I noticed it when the square machines came out and is why I never cared for them. We had a whole shop outfitted with Miller Aircrafters and those machines welded beautifully in any position, and quietly. We also had a syncrowave 350 in the mix but all of the seasoned welders opted for the aircrafter...

My welding instructor couldn't tig aluminum either. It wasn't his thing. He could blow your doors off with 6010 and 7018 or flux core, though. Something a lot of people forget when welding for full penetration is how much aluminum shrinks. On 1/8, I bevel the edges and weld them without a gap. It wo...

That's a good idea.
I misunderstood. I thought you meant you had to fix the one rod, like there wasn't anymore. And those copper pads did come out nice. That's the lure to welding for a lot of people. You get to see a lot of people that care about their work.

It's a radar mast for a 60 ft yacht. They brought it to me to make a hinge base for it so it can be folded in the event the boat has to go over land. I had to essentially rework the whole thing. All the angles were wrong. Then after it was done, they crudely modeled some ladder bracing out of pvc pi...

think you are welding badly. This ought to make you feel a LOT better. I had to wonder if whoever welded this was drunk. This was welded with a rather new syncrowave 350. I could close my eyes and weld 100x better than this by sound alone, and that's no lie. https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-pr...

I have a set of sleeves with an elastic that will go up under my t-shirt sleeves. They look like they were taken from a tig jacket. I rarely wear them unless I am going to be welding non stop for the day. I buy t-shirts that have a high enough neck for starters and are made of thicker fabric. A lot ...

I've never used anything but pure tungsten on older machines with AC. The only other issue I can think of is back purging the joint. All we were allowed to use was a purge plate and even that was insufficient. I ended up passing mine in school welding reverse travel with the purge plate. It allowed ...

Nice project. They should be happy with that.

No foot pedal here either. After welding with a button for so long, using a pedal is really easy with regard to torch control.

Nice job, I like that design. I may have to use your design for a gate I'm considering installing on my driveway. I will probably use 2 gates and would like to have openers on them. Do you have any idea of the weight of the completed gate? Thanks, Jason Thank you. I got the idea for initially plann...

There's only two ways I know. Either sanding and blending or filling, sanding and blending. Is there a spiral grit or brushed finish on it already? If brushed, maybe a DA with 80 grit followed with emery cloth.

I think the red scotchbrite on a DA is my favorite finish on aluminum. Gives it a nice matte finish. This was a balcony rail sample for 400' of it. It especially helps blending irregular mill finish with all the import crap that they send down the line these days. https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hpho...

I did install a short gate stop and added a bolt and a pin that sticks in the ground and holds it open as well. The hinge post is just slightly out of plumb, just enough to allow the gate to always close it self. It's for privacy more than anything. I have yet to see anything short of an industrial ...

Haha! That's funny. The visual did it for me.

whenever possible. I bought a home that was owned by a widow, who used to rely on the elder neighbor to do all of her maintenance. You know the type. He has baby food jars with the lids screwed to a shelf over a workbench that is made from an old exterior door, and in these jars is every imaginable ...

That's a good approach, even if just incase it might work before moving on to more drastic and irreversible measures. I really had nothing to lose, even if I had beat it out and it was somewhat ugly because his option was to replace the tube. The owner was actually surprised that it came out as good...

I was just talking to our owner today about lighting. Ours sucks. I was looking online last night at t8 and t5 fixtures so I could just have one for over my table. They still aren't cheap. I have a 2ft 4 bulb t5 HO fixture that is pretty bright> I will try it out Monday maybe. I also have some large...

I went to welding school with my ex-wife. She wasn't my ex then. Now to have someone that truly doesn't know tell you a better way, each and every day. . .I think I have been there in triplicate. Anything outside of that is like water off a ducks back these days. Call it. . ."conditioning"...

I have to cap tubes like that often as well. Usually, the standard hole cutter sizes aren't the same and I end up cutting some on the band saw. I guess I should be glad I get to use aluminum.

That's pretty cool. What did they do with it after?

Hammering metal takes a lot of skill with knowing how to shrink it properly. Attacking something like this with a hammer would have disfigured it to something quite ugly being it was creased. It was one of those, 'hey, that tire over there looks like it will fit.' Otherwise, I would have likely had ...

Ok, here's a good one. I say it's good. It's one of those McGyver things. A pontoon boat that the owner bent the tube on either his trailer or his boat lift. I don't recall. My partner, the guy with all the (eyeroll) ideas. . . has it figured that "I" should crawl up into this tube with a ...

I don't know the protocol here for posting too many projects. I see my name a lot around this forum and not a whole lot else in the projects section day to day. I see a lot of questions or problems revolving around cast aluminum elsewhere on the net so figured to post some here. I try to steer away ...

Tricky with respect that it has been filled with hypoid it's entire life. This typically involves cooking the oil out of the cast, tinning the area to be welded until all of the contaminate is brought to the surface and then ground back to new, fresh aluminum. This is a differential to a 4 wheeler t...

Our shop is in FL. It gets over 100 in the shop so I have fans 'on' me at all times and I mostly weld anodized. Even then, I run 15-20 cfh. I typically run 20, #7 cup with no lens, 1/8" pure tungsten and 1/8" 5356 filler. 15 if I think to turn it down to save gas and I usually don't have s...

Wow. . .holy manifold batman. I would love the symmetry of such setup. I would be one of the one's who noticed. It's like a curse with having an eye for such things. Top notch stuff right there.