Welding Tips and Tricks

Posting this because I just finished my son's welding area last night. Over the past 2 months I put in a few hours installing curtain rods and hanging the blankets, a few hours adding ventilation, a few more hours running dedicated 110V and 220V circuits across 100' of basement. Then a few hours installing tools and adding shop vac dust collection, and many many hours cleaning up the sawdust that had accumulated over the years and which was bothering both of us. That little benchtop belt sander is on a lazy susan so we can rotate it 90 degrees and use the belt running away from us.
The area inside the blankets is only 8'x10', but it has good light, an exhaust fan, and it's cool and dry.
He's been away for a couple of weeks, and since he's going to defer his first year of college and work, I've been down there a few hours a night trying to finish what's outside the curtained area. Obviously not a fabrication shop, but it's what I could manage.
What do your shops look like?

Wow, that's really nice!

My current shop consists of about 10x20 total space, has a 4000 lb. lathe, 2 mills, 2 bandsaws, surface grinder and tool cabinet, I weld on a small 36"x30" table in front of my lathe.

My new shop will be 28'x32' and overlooks a lake.

You're more crowded, but it's only because you have sooooo many more toys. Color me jealous.
All we have for metal, besides what you see, is a drill press, a harbor freight $30 manual metal brake from 25 years ago and a harbor freight bender.
New shop sounds like it will be awesome! Hope to see pictures soon.

Here's a SketchUp drawing of my space.
The walled off room is for motorcycle parking.
Lathe and mill are on the wall with the passage door. Workbench is on the long wall under the window.

A constant state of chaos. Needed shop projects happening soon: In feed/out feed tables for the horizontal bandsaws, Buildpro fixturing table (supposed to arrive today, but will probably be late), and better/more 120v electrical drops so we can ditch all of those extension cords.

Definitely not showing my son this thread lol. He'll want to spend even more of his inheritance than I did. Very nice guys.

JustTheDad wrote:All we have for metal, besides what you see, is a drill press

Yeah, I got one of those...forgot...I have much more down at a yard I rent, but those are going to the lake...industrial table saw, 24" woodworking planer, 2 jointers, South Bend Heavy 10, Boyce Crane scroll saw, sawmill, et all...

I think it's safe to say I have more tools that I need, but as the old saying goes...when has need played a part in tool acquisition?

TraditionalToolworks wrote:South Bend Heavy 10

????

JustTheDad wrote:

TraditionalToolworks wrote:South Bend Heavy 10

????

http://vintagemachinery.org/photoindex/ ... x?id=36469

Whatever you do, don't show this to your son.

http://vintagemachinery.org/members/detail.aspx?id=3052

Cool Stuff Alan. Is your new shop forklift accessible?

My shop aka garage is a mess! I'm always cleaning but nothing ever stays that way,

Oscar,
It took me almost 12 hours to clean the basement to look like you see it in that picture. I cleared out almost 2 trash cans full of scrap wood, threw away stuff I didn't need.
After a few hours of straightening up, I used a bench broom to sweep the the surfaces in the wood area and the welding area. Swept again. Used the shop vac on the grooves in the cement. Then I used the shop vac to blow off all the exposed joists and surfaces, and also everything on the storage shelves.
After it settled, I repeated the process 2 more times.
The N95 mask I started with is brown even though I ran the 2 air cleaners every time I did that (and for 2 hours after while I let the dust settle).
My basement should be clean now for at least a week lol.

So post a picture of the mess if you don't mind sharing. I'm pretty sure very few shops look like Spartan's not very spartan shop!

This was about 2-3 months ago. It's a bit better right now.

That's a lot of tools for the space too, but a nice collection.
Do you have 3 phase power, or is that white motor not as big as it looks?

Its bigger than it looks because I used a wide-angle setting on my phone for that pic. She's a big momma, almost 400 lbs

JustTheDad wrote:Cool Stuff Alan. Is your new shop forklift accessible?

Funny you mention that...I'm actually looking at getting a 2nd rough terrain forklift as I type...the reason is the driveway is really steep, like so steep I don't know if I could pull my trailer up with the flatbed. I do have access to the basement from the rear, but until it's paved or at least graveled I don't know if I could get the flatbed and trailer back up. My plan was to have the septic contractor help me, but on Fri. I got bad news and he's retiring and won't be able to do my septic, so I'm now looking at a 2nd forklift to have one on each end. After I will sell one, if I get another.

Current I've got really good ventilation for welding!

This is the shop.

I'm still in a closet climbing over my wife's repurposed furniture. Trying ( ) not to set it on fire.
Spartan, that's sweet,,,I need to take a road trip..a LONG road trip.
Oscar, what the sam hill are you doing with the door opened??
Alan, you better start looking for a set of climbing spurs to get those trees out of the way.

Oscar, is that a 3-phase electric motor, and if it is, what's it for and can you run it at your home shop?

Alan, 2 all terrain fork lifts? Meaning you have 1 already?
I don't actually know what an all terrain fork lift is unless it's like the balloon tired one on the back of some lumber trucks I've seen. Getting heavy stuff down a short steep hill is dangerous without really heavy equipment. I built a sled to get my CNC down the stairs into the basement and used a tractor to slide it down slowly, but you're in a different weight class with your stuff. Seems like you need to build a self leveling or a short wheelbase trailer, or maybe you need to use a crane? Got a beautiful view once you're in though!

JustTheDad wrote:Oscar, is that a 3-phase electric motor, and if it is, what's it for and can you run it at your home shop?

He's going to use it for a Rotary Phase Converter, which is basically a bunch of capacitors that will start the 3 phase motor on single phase electricity. Once it is running, the motor provides the 3rd leg of the electrical. He bought an RPC which included the capacitors/electrical and the motor, and he's wiring it up. I use a smaller 7-1/2HP RPC in my current shop and can start any of my machines. Oscar only has a couple 3 phase machines, but he needs that to run his welder on 3 phase to get the full 400 amps, rather than 350 amps on single phase.

JustTheDad wrote:Alan, 2 all terrain fork lifts? Meaning you have 1 already?
I don't actually know what an all terrain fork lift is unless it's like the balloon tired one on the back of some lumber trucks I've seen. Getting heavy stuff down a short steep hill is dangerous without really heavy equipment.

That's exactly what it is, a forklift that is designed to move heavy items around a construction site or up/down slopes.

Sounds like what you're talking about is a piggyback forklift, kind of similar. A regular type warehouse forklift will get stuck in dirt. DAMHIKT Here's mine:

BillE.Dee wrote:Oscar, what the sam hill are you doing with the door opened??

I do whatever I want in my house.

I thought you were trying to cool it down ???? Your house,,your project, but, enquiring minds need to know...

BillE.Dee wrote:I thought you were trying to cool it down ???? Your house,,your project, but, enquiring minds need to know...

Oscar wrote:This was about 2-3 months ago.

Oscar wrote:This was about 2-3 months ago.

I keep telling myself, it'll be cool again soon enough...it happens every year!

My shop is frickin' hot also...not trying to kid you...

TraditionalToolworks wrote:

Oscar wrote:This was about 2-3 months ago.

I keep telling myself, it'll be cool again soon enough...it happens every year!

My shop is frickin' hot also...not trying to kid you...

Cool it down!


Back to work on the phase converter install. Building a rolling cart for it, as I don't like too many things to be permanent.