Welding Tips and Tricks

Found a nice 8" bench grinder at our local farm sale 42$ so it needed a stand . A bench grinder needs to stay put and to be Easy to sweep around so here it is before paint

simple but very functional. nice job! is that one of those chinese welders in the background? if so what's your take on them as i'm thinking about buying one myself?

Yes it is I almost retook the pic because they were in the picture . Ok here's the story my first bigger mig was a snap on that died after welding a16' grain truck box with 4' sides I built the box/ truck to sell so at that point most of my money was in that and needed a welder , then seen a ad for Avortec . So I called and talked to Jeff knapp from what I've gathered he is owner of Avortec in corruna mi so we drove there and and tried a AV200 fire wire mig and a toaster sized plasma cutter . The av 200 was a very nice welding machine , but the duty cycle was bad and kept getting shorter so I took it back and he fixed it right there while I was right there watching we tried it and seemed to be good , but I was still concerned so he bought it back for damn near what I paid for it a year before and bought his av250 the one in the pic . I really like this welder I have never found the duty cycle limit and makes some very smooth welds the down side is the gun it is not any where near as big as it should be but parts are cheap and plentiful . I finally got sick of melting nozzles and put the gun off of my snap on on this welder I've had this welder for two years now still love it , but its kinda like a moped a lot of fun to drive just don't want your friends to see .i also upgraded the plasma to the Xc 100 hell of a machine intill recently I used that Mach at work and at home I would compare to hypertherm 40 maybe . It's very easy on consumables and makes a very fine cut . I have a new 256 Lincoln at work and a hypertherm 65 .they are definitly better but a lot more money.

That's a great stand and it won't likely rock like the flat based one someone built for ours. Nobody straightens things out after being welded anymore, it seems.

Hey that's a nice looking stand - I've used box section usually - but that looks like a good bit of recycling of a girder off cut & brake drum - never thought of making a portable one - mine are bolted to a bench or wall - must save some walking on the job - good idea - may have to make something similar.

Don't be embarrassed about import gear - a brand name is nice but we can't all afford or justify it on every item & to be fair some of the import stuff is pretty good - support is improving & the truth is alot of big brand name gear is made there anyway & just has the company colours / stickers on that sells it - Snap-on is a case in point - I got alot of their tools & like them - but their welders have always been pure crap ( overpriced crap ) - the best they ever supplied in the UK were only cheap Italian Cebora products that you could have bought for half the price without their sticker on - I actually still have an early plasma cutter of theirs ( never used - but still works ) but only bought it as they were the only source locally at the time - had a fair deal with the local rep who I got on with well.

I am not as judgmental of foreign or supposedly lower end gear these days either. Especially when the top names are often including outsourced parts from the same places in disguise, which is worse, IMO. Paying triple the price for advertisement hype is something that will cause me to look the other way in a hurry. From there on out it ends up being more about warranty recovery and customer service.

Just spent top dollar on a Makita cordless drill and the shaft (not the chuck itself) wobbles. Come to find out, they all wobble. I've been using Makita tools for 30 years. Took me a long time to trust Japanese manufacturing from the days when it was no better than the Chinese. They just duped me. Adios Makita.

@ TamJeff.
Sad to hear about Makita quality issues - they have made some nice tools in the past -I liked the look of the new lithium-ion range - especially as you can buy the tools " bare " once you have batteries - it's hard to know what to put your $'s on - especially here as we have almost no domestic makes - although their a bit pricey I have looked at Milwaukee stuff - they made great mains powered tools in the past - had a nice Sawzall & 9" grinder but they got stolen on a jobsite. Not sure what the new tools are like as at least in the UK they are amalgamated with Atlas Copco who are obviously famous for air power but have a dubious record on 220volt tools.

I bought a Skill drill & flashlite combo. SKILL, the great AMERICAN name. It's now made in China. Seemed like a quality product. Nice heft to the drill & the flashlite was really bright. The switch on the flashlite was broken in a couple of months. I'm the only one to use my tools and since I pay for them I take good care of them. The trigger broke, to where you have to hold it in manualy to keep the light on. Now at about a year old both batteries are crap. 1 doesn't hold a charge at all and the holds very little. So much for the heritage of the great American name.
Last December I bought a Lincoln Viking 3350 helmet. Made in china. Both products have the boxes marked, in little tiny lettering, made in china. Actually had to search for it. It is really difficult to find anything made here anymore. If these companies think china made is ok, why not label the box, big and bold, made in china? They know people aren't happy with china crap, but they do it anyway. There is a youtube vid where some guy from Lincoln is talking about the close relationship that Lincoln has with the unions. Not the unions that work for them, but the trade unions the buy and use their products. Do they tell the union guys " lots of our stuff is china crap, but buy it anyway. Although, I have seen union stickers on toyotas and hondas, so I guess union guys aren't what they once were either.