I missed the stainless bit. if you're worried about contaminating aluminum, buy a sheet of 1/4" 6061 and use it for doing aluminum work. 1/4" is thick enough that you can drill and tap it to put in toggle clamps or what have you. it will certainly be cheaper than stainless or copper. I wou...

lacquer thinner will dissolve a lot more stuff a lot faster than wax and grease remover. there isn't a whole lot of grease/oil/paint type of things that lacquer thinner won't take off. wax and grease remover is intended to have a long flash time so you can completely wipe it off before it dries, lea...

I did the top of my table with slats made of 2" angle back-to-back to form a T. they're super stiff and really easy to clamp to with tong vice grips or c-clamps.

totally agree, unless it's friday and it's really going to take 15 minutes. I'll take the beer.

nope. I'd say that's more than a fair shake. you'dve likely had 2hrs at an absolute minimum + comsumables. new wire brush, new grinding wheel, new tungsten. it adds up fast. if anything, you we're cheating yourself. some people just can't(and shouldn't) be sold. they want it done yesterday for a bee...

son of a bitch... only place I can get 3/32" 7018AC is home depot or lowes. I guess I'll have to talk to the manager tomorrow.

yup. used a cheap HF one for years. can't ever quite seem to scrape the pennies together to get a real beverly.

tig will be more precise and look better, but take longer.

here's a 2lb spool of 308 on amazon : http://www.amazon.com/US-Forge-Welding- ... B0000DD6IG

I'd check your local welding supply. they should have small spools in stock, or be able to order them.

I use whatever works. I tend to gravitate towards the cup when nothing is in the way, generally with a pencil grip. sometimes i give the main body a pencil grip, sometimes a more traditional pistol grip. as long as you're in control and can see, there really isn't a problem with any way you hold the...

it should work just leaving the pin in, but I'd see if you can find a piece of stainless or copper to stick in there instead of the steel pin. I've had some contamination issues welding aluminum in contact with mild steel when the mild steel is small enough to get truly hot while welding. if it were...

you could say the nickel would be like a primer, yeah. basically, the nickel won't crack with the high carbon content of cast (and I'm pretty sure wrought iron has a higher carbon content than mild steel, too). I think (but I'll have to review my metallurgy here) the nickel doesn't get brittle as it...

heheh, not exactly what I meant, but point taken. I was welding through paint, heavy dirt, and rust scale and as soon as you punched through it would lay down a decent bead. not pretty, per se, but not porous, either. it did alright with about 1.5" stickout welding in a 40 degree corner, too. i...

if you're looking to practice at MIG, 75Ar/25CO2 is basically the industry standard. straight CO2 will work, but not that great. I haven't actually tried straight argon myself, but my dad ran out of 75/25 once and hooked up the TIG gas and wasn't too happy with the result. I don't know your actual f...

1/4" wall is WAY too heavy for this unless you're planning on skidding 40' timbers. seeing as it's a bumper pull deal, I'd go with 2" 1/8" wall square tubing for the main frame and brace the outside of the wheels with 2" 1/8" angle. the angle is dirt cheap, but the sq tubing...

I think everlasts shipping issues are model-related. the 250ex and 256 are very popular and are always out of stock. I just bought an Imig-200 2 weeks ago and it was here 3 days after I ordered it because they have them in stock. great machine, cleanest MIG welds i've ever seen. I tried for an hour ...

yeah, it's possible, but you'd have more money in paying someone to do it than buying a welder with a remote control port. if you already had the electrical know-how, you might come out ahead if you're time isn't worth anything, though. I'd guess offhand it'd take about 10-20 hours to design, build,...

I'd recommend taking a grinder and cutting down to clean wrought iron in that chipped area, as well as the top, and run one pass over the whole thing with a high nickel rod, then use a hardfacing rod to do your buildup. nickel rod is SUPER expensive now, so it's not going to be any cheaper, but I'd ...

I forgot about them. I got some of their tri-mix and cryo-t as samples shortly after I sopped working for my dad. as such, they're still sitting in the bag. their customer service was good, and you get 20% off your first order of you ask for samples. I think it's high time to buy a damn tig welder. ...

I thought it was pretty clear that Jody doesn't really like walking the cup, but was asked to do a video on it by a bunch of people, but knows it's a valid technique in some situations. I'm not a pipe welder and the technique has never made any sense to me. it just seems like it's a substitute for a...

at weldwarehouse.com, search for '11r' for the standard tips or '11sp' for the swivel pads. the 11r's are hit #8, the 11sp's are the last hit. that works for all the vise grips and is pretty much the only way to find them. they also have good prices on the irwin light-duty C clamps. the 3" ones...

I use weldinmike's technique a lot, especially on thin pipe I'm too lazy to bevel. just butt the joint and take a grinder on a 45 degree angle and run it down the seam for a shallow 45 degree bevel. easy to follow and lets the bead lay a little flatter on the outside surface on thin stuff.

a transformer welder uses a variable air gap transformer to turn your 240v mains into ~ 80v open circuit. the variable gap controls how much current the transformer can pass from the primary winding(connected to the wall) to the secondary winding( your welding circuit). by the same mechanisms (induc...

that's not quite right, steve. duty cycle is % of 10 minutes the welder can be welding. 100% means you can weld for 10 out of 10 minutes, no waiting, ect. %60 duty means 6 minutes on 4 minutes off for every 10 minute cycle. not tryin to be an ass, but other people read the board who never ask questi...

try about $50/oz for silver solder pure silver is trading around 38 bucks/oz right now. and not to nitpick, but AWS refers to joining metals together above 800f but less than the melting temp of the base metal as brazing. I still think of it as solder because it works like plumbing solder.

heh. I just made one as my first stick welding adventure a few weeks ago mostly out of an old grain separator. I took the 1.5" angles and welded them into t-beams and did half the table with 4" open slots so you can easily clamp with tong vice grips. other half is a pretty messed up piece ...