- Joined
- Dec 12, 2022
Ok 0.3mm stainless is 1/8th inch. Assuming 25 amps on a tig machine, that's nothing, and infact will cause you to cook the metal due to staying on the same point for a long ass time. With tig, it pays to burn hot and move fast.
Welding General Thread - A general guide on turning hot steel into trucks, trains, and airplanes as well as posting your own welds.
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gobble gobble squawk
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2023
Try 1/80th of an inch.
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2022
Oh I'm a dumbass. That's 30 gauge lol. 25 amps should be plenty
gobble gobble squawk
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2023
is "gauge" a common metric of measurement in the US?
Yourmissingsock
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2022
Excellent tips, I will give it a crack with lower current (I have some 1mm tungsten and my machine can pop down to 5A).
I do have a stainless brush I use for stainless but maybe I will give the stainless a little bit of an acid treatment to modify the surface chromium content. I need to do a little reading but in my experience with plating onto stainless it is a bit of a pain to get a good surface chemistry.
EDIT: Saw page 2 after. I will try going hard too
Thanks for the tips!
Last edited:
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2022
Yes, it's what we use instead of mm for small stuff.
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2022
That's not powder coat. It's sprayed on epoxy paint. The grain is from the shitty pic. The hardest part of the job was probably keeping my apprentice from grinding gouges on each side of the welds. He wears contacts and I think he needs a new prescription. I have mentioned it to him. I'm trying to teach him the joy of grinding and the inherit artistry within it, but if I'm not watching and bitching at him he will grind a gouge every time.That's really fucking good man, looks clean as hell, nice powder coat job too
Yes. 12 gauge 20 gauge 16 gauge and some people even have 10 gauge shot guns. Our wiring is even in gauges. I personally don't like gauged metal. I prefer fractions or decimals of an inch. I have a chart in my shop to help me with this. As unamerican as it is I'd just as soon use metric meters. At least it has some system besides memorizing random conversion numbers.
Here is something that I did today.
View attachment 20230201_145047 - Copy.jpg
If you want a 10 speed auto in a car that came with the options of two or three speeds altercations need to be made. All of these shitty tacks were made with my poor apprentice rolling on the floor holding the friendly end of a hammer against the metal. I'm happy with the outcome and tomorrow I will weld it solid from the bottom. I'd prefer to weld it from the top, but this is a finished car that I'm doing a engine/transmission swap on. I need to minimize the grinding dust. No one will ever see this end from under the carpet anyways. I'll try to remember to take pics after welding/grinding/seam sealer/paint.
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2022
TIG brazing is hard, the difference between too much and not enough heat is very small. Prep is key as always. A sharper tungsten point will probably help. What size filler rod and electrode?
Well you don’t want the base metal to melt with brazing or you get inclusions.
Mentally Iller Detractor
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2022
As other posters have said scratch-start is great. Even then sometimes the flux will flow over the end of the rod and harden after you finish a pass so what I personally do is just take my hand (wearing gloves obviously) and run it over the end of the rod and try to knock the flux off or you can take it out of the stinger and rub it on some steel. Makes restarts a hell of a lot easier.
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2016
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2022
Part 2: Safety (Also known as how to not burn your nards off)
It is indeed that time once again for a mega post. Safety. First, the obligatory:
Now that you've had a laugh, a ha ha, let's actually get into why this is important. Welding CAN be dangerous. If you don't take precautions and are a general idiot/on drugs ( I have stories about druggies, good lord). If you take precautions, and aren't being stupid, this is safe, barring any acts of God.
The Basics:
Safety Glasses. Yes, safety glasses. ZTE certified to be precise which is about all of them. Can't tell you how many times spatter has found its way under my helmet and plinked my glasses. These are like five bucks. You will get booted off job sites for not wearing the equivalent of underwear. Wear them.
*note if you wear glasses already and they're ZTE certified, you're safe.
*your underwear in the armor set.
Welding helmets. There are many types and brands, but just know the main gods are Miller and Lincon Electric, with Speedglass sitting up there as the Gucci of them. Every thing else is secondary. Now we have two types.
Fixed Shade
Otherwise known as a clunker. No electronics, it's just a sheet of darkened glass. Works well, cheap, bullet proof... until you lift up the helmet and look at the weld to start it. Don't shut it fast enough, you get flashbanged. Has lead to many older welders getting eye problems. Also as shown, you can decorate your helmet, and should, as it's about the only thing that's going to differentiate you and the other guy, that and free expression.
