Buck's random home-made things.

[inVERt'D]

Besides the super obvious burned-to-hell welds, porosity may look kinda lumpy or like a whitehead zit, or may just have a few visible pin-holes. The lumpy and whitehead ones especially may be a lot worse than they look, so when it doubt, grind them out.

Steel is not a great conductor. Ground as close to practical is good, especially on a transformer machine with limited power. I don't think you'd use the magnetic ground for long. They don't ground all that well, and the magnet can cause arc blow when you're welding near to it. Get a good cast copper clamp.

[daniel_buck]

here's how all the feet look, I still need to spot weld and re-grind them a few of the gaps on the corners of the square tube where I ground down passed their thickness. But I'd say the feet are 90% right now :-)

[brokenujoint]

I haven't welded in a few yrs so I may say some thing's that aren't factual anymore due to my occasional episodes of migraine induced retardation. Welding is ALOT more than pointing and laying a bead. Even when the weld looks wonderful, it might be crap. If you have any free time you should take up a welding class at your local Jr College. It's actually a ton of fun. I did when I was in my aircraft maintenance program. We used Mig/Tig/Acetaline (spelling) and Arc. Tig-ing Aluminum is a PITA. 220 MIG and ARC welding was the funnest.

If I had the house to weld from I'd start ARC welding again. It's a great practice for when you gotta get it done on the trail.

My only solid advice is towards health. Don't get tunnel visioned on a project and lose track of time. Weld in increments. Much better on the lungs.

[daniel_buck]

I would totally like to take a metal working/welding class sometime, I just don't know when I would have time to do it :-\ I usually don't get home til close to 8pm on the week days, maybe there are night classes somewhere.

I talked with the owner of the house I'm renting, and he said that he would talk to one of his electrician friends to see about getting 220 into the garage :-D I can't wait for that! Fortunately, both my Mig and my Arc welder (which I got for free!) can run on both 110 and 220. The mig I just pop in a different plug wire, and the arc welder I have to change some of the wiring on the inside (it was originally setup for 220 when I got it), but I'm not sure how I plug it into 220, maybe there's an adapter?

I'm looking forward to getting more into metal working, sure for the jeeps, but bottom line I'm art artist, always have been. And I've got to get away from a computer as often as I can, haha! And with metal work, I want to make furniture :-)

I'm going to wait until I have 220 and more welding experience before I make furniture that has to carry any heavy weight (like a credenza to hold the TV and stereo, shelves, or chairs), so for now I'm just going to make a few small tables like this.

I did figure out that I need to get a welding jacket. Ive got a little bit of sunburn on the underside of my left arm from the welding arc, haha!

[inVERt'D]

I got into making scrap metal "furniture" and utility stuff despite myself--stuff for friends. Then I started appreciating what could be done with scrap (besides for my jeep), and I've been inspired by the possibilities.

[GP4Play]

It's just cool that you can get an idea and make it happen like that.

[brokenujoint]

Pretty sure what you've got going now would be more than plenty for furniture. A 220 would be good for really thick stuff and welding cages, suspension stuff. etc.. Not that I approve doing those things until your proficient.

[daniel_buck]

You are probably right, what I have and what I'm doing now is probably enough for most any furniture piece. This little table is probably stronger than my dining room table (which I hope to make a replacement for soon! haha!) But I like to be cautious :-)

[daniel_buck]

So I'm curious about TIG welding, every video I see on TIG welding looks like it's a slow methodical process, seems like it gives you time to think about what you are doing. When I'm welding with the MIG, it seems to happen so fast that I'm more worried about just staying on the joint and keeping my rhythm than anything else. How hard is it to learn TIG welding? Is it an expensive process? From what I gather, the only real consumables are Argon gas, and the tungsten electrodes.

[brokenujoint]

price a TIG machine and then reach up to your forehead, scratch it, and then remember why your MIG-ing. If you can get good at tigging, it is the most GORGEOUS welds out there. And the sound of it,, sounds like a real snappy machine gun..Or a sowing machine on crack.

