He is sponsored by Husquavarna and says they are bringing out a new battery saw that mimics the handling and power of a gas saw. He claims it is a huge improvement over the current battery saws available. Don't know when it will be available but sounded good by his telling.

I know a carver up in Ontario, his name is Robbin Wenzowski, I may have him travel out to a piece of property I own to do some carving...I'm building a log home, and have a few trees around the property that Robbin could do justice on... I do some small carving, like mushrooms, a small bear, stuff like that, but would like to incorporate some small animals like that in the timbers indoors, and on the porch. I think Robbin is sponsored by Stihl though.
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I bought some carving chain and bars from a guy up in Washington, he's also a well known carver, his name is Bob King. He's sponsored by Echo I believe.

There's a lot of good carvers around.

My log home is dovetailed on the corners, so I use mostly all 1/4" carving chain on all my chainsaws. Mostly Husqvarna here, but have one small Echo 3450 I use...it's a classic...I also use my angle grinder with 60 grit flap wheels, those wheels eat up steel or wood, I love 'em! I use the Lehigh Valley discs.

I prefer corded grinders if I can have power where I'm working. My next grinder will hopefully be a Metabo.

Alan

Farmboy : By reading forums,watching videos and basicly observing and practicing I feel I am just beginning to get some idea of the motor skills,hand to eye co-ordination and sheer knowledge required to become really competent in the welding profession. With your youth and zeal never sell yourself short because you can do anything you set your mind to. 50 years ago when I first worked in construction we slugged our butts off with what would be considered primitive equipment nowadays. When I retired a few years ago with modern equipment and methods many fewer men did much more work,better, without slugging their butts off. The tools I have now in my little hobby shop would be to die for not that many years ago when we built and maintained our equipment. I like change that improves our lives and make it more efficient and easier. Some other types of change not so much! You are just learning your motor skills among other things and someday if you want you will find that you can carve that eagle out of that stump. It's up to you.

aland : I myself know nothing about carving and just happened to meet this fellow. I know the family a bit ( this is a son )mostly in the logging and carving business. Name is Mike Winnia and I have seen some of his local work. Beautifull !! We are in SW Ontario with lots of logs I suppose. I will keep your fellas name and if I run into Mike I will pass it on. Seems if you are in the upper tiers in this trade they travel a lot and being fairly exclusive they may have met. A friend of mine who I am working with to build a large live edge oak slab table started using the flap disks after I gave him one to try and he thinks they are great. When I was in construction I had a crane and set the logs for a few log homes. I am completely amazed at the skill and dedication of the carver to take these raw logs and with fairly simple tools carve them to fit perfectly. Works of art.

homeboy wrote:We are in SW Ontario with lots of logs I suppose.

Indeed you have some big logs up there.

I don't want to get too side tracked, this is a cordless grinder thread...

Alan

All the best grinders are metabos, with that said it’s the most expensive by almost double than most. I have had the flathead verison for 3 years now, it’s an unreplaceable tool! I have found using a flapper wheel on any other brand than the metabo drains the battery extremely fast. I mostly use the cordless with a wire brush and while using it stick welding all day to brush off slag, I can usual get by with 1-2 batteries.

CHCWeldingLLC wrote:All the best grinders are metabos, with that said it’s the most expensive by almost double than most. I have had the flathead verison for 3 years now, it’s an unreplaceable tool! I have found using a flapper wheel on any other brand than the metabo drains the battery extremely fast. I mostly use the cordless with a wire brush and while using it stick welding all day to brush off slag, I can usual get by with 1-2 batteries.

One can pick them up in the 6" size on ebay for about $75 - $100 if you're patient. I just bought one for $75, but an 11-050 which is a discontinued model that only had 9.0 amps. Still, not a bad buy for $75.

I have a Milwaukee that quit on me, not sure what is wrong, but hoping the Metabo lasts for a while. I'd like to get another 4.5" model also. Just seems like you can't enough angle grinders. A cordless would be nice also, just in case, but I prefer corded myself.

Alan

This is becoming a thread about Ford or Chevy's. I think it's great to have a grinder without a cord!

Go Makita!

With the innovation in battery technology, cordless tools are becoming very practical. I bought a Snap On battery impact that I would rate against any air-driven or corded impact. I used it this past weekend in fact to completely tear down and rebuild the entire suspension on my buddy's Super Duty. 2 days, about 200 bolts all at high torque, and never changed or charged the battery once. At about 4#, that to me is a heck of a tool. And for job site work, a cordless grinder makes way too sense. Even in a shop, not having cords laying around and being dragged around is a huge plus.

tungstendipper wrote:This is becoming a thread about Ford or Chevy's. I think it's great to have a grinder without a cord!

Go Makita!

Fein Rules!!!! <- my face when I see their prices.

I

tungstendipper wrote:This is becoming a thread about Ford or Chevy's.

Although I want to buy some Metabos myself, I would also buy one for a cordless as well.

I honestly don't care for my cordless tools, but don't have an angle grinder. I have 2 different Makita drills, the batteries all suck over time and last about 5 minutes.

I have one I love, Hitachi 18v DL series, it will rip your wrist off, but they discontinued the series and batteries are hard to find. I guess you guys have better luck with the new units, but I would rather buy used corded grinders for my mileage.

My point of my last post was that no matter what grinder you like, Cordless or Corded, you can get them for about 1/2 the cost if you're willing to buy used on ebay. Weigh that against buying 2 x 4.5" DeWalts for $99, what I see those crap grinders for sale at Home Depot. Those are also low amps. I have used some Metabos at friend's shops and like them, but this used one will be my first one to own.

Reports of using the Metabo cordless in this thread, 1-2 batteries a day is not bad, IMO.

Alan

aland wrote:
Reports of using the Metabo cordless in this thread, 1-2 batteries a day is not bad, IMO.

Alan

The guy who taught me to weld said, “get good at out of position welding, or get good with a grinder”. No battery problems here

cj737 wrote:The guy who taught me to weld said, “get good at out of position welding, or get good with a grinder”. No battery problems here

You know, I'm probably wasting too many brain cells on creating a comfortable environment to tig weld, but I see Jody and Mr. Tig and I want to live that good f#$@ing life also!

I hate to admit I do resort to a grinder for some stuff, so far not as much for making fugly welds to look good though...

Cj I hope that guy taught you to clean your welds between passes, or at least how to remove mill scale /oxidation. File and hammer? Sounds fun!