Welders? Any welders on this site?

[Al Smith]

My welding table is 11/4" thick around 5 by 4 .It was a base for a vibrating sorter .It was a scrap pass freebie thing loaded with a high lift .My old Ferguson tractor would not lift it off my trailer .I had to unbolt the damned shaker gizmo .It must have weighed 500 pounds by itself .

 

[Tree09]

It will surprise you in how versatile it is. And yes if you find an engine drive for a good price. I have 3 and the most i paid was 500. The nice thing about an engine drive is you are mobile, and since most people don't have the power you do to their shop, it provides the balls to do work.

 

[flushcut]

Alas my welding table is often a 3/4" 3'x4' piece of plywood or saw horses. I lust after the space to house a (my dream table) 4'x8'x1"x32" table with a 6" grid of 5/8" holes. I weep into my beer.

 

[flushcut]

Its just overwhelming all the frigging info out there.

I think for what I'll ever be doing a cheap bulletproof ac/dc transformer will fit the needs without breaking the bank. I am currently involved in classified psychological warfare with a thunderbolt seller who's about an HR away from me.

I certainly wouldn't spring on any machine without running it by you and the house first. I appreciate the ongoing input.

I did pick up a cheap azz handcart today but nearly choked when I saw what the surplus shop wanted for a 50cal ammo box(biggest they had on hand in metal). $34.95cdn plus .12% sales tax. This is without bullets in it! That buys more than enough steal to make my own little cubby to put on the cart. I went and picked up a few odds and sods from the offcuts pile at a local machine shop too so now I can atleast progress on my cart and my table. Luckily I have most of the steel to make the table with already. Atleast the frame of it.

Holy sheepshit Batman! 50 cal cans can be had for $10 or less here.

 

[Tree09]

Same here, i just use a tripod vise or jackstands (pipe ones). I have a small 2 x 4 one, steel, but I'm so used to working on a tripod that's all i need. Gotta finish my rollout wheel, and then that will be my go to. I use my garage floor or driveway too, depending on how flat it needs to be. A little wedge here and there can level stuff up great. Fabbing for pipelines we work on plastic cones and skids all the time, stacked firewood can achieve the same results on a smaller scale. Learn a box skid, a crotch skid, and a slide and you can build about anything you would ever want.

 

[squisher]

Well I'm building a table. Out of old HD pallet racking. It'll be about 5' x 3.5'. Gotta start somewhere. Haven't decided or scavenged what/how the top will be yet. It will be on wheels for rolling around. I'm looking forward to working in a standing position.

I torched up a bunch of pieces for the frame tonight. Did someone ask me if I was going to be welding on rusty painted old metal ever? Hmmmmm. I got me some grinding to do now. I'm no whiz with a torch, but practice makes, well hopefully makes me a bit better.

 

[Al Smith]

I've got another table that is 3 by 5 1/4" steel on a homemade table frame on scaffold wheels.In addition I use it for thumping out sheet metal .When I made the duct work for my house when I installed the geo-thermal I hand formed 26 sheets of 24 gauge sheet metal using it .I've also got a home made metal break .If you have a little imagination you can do anything you set your mind to do .

 

[Tree09]

Cool trick, if you fire up your cutting torch, press the lever to blow oxygen, you can wave it over the future weld area to burn off paint and flake off the rust. You can dial back the oxygen pressure a bit on the regulator to save oxygen as you have small bottles. Afterwards a wire wheel will blow that crap off of there. I bet you can accomplish the same shoving the ends in some coals too, which would be cheaper yet. Grinding works too, but it doesn't appear you have a bunch of steel there to work with. With a stick machine you could just light up on it for all the weight you will be putting on it.

 

[squisher]

Thanks for the tips. I was thinking to grind them to square them up a bit. Hard to tell in the pics but a couple of them are kind of screwy cuts. Everyone starts somewhere right. Hoping that with two square frames and maybe a shelf and the top that it'll be sturdy enough for light/med work. If nothing else I'll learn a bit and develop a little bit of skill along the way. And have some fun!

I'll probably throw a few ends in the shop fire coals tonight and see how that goes.

 

[Al Smith]

Pallet racking is strong enough but it's pretty thin .You will want a tight fit which requires straight ends .Thin stuff is a beech to fill in the gaps of a poor fit up when welding .Actually the key to any welding job is a good fit up .

 

[flushcut]

A piece of angle iron really helps to get a straight cut. And a 6" grinder with a cutoff disc would have sliced thru that steel with a quickness (1/8" 3/16"?) and left you with nearly dimensional cuts. But I get it practice practice, men like fire.

 

[Al Smith]

My favorite story concerning conversations of welding goes back to a web forum I'll never go back to .There were a couple of California smart asses that said I couldn't weld so I gas welded two tin cans together and took a picture of it .That ended that ,never another peep .

 

[flushcut]

Bullshit! LOL

Gas welded two tin cans! That is very impressive! Every body thinks TIGing two razor blades is tough but with gas? Skillz!