Auto Darkening Helmets
The solution to the blindness problem. Also flashbangs in theory if your house ever got raided lol. I'm just saying it now, Miller has it on helmet tech. But lincon does have a winner or too, oddly enough on their lower priced models: the Viking 1840:
The visor may be small, but I've never seen a more bulletproof auto darkening helmet for the cost. That and the controls are on the outside, and make a audible click, allowing you to switch modes, such as to grind mode (so your helmet doesn't darken up when u grind metal) without taking off the helmet. If you're just starting off, just a hobby, this stormtrooper grade helmet is what you want. Bulletproof, simple to maintain, easy to operate even with gloves.
Gloves: Keep your hands from getting burned. Pretty obvious. Now there are different types and different prices. Ones I personally use are the Lincon roll cage ones:
Tough, you can hit shit with the reinforced knuckles, leather, good for everything except tig.
But if you're starting out, or just like them, the old fashioned cotton gloves are still good. Used them plenty, can't recommend them enough.
As for tig you get tig gloves, which are tight fitting and thin due to needing fine motor control.
Welding Jacket and misc
Do yourself a favor, get a leather welding jacket, steel toed boots or at least closed toe shoes, a welding cap to keep sparks out of your hair, and if you're like me, cotton coveralls. This is your armor, and will protect against 95% of pretty much all the shit coming at you.
Your breastplate.
The welding cap that keeps your hair clean and spark free. The bill goes to the back so the sparks roll off.
And that's it for today class. Next up will be tools and welding machines. Until then I bid you adeu.
It is indeed that time once again for a mega post. Safety. First, the obligatory:
Now that you've had a laugh, a ha ha, let's actually get into why this is important. Welding CAN be dangerous. If you don't take precautions and are a general idiot/on drugs ( I have stories about druggies, good lord). If you take precautions, and aren't being stupid, this is safe, barring any acts of God.
The Basics:
Safety Glasses. Yes, safety glasses. ZTE certified to be precise which is about all of them. Can't tell you how many times spatter has found its way under my helmet and plinked my glasses. These are like five bucks. You will get booted off job sites for not wearing the equivalent of underwear. Wear them.
*note if you wear glasses already and they're ZTE certified, you're safe.
*your underwear in the armor set.
Welding helmets. There are many types and brands, but just know the main gods are Miller and Lincon Electric, with Speedglass sitting up there as the Gucci of them. Every thing else is secondary. Now we have two types.
Fixed Shade
Otherwise known as a clunker. No electronics, it's just a sheet of darkened glass. Works well, cheap, bullet proof... until you lift up the helmet and look at the weld to start it. Don't shut it fast enough, you get flashbanged. Has lead to many older welders getting eye problems. Also as shown, you can decorate your helmet, and should, as it's about the only thing that's going to differentiate you and the other guy, that and free expression.
Auto Darkening Helmets
The solution to the blindness problem. Also flashbangs in theory if your house ever got raided lol. I'm just saying it now, Miller has it on helmet tech. But lincon does have a winner or too, oddly enough on their lower priced models: the Viking 1840:
The visor may be small, but I've never seen a more bulletproof auto darkening helmet for the cost. That and the controls are on the outside, and make a audible click, allowing you to switch modes, such as to grind mode (so your helmet doesn't darken up when u grind metal) without taking off the helmet. If you're just starting off, just a hobby, this stormtrooper grade helmet is what you want. Bulletproof, simple to maintain, easy to operate even with gloves.
Gloves: Keep your hands from getting burned. Pretty obvious. Now there are different types and different prices. Ones I personally use are the Lincon roll cage ones:
Tough, you can hit shit with the reinforced knuckles, leather, good for everything except tig.
But if you're starting out, or just like them, the old fashioned cotton gloves are still good. Used them plenty, can't recommend them enough.
As for tig you get tig gloves, which are tight fitting and thin due to needing fine motor control.
Welding Jacket and misc
Do yourself a favor, get a leather welding jacket, steel toed boots or at least closed toe shoes, a welding cap to keep sparks out of your hair, and if you're like me, cotton coveralls. This is your armor, and will protect against 95% of pretty much all the shit coming at you.
Your breastplate.
The welding cap that keeps your hair clean and spark free. The bill goes to the back so the sparks roll off.
And that's it for today class. Next up will be tools and welding machines. Until then I bid you adeu.
