Lets Talk Welders

I used to make those, in door-form! 6" thick with 1" thick cold rolled steel edges, and the 1/4" faces have about 100 countersunk screws holding them together.

 

they were hinges for a 300lb or so door that was also steel encased lead. The lead is a giant heat sink so melting the steel and filler is kind of tough. I cringe just thinking about that job. Ground out my welds 5 or more times, still terrible. Porosity, inclusions, straight up incomplete welds. Terrible. Got paid anyway. I have literally never before or after had that much trouble welding anything.

 

Hey guys, thanks for the clarification, I meant Lift Start Tig as opposed to scratch start of high frequency as that video @ITLKSEZ posted.

Had some time this yesterday to mess around MIG welding some bead on plate. I had some 16 gauge and some 1/8 and larger scraps. Obviously need some more practice but it was fun.

 

Good start. Don't be afraid to go hotter than you feel comfortable. Look at the back of the plate to see how hot it got at each pass.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I am looking forward to learning more and more about welding. No aspirations for fab work but there are some patch panels in my future. Welding really is fun.

 

One more for this thread, I had some time today to play around with some scrap metal. I welded together some random scrap bits. I had one or two good welds but fitmment on the scrap pieces wasn't great. I am really enjoying the welder. I have about 3 hours mig welding under my belt and I couldn't be happier with the process welding is fun.



There wee some serious gaps on that angled piece on the left.

 

Here's a video of the lift arc tig process in action.

 

Video similar to the one Ryan posted. It is a newer feature I hadn't seen before but can see it's advantage. Thanks for posting.

 

I'm not the best welder but my son is he has his certs in mig , stick,&tig.
For our home Shop bought a Hobart 230 iron man mig he is happy with it but would like electronic readout. It came with a spool gun we use for aluminum . Where he works they tig alot so he wanted one at our shop so we bought a hft tig for $400 he has been surprised how well it does. I don't know how it would do for heavy use but occasional use its fine.

 

I went with the Hobart 210 MPV and I couldn't he happier both in price and performance.

 

everyone in the 24 hours of Lemons racing community swears by the 211.

I'm going to get one when bonus time comes around next year.