Dont know where westchester is but the Junior College that I went to was in Pomona .. Mt SAC. They have an awesome welding program.

[inVERt'D]

Right now you're taking pieces of steel and making them one. As GP4Play commented, that's pretty dang cool in its own right. MIG is cool, but it's a production-oriented process. Beautiful work can be done with MIG and stick, but the control, finesse, and potential beauty of TIG welds are what make it ideally suited to the welding artist. I've got some of that artist blood in me, and my standards are often well ahead of my skills, but that motivates me to get better. I'm not yet that great, but sometimes I do hate to paint over stuff.

Good TIG welders are expensive and great TIG welders are really expensive. For a serious hobbyist I would look into a decent Chinese (oxymoron?) inverter machine like perhaps an Everlast or Longetivity. I use my Chinese 3-In-1 for DC TIG welding. Pretty basic, but what is there works pretty well. It puts out 200A and has a great high-frequency start. Wish I could afford a Miller Dynasty, but I couldn't justify it right now anyway.

DC TIG good for steel and some other metals, but for aluminum you want AC TIG or at least pulse TIG. Those are the processes that sound like brokenujoint described; DC TIG's only real noise is the hiss of the argon from the gun.

[brokenujoint]

I used to know this guy growing up. Names Mark Benoiught. This guy was a fab genius. He started getting into desert racing pre runners. He was kind of a rich kid. Anyways this cat could weld. Id go over to his place and he'd have a 200,000.00 racer in his garage and his cages would look like pieces of wet spaghetti gorgeously welded together. Imagine the perfect TIG welds and the perfect bends. Now X it by 4. . That good.
It was true ART indeed.

[daniel_buck]

here's the first attempt at polishing the metal, with an 80 grit flap disk. Some of the patterns (particularly on the flat shelf) I'd like to re-do, but overall I'm liking the look. I've got a scrap metal polished the same way with some clear protective spray drying, if that test turns out good, then I should be ready to spray it in one more evening :-) Then I'll cut up the mahogany, sand and stain it, and it'll be ready to go into the house :-D

[daniel_buck]

So a question for those of yall who work with steel, what kind of prep & cleaning work do you do, both before welding, and after you are finished and ready to paint, clearcoat, powdercoat, or wahtever else?

For the most part, I've been working with new metal, so I've not really needed to grind off any rust or paint. But I assume there's still some sort of oil or something on the metal? I've heard people suggest using Simple-Green cleaner, and others suggest lacquer thinner.

And after the piece is finished and ready to move into the painting/coating stage, just a quick rub-down with lacquer thinner to get the metal clean?

What do yall do? Any suggestions?

[inVERt'D]

With MIG or TIG I'm gonna get it about as clean as I can. Even new P&O (pickled and oiled) or cold-rolled steel without obvious mill scale will get degreased with acetone, made bright with a 3M disc or wheel, and blown off with air, and wiped down again.

That said, I work with a lot of rusty old scrap steel. If it's pitted getting all the rust out without making things worse (screwing up the cross section) can be practically impossible. After getting it as bright as I could, I have MIG'd and TIG'd such steel without significant issue. I usually use the commonly available ER70S-6 MIG wire (probably what you have) and TIG filler alloy. It has more tolerance for rust and scale and such than some others, such as ER70S-2. Welding on some old rusty farm implement with 6011, I really don't fret too much about cleaning. If I'm going to use 7018, then it has to be pretty darn clean--not quite as crucial as for MIG or TIG, though. Flux cores like Innershield also handle contaminants better than MIG.

If you have to use Simple Green or such on something really greasy, then make sure you wash it all off. Then proceed to do something like I described in the first paragraph. You don't want Simple Green residue in a MIG or TIG joint if it's something that matters.

For the painting prep, I'm not especially qualified to say, but I'll usually wipe things down with acetone since that's what I keep on hand. Lacquer thinner ought to work well, but acetone sure dries quickly and cleanly.