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2023
Or just use the safety squint, seems to work fine for me.
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2022
No. Absolutely no. Your eyes are your greatest weapon. Look up the blindness rate of older welders and then rethink that please. The statistics are not pretty.
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2021
I only fuck with the fixed shade helmets because I’m a boomer in spirit and don’t trust technology. Sure it’s tedious as fuck trying to start an arc when you can’t really see anything at first but once you get the vague idea of where you need to weld you’re good to go. Just flip the helmet down and you can see once the arc starts flashing.
Also it should be necessary to post your welding helmet with your decorations and stickers for all to see (I just started putting stickers on my helmet because I realized it’s more practical than putting it on my computer tower because I always swap towers all the time and nobody can see it, so I only have one side done.
All the nifty stickers that would have looked nice on my helmet are sadly dust in the wind, now).
Also it should be necessary to post your welding helmet with your decorations and stickers for all to see (I just started putting stickers on my helmet because I realized it’s more practical than putting it on my computer tower because I always swap towers all the time and nobody can see it, so I only have one side done.
All the nifty stickers that would have looked nice on my helmet are sadly dust in the wind, now).
Rakovnik
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2021
Here's my first welding project from just over a year ago, I had previously only laid 2 practice beads. These early-mid 2010s Deere zero turns are a design copied/licensed from Wright, however instead of using a larger tube frame on the 60" as the one they are copying does, they used the same size tube as their small models. Inevitably the front caster wheels break off just behind the attachment plate, at some point they had an updated design come out with supports welded to the outside of the frame.
Fortunately, that updated design was out when this came in for me to weld. I stopped by the nearest Deere store, took a picture of the support and copied it on cardboard. Made adjustments on the cardboard as needed to fit around the mower lift pieces on the frame, then traced and cut it to fit. I don't have a plasma cutter and did it all with cutting wheels, luckily didn't have any blow up in my face.
Fortunately, that updated design was out when this came in for me to weld. I stopped by the nearest Deere store, took a picture of the support and copied it on cardboard. Made adjustments on the cardboard as needed to fit around the mower lift pieces on the frame, then traced and cut it to fit. I don't have a plasma cutter and did it all with cutting wheels, luckily didn't have any blow up in my face.
Here's the first rough cut, I eventually added cut outs in the center, smoothed edges and had to bend it so the 2 'fingers' on the end are over the center of the frame, avoiding the bolts on the attachment plate.
This video is tacking on through the holes I put in the middle of the support. Had to cut length down a bunch because this phone won't let me reduce size.
Look how small that frame is -_-
This video is tacking on through the holes I put in the middle of the support. Had to cut length down a bunch because this phone won't let me reduce size.
Look how small that frame is -_-
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2022
You did pretty damn good man, and this just showcases the power of welding. Didn't need to buy a whole new mower, you just cut out the parts needed and bang, good as the new model. Also yes that frame is small as fuck. Kinda cute tho.
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2022
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2022
It is time to get this thread rolling again. First, some updates, got a new welding helmet:
A Miller Digital Infinity, fantastic if you have the scratch, so many fucking features, probably as smart as a 16 bit console, which is saying a fucking lot if you know welding helmets. I'll take more pics of the stickers, just wait. @Big Fat Frog this would be a good one for you, hasn't glitched on me once.
Now I'm restarting this Thread to talk about something important: Welding Machines. @Pisek , @Catgirl Enthusiast , @DurmaxChevyguy12 , @Mentally Iller Detractor , this will be useful for you, especially if you want to branch out.
PART 3: Welding Machines: MIG
Now, what are the advantages of MIG, over say, stick? It's fucking easy. I can get someone doing some pretty basic tack welds after a few hours. Wire is just cheaper than stick hands down. It can also do all forms and positions of welding, just like stick. Can also do many materials, including stainless and aluminum. Now getting GOOD at mig, as in certified, is a different matter. But just starting out is much easier than stick.
A demonstration on how to load A Mig Gun.
There are cons to mig, you need gases, tanks, the wire feed can (rarely) get cranky
This is a industrial machine, he either forgot to put back on the retainer plate, or more likely, he didn't use a push pull mig gun and it kinked because Aluminum wire is evil.
Now you'll want a tool, a very special tool, to clean out your torch nozzle. You should know it's name.
