I think it's not that TIG is so hard, it just gives you an almost unlimited amount of control and more optiions, that can't just be learned quickly. Not that say, MIG welding properly is easy... it's just that it seems easy when a beginner learns MIG. Push the torch, drag the torch, one handed opera...

I never needed glasses until I got into my 50's, and now into my late 60's my eyes are even worse (way worse)...and like said above, get a cheater lens, they work great, just snaps right into the inside of your helmet and viola', you can see, and they come in various strengths. The problem with a ch...

I wanted to find one for my cheap, backup non-auto helmet as well (in case the batteries died or something on my Optrel Crystal 2.0 that I usually use, and i wear both glasses and use a strong cheater lens as well (hey, getting old sucks... ya gotta do what ya gotta do!)... but had no luck finding i...

Update on my vinegar action... So while I was working, i used a 6 foot long 13 inch wide sheet of the same steel as a test piece to see how much fumes it would create in the 8 hours that I worked that day. I set up the sheet on a couple of cinderblocks in the middle of the shop, taped up the edges t...

If the shop is that big, I struggle to believe the potency of the fumes from vinegar would cause any damage to nearby metals. The shop isn't that big, it's about 50 x 15, and I'll be leaving the vinegar soaked table just a few feet from the cars... plus, it'll be sitting in the closed shop (no wind...

I've used vinegar many times to remove mill scale, it works great, low toxic risk, safe to use... but I've always soaked the steel parts outside in a large drip pan because even the vinegar fumes can be overpowering indoors, but I just built this big 6' x 3' welding table at this job that has no wel...

just keep in mind that all your power sockets all join together at the fuse box. with high power tools you always want to use a lead per tool due to the voltage drop the lead causes. yeah everything is wired poorly in my rental house... looks like they've had multiple unlicensed 'electricians' wiri...

Toggatug wrote: ↑Thu Jun 09, 2022 6:30 am The welding pixies just don't like the LED pixies is all.

Good to know that this can happen though, will definitely keep it in mind.

ha... the welding pixies are bullies

i'll have to go find the video on it. its to do with the cheap led power supplies. something like the reduction in voltages causes an increase in current allowed through to the led's, which makes them run hotter and shorter lifespan. yeah, it was a cheap HomeDepot Chinese LED shoplight, so it's no ...

That's why I have a separate welding circuit in my shop. On site I'll plug my power source into a separate circuit to my other devices also. Hi freq and current spiking can play silly buggers at times. that's a good idea... my house is a rental, and the wiring is a nightmare hodgepodge of circuits ...

BugHunter wrote: ↑Tue Jun 07, 2022 7:08 pm So, plugging the welder into the same cord as the light, killed the light?

yup.

If you drag your TIG box out to the race car in the garage to just throw two little tacks on your new steering column you're fabricating, so you can bring it back in to bench weld it, and just plug your box into the extension chord that also has an LED flood light plugged into it as well... you can ...

cheap ones! Tillman all the way for me (or equivalent)... Deerskin ones are nice but they're all fine. Never had any luck with fancy expensive gloves, they cost 2 or 3 times as much as the TIllman's, and don't last nearly as long.. so what's the point? Yeah, they're nice looking and look cool, but I...

holy crap... yeah, like said above... where's your outer lens???? Oh man, I destroyed my Speedglas awhile back doing that accidentally... I worked in a shop where 95% of my work was TIG, on a bench... no overhead even. Then I got this big project, building these big mild steel structures in the shop...

generally a shop won't let you do this for millscale, just no time for it... but for my own side jobs at home, if I can't get my hands on cold rolled sheet and I'm forced to buy hot roll (re: mill scale sheets), I soak them in vinegar for 24 hours first. Any supermarket sells cheap vinegar by the ga...

I spent several years working in a sheet metal shop where the majority of what we did was thin stainless sheet (lots of kitchen stuff)... I guess this is a moot point as you're asking how to work with gaps in your work, that you have no choice, but yeah... why on earth are there gaps? That's a big n...

I've found silicon bronze filler rod is great for TIG on galvanized. It's not as strong of course, not for a part that is going to be repeatedly stressed, but it's surprisingly strong, and welds nicely right through it. I've accidentally welded a ton of electrical boxes that we made just for explosi...

don't look like any of the ugly ass welders I've ever worked with...

Suggestion, make a hinged half lid low enough to cover the valves Capture.PNGand use cam over latches on the side(s) to secure it. Capture1.PNG You even get fancy and throw on a gas strut on either side. Capture2.PNG hmm a lid, that's a pretty good idea... but I might not have enough room under my ...

BeeGee wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 7:24 pm

SusKatCas wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 8:54 am Fun project.

What did that NOS bottle hook up to?

Nitrous solenoid

lol.. actually, two of them as I run a direct port setup

SusKatCas wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 8:54 am Fun project.

What did that NOS bottle hook up to?

ha, nah I was just using the bottle for the photo, only had two other welding bottles (didn't feel like disconnecting my 3rd bottle)... I have the correct bracket for the nitrous in the trunk of my '66 Biscayne.

Transporting bottles with compressed gas and unprotected valves is certainly a recipe for danger. You should at a minimum, create a retaining strap since those pony bottles do not have thread-on caps. Most welding gases are inert, but the hazard of them being launched by valve damage is very, very ...

Wanted a safer way to transport my little 40cf bottles when I run to get them refilled or when going on side welding jobs, instead of throwing them in my back seat ready to kill me if I ever get in a wreck.... or just throwing them loosely in a milk crate in the back of my 2010 Raptor. Looked online...

Have had my eye on the little portable Miller Maxstar 161, have heard nothing but great things about the Maxstar series going back years. I always wanted a little stick welder like this one, that I can just grab to do some small mobile job somewhere. I especially like it as it comes in a combination...

thanks for the help everyone... but I ended up dropping the whole, trying to find a generator to (safely) power a welder as well as trying to find one that is relatively quiet... I especially dropped the idea after having yet another freak storm and power outage and wishing I had bought sOMeThInG. S...