Welding Tips and Tricks

LtBadd wrote:Thanks for the comments, the table was given to me by a customer, I just had to get it moved

Now I'm getting green along with VA-Sawyer...those are good customers to have!

And not that you don't deserve it Richard, it's good to see someone use and take care of something like that, the way it should be! That's a win-win, IMO.

You sure can tig weld a hell of a lot better than I ever have

sbaker56 wrote:You sure can tig weld a hell of a lot better than I ever have

Thanks, most of my (later)welding career has been TIG, just worked out that way with the shops I've been worked for.

This would have been a good candidate for MIG if I had one.

LtBadd wrote:

sbaker56 wrote:You sure can tig weld a hell of a lot better than I ever have

Thanks, most of my (later)welding career has been TIG, just worked out that way with the shops I've been worked for.

This would have been a good candidate for MIG if I had one.

Yeah, but we all know that MIG sucks

when you need an arm rest.

Just some tig practice, I welded a couple pieces of an old grader blade together just because I wanted to see how realistically cracking would be an issue, and although it welds like crap for some reason I suddenly hit my groove for half the pass and made it look okay anyway.

Fixture mounts. Customer initially intended to mostly have these pressed into shape, but they had some problems with that, so asked me if I could cut them up and weld the pieces together. I obliged. Couple dozen more to do. Kind of nice since they are laser cut parts, but also kind of a pain with some of those awkward angles.

Nice!

VERY Nice !!

Very nice. Did you cut them up or nick them half way through and fold down into position?

Coldman wrote:Very nice. Did you cut them up or nick them half way through and fold down into position?

Just cut them all the way through on the bandsaw. Seemed like the easiest route.

Made a stand for my metal blade chop saw, using scrap 1¼ " square tube and scrap ½ " OSB.



Small cutting "station" away from my welders and other machines

Looks good Oscar

Oscar wrote:Made a stand for my metal blade chop saw, using scrap 1¼ " square tube and scrap ½ " OSB.



Small cutting "station" away from my welders and other machines

For all the money you’ve spent on those super duper MIG machines, you need to dial up the heat. The interior welds on your legs are stone cold.

Yea it's not bad for scrap. I go almost every weekend to see what I can get from a local metal supply. $0.32/lb just because it has a 6" long unwelded seam, or slight curve, or a slight 2° twist to it. Perfectly usable in my eyes.

All that tubing including the 6" pipe I bought as scrap.

cj737 wrote:For all the money you’ve spent on those super duper MIG machines, you need to dial up the heat. The interior welds on your legs are stone cold.

I kept them cold on purpose so things don't shift on me. The chop saw will not make that table collapse, so it's all good.

Very Nice! I love making useful things out of scrap...especially when it's scrap from stock that somebody else paid for

Oscar wrote:Yea it's not bad for scrap. I go almost every weekend to see what I can get from a local metal supply. $0.32/lb just because it has a 6" long unwelded seam, or slight curve, or a slight 2° twist to it. Perfectly usable in my eyes.

All that tubing including the 6" pipe I bought as scrap.

cj737 wrote:For all the money you’ve spent on those super duper MIG machines, you need to dial up the heat. The interior welds on your legs are stone cold.

I kept them cold on purpose so things don't shift on me. The chop saw will not make that table collapse, so it's all good.

I’m completely envious of your scrap finds. There is no such thing as scrap steel where I live.


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DavidR8 wrote:I’m completely envious of your scrap finds. There is no such thing as scrap steel where I live.


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Texas is a big place. There's room for ya over here. Come on down!

Speaking of chop saws. I have a Craftsman 10" that I would like to put a metal cutting blade on. It's probably 15 yrs old but still works well but it's been set aside for my Dewalt 12" compound miter saw. Do you think the old Craftsman is up to the task? I would like to give purpose.

croshaul wrote:Speaking of chop saws. I have a Craftsman 10" that I would like to put a metal cutting blade on. It's probably 15 yrs old but still works well but it's been set aside for my Dewalt 12" compound miter saw. Do you think the old Craftsman is up to the task? I would like to give purpose.

Careful on the speed, you'll chew through carbide blades unless it's slow RPM (i.e., 1600 or less).

croshaul wrote:Speaking of chop saws. I have a Craftsman 10" that I would like to put a metal cutting blade on. It's probably 15 yrs old but still works well but it's been set aside for my Dewalt 12" compound miter saw. Do you think the old Craftsman is up to the task? I would like to give purpose.

If it is a wood saw, forget about it. There are specialty blades I've seen (carbide tipped blades that is), that actually can withstand the RPMs of a wood chop/miter saw, but they cost....let's say.......more than some welding machines.

I can get my hands on small amounts of scrap from time to time but nothing like that. Wow. I did get a bunch of four, five, six and eight inch pipe in schedule 40 for free recently. I didn't have room to take all of it nor did I have need.

Oscar wrote:

cj737 wrote:For all the money you’ve spent on those super duper MIG machines, you need to dial up the heat. The interior welds on your legs are stone cold.

I kept them cold on purpose so things don't shift on me. The chop saw will not make that table collapse, so it's all good.

Sure you did. No welder ever intentionally lays cold beads on a finished product. They would either properly tack it, or weld it properly.

Had to weld a bunch of extrusions again today.

Nice, Buggy. Are you back to building and trying to wear out that hammer ... AGAIN?