 

[Al Smith]

I once tiged a bandsaw blade much to the surprise of a couple of pipe fighters .Gas welding is nearly a lost art .The above mentioned was because I had a mock up of a tuned pipe that didn't look so good .At the time the smallest welding tip I had was a number 4 .After I finally found either a number 0 or 00 on flea bay for an Airco torch that was older than myself and a set of limber hoses I did the cans .The gas was set at about 1 PSI and the O2 didn't even move the gauge .I used tie wire for a filler .There's a trick to everything .I might have a picture on my giant Blackwell hard drive I use for back up .

 

[flushcut]

Impressive!

 

[Tree09]

Very. I'm not even close to being that proficient in gas.

 

[squisher]

A piece of angle iron really helps to get a straight cut. And a 6" grinder with a cutoff disc would have sliced thru that steel with a quickness (1/8" 3/16"?) and left you with nearly dimensional cuts. But I get it practice practice, men like fire.

I'm unsure on the thickness but I first tried a air die grinder with a cut off disc and was getting nowhere fast. On the small sides of the box it's doubled over itself, both sides. That made for some interesting torch cutting for me. Lol. I only have a 4.5" grinder so have no experience with a 6".

Thanks for all the critiques and suggestions.

 

[Tree09]

Yeah forget about those air die grinders with 3" cutoff wheels, they are for muffler work where you can't reach the backside. You need at least one decent grinder, preferably a 6." 4.5" are common, but they are lacking in about everything, and you will spend way more on wheels because you have to change them out all the time. I definitely prefer ones with a trigger that you hold down to operate, they are safer because they force you to use both hands on them and the trigger acts as a deadman switch. The switched ones will always be shutting off on you as they get older, and this will cause you to send one into orbit When using cutoff wheels (or really anything on a grinder), make sure the sparks are shooting to you (basically don't backchain with one lol). This is because if/ when it gets in a bind, it will then throw the grinder away from you as opposed to ramming into your gut, face, balls, etc. As you use more and more powerful grinders that becomes more and more important, i have some painful and embarrassing stories learning that. An 9" air grinder caught me in the balls (sanding pad causing impact not cutting thank God) once early in my career, and i spent what seemed like an hour coughing and rolling in grinding dust before i could move around again. Almost cut a tendon in my knee with a cutoff wheel getting in a bind (very tight spot), and broke a finger when a wire wheel caught. Having said that i still prefer to use one without a guard, but i can't suggest that to others.

I typically will get the metabo original slicer wheels if I'm buying them for me, you can get them for a little over a buck a wheel on Amazon or the like. A 6" one is going to cut as much as 3 or so 4.5" wheels. When using them, score your line, then go back and forth lightly over the material keeping the minimum amount of wheel buried as possible. This will be the fastest cut, and will use the least amount of wheel to do so. Try to avoid burying the wheel in the material, this just wears the sides down and bogs down the grinder. With a 6" wheel you should be able to cut at least 12 inches in 1/4 plate. Only bust out the cutting torch when you are at least 1/4" thick and have a bunch of cuts to do, cutting wheels are often cheaper and quicker. I know guys that will use cutoff wheels on 6" sch 40 pipe on down, Im definitely on 4" on down.

 

[squisher]

Good stuff. Ahhh the list of tools grows. Lol. My wife has already started asking me what the point of all this is.

I really appreciate the input on the grinding/cutting info.

Searched forever for my little 4.5" grinder last night before remembering I'd left it up at my other place ffs.

 

[Cobleskill]

Chop saw for your list too?

 

[Tree09]

I would like one, but haven't broken down and gotten one yet. I would rather have a large bandsaw myself. Till then I get by just fine with a torch and some cutoff wheels. A portaband is nice too.

 

[Cobleskill]

I got one at a yard sale for $35. They have their place.

 

[Dave Shepard]

I only tried gas welding once. In my spark plug blaster there is a 10-24 nut that broke off. I put my finest tip on and was able to tack it back on successfully. This was in the early days before my mig or tig.

I think gas welding still is popular in building airframes due to the way it leaves the heat affected zone. I met someone years ago that was building his own airframes for aerobatic planes. I think he was using both tig and gas. Sadly he crashed in the Hudson in 2016 in preparation for an air show.

 

[FireFighterZero]

Yes, a lot of chro mo is gas welded.



There are a lot of weird FAA rules surrounding welding.

 

[flushcut]

EAA here in Oshkosh kills a few people a year.

List of tools:
Chop saw
Bandsaw
Plasma cutter
many grinders: 4-5 4.5" 2-3 6" and a biggin 7" or 9"
Bench grinders: 2
Belt grinder
Measuring tools: tape, squares, levels, angle finder, ect.....
Drill press plus bits wire gauge thru 1"
Mag drill plus annular cutters
Bimetal hole saws
Hand drill corded and cordless
Clamps and more clamps did I say clamps? I mean lots of clamps.

That should get you started on a new fabrication career.