I dont know if it'll help ya, but I used 1" black iron gas pipe for my welding table top. Really saved on the cost, and you can space em out however you want depending on what your doing. I spaced mine out 6" apart and it works great!

I dont know about over on the east coast, but my buddy just got a job at a refinery their puttin up in southern illonois. Its a Union job though, dont know if thats a factor for ya or not.

When I wanted to learn/practice stick, I bought a welder and ran some 220 to my garage. Built all kinds of stuff outta it with some scrap metal I bought/found lyin around. I plan on buying a DC Inverter and converting it to tig and get it hooked up in my garage. Not minding the price I think its an ...

cool! I didnt want to have to switch cables everytime I had to run 6010. If it'll run 6010 just fine without the special port than I just might buy one. Thanks for the info.

PLEASE let me know how that special 6010 port runs. I was seriously looking at one of those, but thought....why the hell the special port for 6010? Does it even run 6010 on regular DCEP? I didnt want to have to change my cables everytime I ran a short root with 6010 and wanted to cover with 7018.

When I first got into welding about a year ago I bought a book at Home Depot for like 15 bucks. Great for a newbie like me, but it also had a section on it on filler metals, the differant types, grades, costs. Not at my house so dont have it on me, but if I recall the best stuff you can get is vaccu...

Ahh ok why didnt that click in my head. All the old timers I talk to about that kinda stuff always got it Gas Welding or OxyAcetylene Welding.

noob question-whats OFW?

what size rod you usin? 1/8? What you got your amps set at now?

Hey I got my Ua journal a couple months ago and was readin through it and noticed these pipeliners wear some funny lookin welding hoods. Its like the flat surface in front and then only has one side that wraps around their head, the other side is open. Whats the purpose of that?

Well the only welder I want in my price range(under a grand) only does dc. So im kinda planning on keeping the buzzbox if i ever need an ac machine for some reason. Is there a reason to ever have an ac machine for doing stick? I know you need ac to weld aluminum but I kinda thought that if your weld...

So a friend of mine had an old stinger layin around his garage and told me to replace my stinger, which is really awkward to use due to the large size and thumb spring setup, to the one he has, which is a tweko. Looks just like the ones they use on the miller machines at work. He also told me to thi...

From my small amount of experience, hammerwelds is correct. 6013 will usually produce an inferior bead to a 6011 rod, the slag is much harder to chip, and for the same price, I myself cant see much of a reason to use a 6013 rod. Get some 6011 and 7018 ac and go to town.

heh. thats funny cause I believe it. Seems like them suits in the office are always tryin to make things harder for the guys in the field.

so far for me flat is the more difficult than horizontal(which I havnt done alot of) and vertical(which seems to end up being the most im doing) because, at least for me, its more difficult to manipulate the electrode angle. Its not so hard if yuo got the joint running away from you, but when its ac...

ya we got a powerhouse addin on 100 megawatts out here and their callin out for alot of fitterwelders. The gate test they got is a tig root/hot pass and a 7018 fill/cap. Guess its pretty common on powerhouses?

hey I got a quick side question-I hear alot about doin a tig root/hotpass and then a 7018 root and cap. Whats the differance between doing it that way or ss stick all the way out, or tig all the way out?

I think the most important tip I've learned so far is to ***RELAX***. Relax your stinger hand!!! You need your stinger hand to have a light touch, and if your tensed up your going to be jerky. Keep your stinger hand relaxed, lightly strike your metal and lay your arc in there and just focus on maint...

Ya I noticed that the short leads are kinda a bummer today when I started building my welding table. Not to mention the 6 foot cord is a joke as well. I'm about as hesitant to buy more leads as I was to spend money on my old pickup. Im thinking about upgrading to a hobart ac/dc machine soon. Its lik...

So I was practicin on a piece of 1/2 inch steel yesterday on my Lincoln 225 Buzzbox and experimenting with differant amperage settings with some differant rods. Specifically I was runnin some 1/8 6011 and I felt like I needed something between 75 and 90 amps. So while switchin between the two I must...

Sounds like the chinese were tryin to keep the cost down-they obviously couldn't afford a translator :p Cheap bastards

Heres yet another reminder why safety is so important when yer welding-or doing any other trade for that matter.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100530/ap_ ... a_gas_leak

hey those look like my first weld beads

thanks for the reply. I think the first hot weld description was what they were talking about on the call out. Im out of UA local 525 Las Vegas, NV. We got a powerhouse adding 100 megawatts about an hour out of town and (from my perspective anyway) it seems their havin some trouble gettin guys to ta...

Hey guys. I'm just starting to weld, and I look at my union's dispatch page everyday to try to get an idea of what kind of weld tests are common and the stuff I should be practicing and the like. Its a pipefitter union so we obviously weld on mainly pipe. First thing, we have a call out for some chr...