WELPERS
What can they do? What CANT they do. They are the welders leather man. Clean nozzles, file stuff, take nozzles off, snip wire, hit slag, the possibilities are ENDLESS. My name is also a endearing pun off of it. Don't cheap out on your welpers.
Mig in general will take you far in the welding world. Stick isn't dead, but it's coming. Mig, flux-core, all of it is faster, cleaner, arguably safer. Certifying in MIG may be boring, but it's useful ANYWHERE.
Now what Machines would I recommend.
Option 1: Buy a Miller. Expensive, but they are the superior option. Their tech is leagues ahead, and is generally noob friendly. Not everyone has that scratch lying around though. There's also Hobart, made on the same lines, which @TheGoodNamesHaveBeenTaken let me know about, but i have no experience with, so do research.
Option 2: Buy a Lincoln. It's what I'm going to be doing, personally. They're a bit more crotchety, but they're cheaper than Miller, and they do work. Less noob friendly, a bit unforgiving, just less tech advanced other than their most high end models. Personally planning on buying a Power Mig 211i, as it's a dedicated mig box and only $1300, good for a little garage box
Option 3: Buy used, or try other shit, usually Chinese. You are in the wild west my frens. Buyer beware as you go into Harbor Freight and browse Amazon/Facebook. Both the options above are built in America. Everything else is from who knows where. Be careful.
A Miller Digital Infinity, fantastic if you have the scratch, so many fucking features, probably as smart as a 16 bit console, which is saying a fucking lot if you know welding helmets. I'll take more pics of the stickers, just wait. @Big Fat Frog this would be a good one for you, hasn't glitched on me once.
Now I'm restarting this Thread to talk about something important: Welding Machines. @Pisek , @Catgirl Enthusiast , @DurmaxChevyguy12 , @Mentally Iller Detractor , this will be useful for you, especially if you want to branch out.
PART 3: Welding Machines: MIG
Now, what are the advantages of MIG, over say, stick? It's fucking easy. I can get someone doing some pretty basic tack welds after a few hours. Wire is just cheaper than stick hands down. It can also do all forms and positions of welding, just like stick. Can also do many materials, including stainless and aluminum. Now getting GOOD at mig, as in certified, is a different matter. But just starting out is much easier than stick.
A demonstration on how to load A Mig Gun.
There are cons to mig, you need gases, tanks, the wire feed can (rarely) get cranky
This is a industrial machine, he either forgot to put back on the retainer plate, or more likely, he didn't use a push pull mig gun and it kinked because Aluminum wire is evil.
Now you'll want a tool, a very special tool, to clean out your torch nozzle. You should know it's name.
WELPERS
What can they do? What CANT they do. They are the welders leather man. Clean nozzles, file stuff, take nozzles off, snip wire, hit slag, the possibilities are ENDLESS. My name is also a endearing pun off of it. Don't cheap out on your welpers.
Mig in general will take you far in the welding world. Stick isn't dead, but it's coming. Mig, flux-core, all of it is faster, cleaner, arguably safer. Certifying in MIG may be boring, but it's useful ANYWHERE.
Now what Machines would I recommend.
Option 1: Buy a Miller. Expensive, but they are the superior option. Their tech is leagues ahead, and is generally noob friendly. Not everyone has that scratch lying around though. There's also Hobart, made on the same lines, which @TheGoodNamesHaveBeenTaken let me know about, but i have no experience with, so do research.
Option 2: Buy a Lincoln. It's what I'm going to be doing, personally. They're a bit more crotchety, but they're cheaper than Miller, and they do work. Less noob friendly, a bit unforgiving, just less tech advanced other than their most high end models. Personally planning on buying a Power Mig 211i, as it's a dedicated mig box and only $1300, good for a little garage box
Option 3: Buy used, or try other shit, usually Chinese. You are in the wild west my frens. Buyer beware as you go into Harbor Freight and browse Amazon/Facebook. Both the options above are built in America. Everything else is from who knows where. Be careful.
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2022
If the future is supposedly female then why can't I find any damn decent pull on steel toe boots for women? A pair of lace ups I settled on sold out the day I was about to buy them.
Also tiggers are the hypebeast consoomers of welding.
Also tiggers are the hypebeast consoomers of welding.
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2022
I couldn't tell you lol, but when you do get a pair, it'll last a long time. And yes, tig guys are hype beasts. They Love doing it, personally I hate it. Yes they can work on aircraft and space shit. Mig can still work on aluminum and stainless and pipe.