Welding Tips and Tricks

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 pretty much means you can't stack machines on top of each other, or have a shelf/compartment above the machine without having at more than a foot of space above the machine so that the lid can swing open. So, I put some hinges on the bottom of the lid and a latch on top so that the lid opens down instead of up. I can now get away with just 1-2 inches of space on top of the red machine, just enough to operate the latch on top. Next step, add a shelf to the welding cart to put the green machine on top of the red machine. Space is at a premium in my garage, haha!

And it's damn near impossible to open up the protective panel on my green machine with gloves on, even with real thin TIG gloves. So, I put a bolt through the cover, now you can open the door super easy with even real thick gloves. The only knob you can really turn very well with thick gloves is the main voltage knob, but that's fine, that's usually all I'm tweaking anyway if I'm welding with the thick gloves (stick). With thin TIG gloves, you can use all of the controls without removing you gloves.

Now, if I could only get the power switch on the green machine to be on the FRONT of the machine, and not the back

I had the same problem with my red, but I just cut a little piece off each hinge, and now I open it just a little bit and it comes off. Still hinged, but easily removable without opening it more than a few inches. I like your solution though, because my way, I have to stand the cover somewhere out of the way.

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 I'll probably remove the factory hinges all together, and plug up all the holes.

And the great thing is, I didn't have to do anything with the wire speed and power chart on the inside of the lid, it's still right side up when you open it!