Wow, it's interesting how such a tiny bit of CO2 can influence the welding so much. I wonder how it does that!?

Hi,

It sounds like you plan to make a flat-frame out of the tubes. You may have a good reason for wanting to make it that way, but an edge-frame design would be far stiffer and stronger.

I have no idea if it's feasible...you said it's too hard to drill...is it possible to first anneal just the spots where you want to drill the small holes with a torch to soften the steel and then drill the holes? If so, then you'd be able to finish them off with the cutting torch.

I'm another one who appreciates how great this site is. Not only are the articles, videos, and other sources of information so useful and well-produced, but this site is the most user-friendly I've ever come across. I guess this is Jody's baby and he is endlessly attentive in its maintenance and ref...

To add another thought. Sometimes it serves to look at things from a different perspective. Instead of trying to see it as a welder/ironworker, try to view the problem as a machinist. If you know any good machinists, ask them about possible approaches and available tooling.

Hi, I'm coming at this with ignorance and naivete, so if my suggestion seems silly I apologize. Anyway, after reading the problem and some of the responses, I thought "Maybe diamond?!--a diamond or carbide hole saw--is there such an animal?" So I did a quick search, and lo and behold there...

Northern Tool has a few of the Strong Hand clamps in the store and others can be found in their online site. You can also get the welding tables recommended by Jody by ordering through Northern Tool's online site. In fact, I believe Jody mentioned that he bought the Nomad portable tables from Northe...

Hi Delraydella, Thanks for all information, photos, and effort. Your setup is very intriguing. I'm not yet totally clear how it all works together, but I've only looked it over in the last few minutes. I'll study it some more, and show it to a friend who is more knowledgeable about electricity--mayb...

I've noticed that Jody has repeatedly advocated the use of 50/50 mix of argon and helium as a big improvement with aluminum--maybe that will help.

Hi Jim, Nice clean shop Jim--very nice! That's a nice crane and hoist set-up you have there. Someone has been tempting me to buy a gantry crane recently, but thankfully, it's too big to go in my shop and I don't know where it would reside outside either--it's a big yellow thing--looks like Big Bird....

Hi fellas, Hey, I thank Jim and Delraydella for their helpful responses. I'm going to copy and paste some the details of my situation that I've already written out to a couple of vendors on Ebay --if something is repeated or incongruent, it's because I didn't edit them properly. But they will probab...

Hi fellas, I've had a woodworking shop for 35 years but never did any serious metal work except for sharpening tools, making shaper cutters, etc. I bought a little stick welder to help assemble a stand for my dust collector when I first opened my shop, but it hasn't been used since. My home was burg...

Hi, I'm new here, and I benefit greatly from all the advice and sharing of experiences--thank you all. The fella who started this thread seems to have been treated too harshly for his concerns about safety. Like many of you, I often find removing a guard or safety device to be necessary or actually ...