Oscar wrote:If you haven't tig'd before, your best bet would be to do butt joints for practice, instead of just going right at it into coped/notched joints. But its your project

Sounds like good advice, I'll do some butt joints on the tubing first, can't hurt

Thanks! Yea, that's another thing I'm going to be practicing, tube notching. I do have a tubing notcher (from JD2) but I'm sure it will take some practice to get the joints tight.

Then Daniel all you do is cut your stick in half, notch one end and slap it against the other and start welding up and around the joint. You just loose a little more when you cut it apart for the next go at it. Yea, I suppose that would be the best way, do a bunch of 90 degree T joints (and I could...

I'm more wanting to practice going around the tube, up and over and on the underside, 360 degrees all the way around. Instead of welding a flat surface. Although I guess I could do the same thing with tubing, although that would be butt joints instead of notched angles like all of the joints on the ...

I'm going to be building a roll cage for my jeep, I'm confident with my MIG welding, but I would really like to TIG weld the cage if I can get confident enough to do so. So, I'm going to chop up some tube (DOM 1.75" .120 wall mild steel) and do a bunch of test joints to see if I can get confide...

"man I hope it doesn't look like sh*t"

But I'm still learning

I'm surprised that I'm actually not all that much worse with my left hand than I am with my right hand moving the torch. But maybe that's because I'm still not all that good with the torch in my right hand to begin with

That is an excellent example. Sadly, there's a flaw. The plating of the top and bottom "flanges" are far more critical than the "web", the stuff in the middle. The top and bottom flanges take the tensile and compressive loads, and should not have straight-line welds across them....

I grew up in Louisiana, I can't see wearing a leather jacket and thick gloves all day long in the heat and humidity, hats off to yall who can do that!

I agree on the ice water, just tap water temperature is probably better.

In the jeep world, we call that a "fish plate", not really sure if that's a proper term or not, but this is how it looks alot of times: http://image.fourwheeler.com/f/48689578+w600+re0/2013-ford-f-250-project-super-dirty-part-3-fish-plates.jpg Probably overkill, but the abuse some of these...

totally doable :) Get some practice material, and start practicing exactly what you'll be doing. I'd fishplate probably both long sides, probably wouldn't hurt to even do all 4 sides, especially if you aren't confident with your weld penetration. Do you have 220 power? That will definitely help. Gri...

I back up a bit when I'm letting off the power, I'll try swirling it around a bit, thanks

So after a few months of being very busy at work, and only MIG welding to get some things done on the weekend, I'm back sitting down with the TIG machine to try and get a bit of seat time now that I have 220 power in the garage (so much nicer with 220!!) time to get familiar with TIG so that I can h...

I agree on the everlast welders. pretty fully featured, solid, and not near the cost. The torch/cable isn't the best, but that can be replaced.

if he said he can get it done for $30, then if I were I would suggest to him that he take it to that other person, since he won't find anything cheaper.

welding up some new body mounts for my TJ jeep (laser cut and pre-bent from SWAG Offroad), 1/4" thick, and boxed with nice sliding angles. MUCH stronger than the factory mounts, un-boxed and probably 1/8" thick, and not angled well to slide off of rocks. Most of them are folding over and b...

I too like to buy things made here in the US. And more specifically, local to me. Any parts that I can't make for my jeeps myself, I try to source locally. Wheels, driveshafts, steering and suspension components, and what not I've all managed to find made locally here in Socal. If I can't find anyth...

Richard is right, you'll be hard pressed to find any electronics actually made here in the US. It might be assembled here, but unlikely it's made here.

I have had all my machines wired with than Nema 6-50p, most welder come with that plug. If you have a 30amp 230 line, and a machine that needs 30amps, just plug it in. Do you have the receptacle like mine??? I don't have any receptacle right now, that's what I was trying to find out, which one I sh...

What is a little confusing to me though, is that BOTH the Lincoln and the Everlast welders that I have use a NEMA 6-50 plug (as best I can tell anyway) on their 220v cables, which is a 50 amp plug. I suppose there is no reason I can't put a 50 amp outlet on a 30 amp breaker and 10 gauge wire if the ...

Ok, so next week my landlord and I are going to run 220 into the garage. We've already run new wires and upgraded the 15amp breaker to a 30amp for the 110 plugs a few weeks ago, now we'll run new wires and put in a additional plugs for 220. So, I only have two machines that can plug into 220. A Lin...

Ok, so next week my landlord and I are going to run 220 into the garage. We've already run new wires and upgraded the 15amp breaker to a 30amp for the 110 plugs a few weeks ago, now we'll run new wires and put in a additional plugs for 220. So, I only have two machines that can plug into 220. A Linc...

I was going to just re-use the factory hinges on the bottom, but they are only secured with one bolt on each side, and they utilize extra holes that the hinges grab onto to keep them from miss-aligning. I didn't like that, so I went with some $1 hinges from the hardware store :lol: I'll probably rem...

Made a few little modifications to my welding machines yesterday. Anyone else make little creature-comfort modifications to their welders? First one, I really hate how the red machine open up on the side to access the drive rollers and wire spool. The door is hinged on the top of the machine, so it ...