Any welders or metal hobbyists here?
 

I am a 20 + year welding and metals teacher and welding inspector. I also have a website www.weldguru.com. I always enjoy talking anything metals related be it it fabrication or art as well. Any other metalheads out there?

Calling Reaper16.

both of my brother in laws do welding. I dont know shit about it though. lol At one point i was going to be taught, but didnt happen, something else came up lol

Never. Welding, Bridgeport & South-bend gay

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http://discoverlivesteam.com/

Degree in metallurgy. Super low in practical experience.

Got no time for the hobby, but the mind is always working on something. Did fire the forge up with my son yesterday.

If you find a nice southbend heavy 10, I'm in the market.

Some more fun

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All I know about metal is that it doesn't burn as well as wood.

Awesome, love forgework, very few have patience for it anymore. Our school has a southbend 13 x 40 that they are going to auction off. But it is 3 phase.

just got a http://www.grizzly.com/products/Comb...tachment/G0516 but have not had time to test it out.

retired pipefitter-welder here .. miss it bad .....

I have welded most of my life (on the farm and course), but I wouldn't say it's the prettiest in the world but gets the job done.

Would like to get into a little sheet metal welding for autobody work. What would be a good cheap welder to use?

Most welders tell me that a decent 120V MIG is about the perfect size for auto-body work.

I'm a pipe/structural welder at a shipyard that builds navy ships

I picked up welding a few years ago when I bought a 120V Lincoln running flux core from my father-in-law. Luckily one of my best friends is a very experienced welder and he's been teaching me how to run it.
If I can lay my material flat and run a straight, level bead I can come up with some pretty good looking welds. Running a bead uphill or upside down is where I get into troubles.

Inmen58 is suppose to be a welder by trade also ask him.

It is a skill trade. I weld up hill, overhead, in enclosed spaces, looking in mirrors. Practice makes perfect.i have been welding professionally with stick, pulse arc and short arc for 6 years now, just recently got my tig pipe certs .

I bought a multi process machine from northern tool for 699. You can mig, tig, short arc, fluxc core and it has a spool gun for aluminum wire. Its a damn go od running 220v machine for the money

There is a website http://www.lowbucktools.com/ that sells functional equipment at really good prices, a lot of info in thier catalog as well. As for a welder you might want to read this page from my website

http://www.weldguru.com/110-volt-mig-welders.html
Be cautious of "flux core" wire for thin materials. I will be honest harbor freight or northerntool migs are quite useful as long as you watch the duty cycle.

Personally if I were looking for a sheet metal machine on the cheap I would by a cheap one WITH gas input and get a bottle of 75/25 AR/CO2 mix and learn to be a really good spot welder . Use .023 solid core wire. You will be amazed what you can do.

What kind of power source(s) do you use?

6010 hot pass
7018 filler and cap ?

Welder buddy is like that too. I'm just glad I've got someone like him on hand to teach me. My welds used to look like a mud daubers nest but he has straightened most of that out for me.

COOL, all stick?
6010/7018?

Thanks for the links!

:hmmm: I've noticed flux core produces a lot more spatter but I just assumed that I was blowing holes in material because I was running too hot, moving too slow with the handset.

Flux core is a different animal. It is useful if you learn its drawbacks. Here is a page on my website about it.
http://www.weldguru.com/flux-core.html
Long story short
- be sure you are runing it DCEN if it is gassless wire (electrode on negative)
- Use a long stickout (3/4 to 1 inch between end of contact tip and metal) this preheats the core
- You do not need the nozzle with gassless flux.
- use side to side (weaving) motion do NOT back up and weld over the slag
- voltage = weld width
- wire speed = penetration + filler
this is true on all wire welders

Interesting. We are an AWS program so I get to teach arc, mig (short, pulse and spray), tig, plasma, oxyfuel, carbon arc, and cnc plama cutting. As well as forging, sheet metal, and metal art.

Dont tell anyone but I can not believe they pay me to do this ! Oh, I do have to put up with 100 + high school kids but that is actually the fun part! Never a dull moment.

You mean
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/too...5145_200485145

Interesting, I have been eyeing those power sources, would love input from a welder on them. Have you tried the spool gun on alum yet?

We have several different alum wire setups, a major learning curve there ! All setup.

:doh!: thanks for adding to my "Gee, I wanna prove how smart I am not" powerpoint ! :)

Very interesting. Welder buddy was telling me to get closer to my work, <1/2", but I kept creeping out because I can see my bead better with the handset a little further out. He also had me laying the bead in small lazy circles, cutting with the forward stroke and feeding the puddle with the back stroke.

That little machine definately wort h the bucks. Tig is scratch start but if you use a decent tungsten it runs very well.the spoolgun runs real nice on aluminum. The mig process it uses is short arc and it runs as well as a three thousand dollar lincoln does. Dc stick is dc stick, but runs nice anyway.

No stick on our pipe. Closed root tig with a eighth inch insert. Hardly any steel pipe. Mostly copper nickel, stainless, and inconel.

Yes, thats not uncommon, because everything he was telling you is true with short circuit mig few people have experience with gasless flux core. Its a very different breed but once you master it, quite an inexpensive weld.

No starting issues on aluminum ? Most people struggle with the first inch of weld without using a start tab

Oh wow, scratch start or high freq? Where are you at ? Annapolis?

I've been welding aluminum boats for the past 16 years as a profession, both mig and tig.

High freq. I work at electric boat we build virginia class subs.

Yeah its a stiff start. I used a runway pad to start. don't do much aluminum, mostly stainless and carbon steel with that machine.

great little machine. 6011 all day !