Welding Tips and Tricks

Here are some super ugly pics for your viewing pleasure

He needed rust fixed and a jack mounted - not great weather for working outdoors, but it was way too tall for the shop door.

Mostly .035" 71t-11, some .030" solid and some 3/32" 7018

Enjoy

A few more - preheated for the jack plate. Gets dark fast

A little progress, then fire up the needle scaler and start the other corner.

Whole other corner was pretty much junk too.

Last set - found the chute was junk too - cut it out and welded in.

Too bad it still all looks like a junk pile - lol

Hate it when that happens - looks bad coming in, looks bad going out but is now ready for more work.

Nice work Dave,
can't imagine what it would be like to be working/welding out in the snow like that. Exact opposite of this humid heat I'm in at the moment. I'm guessing you have to pay attention to short circuits with leads in the snow, wet boots etc. What precautions do you have to take?

I can't imagine what it must be like working in that.

Hell, I've only ever SEEN snow once or twice in my life! And it just occurred to me that if you dropped rods/fasteners/small parts in it...you'd lose them and freeze your fingers off finding them again.

I'm with you Coldie... interested to know what precautions Dave (and anyone working in snow and slush) need to take to stay safe.

Good job Dave !

Thanks guys

You are correct when you say that things get lost in the snow pretty easily. You learn to look for the hole it made going in and gently feeling for the item with you glove off. Just pretend you're stirring a margarita with your finger and it won't feel cold - lol.

I find it easier to work in cold than heat - put on a coat and insulated bibs and I'm good to go.
It's not really cold until it gets below zero Fahrenheit anyway (-18 C)

Some of my friends are not so fortunate - undershirt,long undershirt, heavy shirt, heavier shirt, light coat, heavy coat,outer coat - now they can get the mail...wussies...lol

Always have plenty of pockets that way - half of them are covered by outer layers though so it takes a while to find them.

...and three or more layers of clothes with zippers and buttons are involved to pee - some people find the math of multiple layers not in their favor

I tend to shovel clean where ever I work - makes less problems for losing things. Also less to melt as things heat up.
Rarely get shocked any more than working in damp grass and rain - don't really think about it I guess?

Hands take a beating - the sides of my index finger and my thumb split open sometimes so I just superglue them closed - a lot of guys I know do the same, works really well.

I'm just a part-timer though, day job nowadays is teaching math, woodshop, and welding - sometimes it's good to be inside with a cup o coffee

32f/0c warm day, light coat - tried to take a selfie and just got this old lookin guy...lol

Nice work! Glad it wasn't me laying in that snow..lol. Worked outside my whole life and hot/cold never bothered me much but now that I'm getting older and my joints are worn out it's another story. Again, nice work!

MosquitoMoto wrote:I can't imagine what it must be like working in that.

Hell, I've only ever SEEN snow once or twice in my life! And it just occurred to me that if you dropped rods/fasteners/small parts in it...you'd lose them and freeze your fingers off finding them again.

I'm with you Coldie... interested to know what precautions Dave (and anyone working in snow and slush) need to take to stay safe.

You guys are spoiled I'll take heat any day over cold. The last refinery job I was on 2 years ago, I was on nights, it was minus 25 with a wind chill of over minus 60. We got one 1/2 hour break and one 1/2 lunch on a 12 hour shift for over a week. I was on that job for 2 months...glad I don't do that anymore.

I used to live in Wisconsin, was born and raised there, so I know about cold and wind chills. I remember working on my snowmobile in the garage in 20 or 30 below weather with a blizzard outside. The Kerosene heater was not even helping and the gloves had to come off to work the tools better. I do miss snowmobiling and ice fishing though.

p.s. Great job on the repair!

exnailpounder wrote:Nice work! Glad it wasn't me laying in that snow..lol. Worked outside my whole life and hot/cold never bothered me much but now that I'm getting older and my joints are worn out it's another story. Again, nice work!

Thanks

Yep I know the feeling - pretty glad to have an indoor job most days.

When the wind chill is 40 below it's pretty nice in class - lol.

But I still stand at the window and look outside during the day - miss the outdoors

Summers are spent carpentry/construction, dump truck, welding, mechanic work - whatever I can get until school starts again.

My coworker joked that we have a teaching crew of construction guys who happen to teach in the winter

electrode wrote:I used to live in Wisconsin, was born and raised there, so I know about cold and wind chills. I remember working on my snowmobile in the garage in 20 or 30 below weather with a blizzard outside. The Kerosene heater was not even helping and the gloves had to come off to work the tools better. I do miss snowmobiling and ice fishing though.

p.s. Great job on the repair!

Thanks

I did the same at my dad's back in the 70's/80's.
As soon as I got out of the military and bought my own place I made a heated shop a priority - something wrong with working inside and still freezing to death - lol.

Great job Dave and thanks for sharing your thoughts on coping with working in the cold.

I must be a total wuss...it never gets below about 2 degrees C here even in the middle of winter but even at 5 degrees C I start finding excuses not to go out and work in the shed unless I can use the heater.

Mind you, I grew up in the outback so I cope with heat pretty well. Apart from sweat getting in your eyes, I find that when the temps climb into the 38-45 degrees C range I just wear lighter clothes and drink a lot of water and I cope fine.

Still can't imagine lying in the snow to weld though!

MosquitoMoto wrote:Great job Dave and thanks for sharing your thoughts on coping with working in the cold.

I must be a total wuss...it never gets below about 2 degrees C here even in the middle of winter but even at 5 degrees C I start finding excuses not to go out and work in the shed unless I can use the heater.

Mind you, I grew up in the outback so I cope with heat pretty well. Apart from sweat getting in your eyes, I find that when the temps climb into the 38-45 degrees C range I just wear lighter clothes and drink a lot of water and I cope fine.

Still can't imagine lying in the snow to weld though!

Thanks
You guys get some pretty wild heat compared to here - we top out around 35 C. I like shade at those temps

Laying in snow isn't too bad if dressed for it. If it's going to be a long time, a piece of plywood helps keep it from melting and soaking into your clothes. Wet clothes in extreme cold is really awful.