shenion
Tool Pack Rat
- Messages
- 7,586
- Location
- Stone Mountain, GA USA
Took a long drive down to my brothers house last weekend. He has wanted to do some welding to do some metal sculpture work. Brought my Clarke 130EN, a oxy/LP torch and misc scrap metal.
Set up the Clarke and handed him the torch after a brief description. He laid a near perfect bead "Damn, this is easy". Played with it a bit more. He grabbed an old piece of pipe and welded it to the 3mm plate. A bit messy, but a good weld. Did some O2/LP brazing. With propane, gas welding is not possible on this torch.
He really wanted to learn arc welding as I am 500mi away, borrowing my MIG is not easy.
I had given him an arc welder I found on ebay for $0.99. It is a cheap 100A unit, but worth the price.
I had played with arc a bit to test my big welder. Probably about 4 rods worth and just laying a few beads. Was easy with a big machine.
With 5/64" rod, this welder was a real pain to start as it would just stick the rod. But it worked ok.
We played with it and decided to get some 1/16" rods. Picked up some from Sears and some steel from HomerD. The little welder did better. We both learned better technique playing with it. I told him a good weld the slag would come right off.
The big surprise was if you did a bad weld and completely missed the seam on a butt weld, no amount of retries would work. Once the flux/slag got into the joint, it impeded any weld-overs. Had to cut apart and restart as you cant get at it.
Later in the day, he laid a bead, picked up a slag hammer, hit it once and looked up with a big smile. There was a bead that looked as clean as a MIG weld.
I had heard conflicting stories on arc welding. Some say it is difficult, others said it was easy. With 2 days of it, I'll say it is not that hard for mild steel. I have read enough to know it can get real complicated.
Yes, I am a MIG/TIG snob and looked down on DIY arc work. I had considered keeping some gasless MIG wire for use outside. Now I'll keep the rods around for windy days (except for thin sheet). Nice to have another option.
Later in the day, by brother's GF stopped by. She had little interest in seeing scraps of steel welded together, but was supportive. Then he started talking about getting more metalwork tools:
She: "look what YOU started, he's now gonna be getting all kinds of stuff"
Me: "Yeah, it is a sickness"
Set up the Clarke and handed him the torch after a brief description. He laid a near perfect bead "Damn, this is easy". Played with it a bit more. He grabbed an old piece of pipe and welded it to the 3mm plate. A bit messy, but a good weld. Did some O2/LP brazing. With propane, gas welding is not possible on this torch.
He really wanted to learn arc welding as I am 500mi away, borrowing my MIG is not easy.
I had given him an arc welder I found on ebay for $0.99. It is a cheap 100A unit, but worth the price.
I had played with arc a bit to test my big welder. Probably about 4 rods worth and just laying a few beads. Was easy with a big machine.
With 5/64" rod, this welder was a real pain to start as it would just stick the rod. But it worked ok.
We played with it and decided to get some 1/16" rods. Picked up some from Sears and some steel from HomerD. The little welder did better. We both learned better technique playing with it. I told him a good weld the slag would come right off.
The big surprise was if you did a bad weld and completely missed the seam on a butt weld, no amount of retries would work. Once the flux/slag got into the joint, it impeded any weld-overs. Had to cut apart and restart as you cant get at it.
Later in the day, he laid a bead, picked up a slag hammer, hit it once and looked up with a big smile. There was a bead that looked as clean as a MIG weld.
I had heard conflicting stories on arc welding. Some say it is difficult, others said it was easy. With 2 days of it, I'll say it is not that hard for mild steel. I have read enough to know it can get real complicated.
Yes, I am a MIG/TIG snob and looked down on DIY arc work. I had considered keeping some gasless MIG wire for use outside. Now I'll keep the rods around for windy days (except for thin sheet). Nice to have another option.
Later in the day, by brother's GF stopped by. She had little interest in seeing scraps of steel welded together, but was supportive. Then he started talking about getting more metalwork tools:
She: "look what YOU started, he's now gonna be getting all kinds of stuff"
Me: "Yeah, it is a sickness"