Tinkering!!!

[gman47564]

I went and bought me a new toy the other day.. I've had a lincoln ac/dc stick welder for 30 years I guess.. been wanting to upgrade for awhile.. knew nothing about mig welding but that's what I wanted to try and learn.. so I went and bought a millermatic 211.. I have to say I'm impressed with how easy it is to weld with.. I'm really liking it..




Tinkering around with it on some old scrap steel I decided it was time to build something.. so I decided to build me a better kyl rack for my 450 yard range.. swinger and all.. I went with 6 , 5, 4, 3 and 2 inch plates.. built it out of rebar and a form pin along with some pipe.. turned out OK I think.. still gotta paint it all and may go ahead and weld that chain with the 1 inch bolt head on it before I paint it.. pretty fun first project for the new mig.. my next project will be a welding table..

[autoxforfun]

Great investment in welding gear.  I remember that I worked with my AC stick welder and a torch setup for years....like 25 years.  I finally broke down and bought a MIG about 20 years ago.....what a dream to weld with.  It was fast and the finished product looked great.  I think I've used the Stick and torch maybe 2 or 3 times since I got the MIG.  I kick myself for waiting so long.  I even got to where I could weld aluminum and stainless but a TIG was the best choice for that.  I picked up a TIG a couple years ago and all that torch welding came in handy since the technique was leveragable.   Have a great time !!!!

[gman47564]

I welded and built quite a bit of stuff with my old stick welder.. alot of it I still use today.. but it didn't take me long using this new machine to realize I had been missing out..

[DHuffman]

Nice machine, I'm down to 3 AC/DC stick machines. A gas powered Lincoln, an old school industrial 250 Lincoln tombstone and a smaller Miller then I've got a 210? Miller mig machine I bought new in the early 2000s

After we went broke ranching in the early 90s I welded/fabbed for a living for at least 5 years. Burnt miles of rod and wire.

Nothing better than good machines.

[gman47564]

I added one more swinger to the kyl rack.. it's a 11/4"x11/4" square.. doubt that gets hit everytime.. lol..

[DHuffman]

I added one more swinger to the kyl rack.. it's a 11/4"x11/4" square.. doubt that gets hit everytime.. lol..

Your welding is coming right along with the new machine Grant LOL
Seriously I like the way you notched each piece to get more coverage on the rebar instead of just butt welding them.

[gman47564]

I've  tried stick welding chain to them ar500 plates by laying the chain on the back of the plate before with no luck..  I'm hoping by notching them out and welding the rebar down in them that it will hold.. time will tell..

[DHuffman]

I've had limited luck welding hard AR steel to anything. Cutting holes and bolting to a chain works best for me but that would be hard to do on small steel

[gman47564]

Started me a new welding



project this evening when I got home from work.. got off early enough to go to the welding shop here by home and picked up some steel.. building a small welding table.. the surface will be 28"x48"x3/8"
Got some of the underside fram work built on it this evening.. it will have castors on the legs of it that will be adjustable for leveling purposes.. got alot of that done as well.. bottom of the legs will have a plate welded to it with a 1 inch hole in the center of it with a 7/8" nut welded to it .. that will allow for the 7/8" all thread to go up inside the leg.. then the castor will be bolted to a plate with another 7/8" nut and all thread welded to it.. a pic of my progress and a couple welds for dave to make fun of.. 

[LeadHammer]

Looking good!  Don't forget to wrap the corners of your welds...........

( typed while hiding behind some bushes )

[bikemutt]

When I tried welding with a wire feed years ago, I quickly learned that an angle grinder was my best friend 

Buddies would come by and comment on my "workmanship"; "What the heck is that?", "What happened here?", "Holy %^$!".

I sold the welder, and the plasma cutter, good riddance, lol.

[LeadHammer]

Ahh Chris, I'm sure you would be good at it, like anything it takes time. I would be scared to know how many miles of welding wire I went through. Probably around the earth a few times.

[DHuffman]

I'll have to admit while I can obviously still weld my work isn't as pretty as it once was.
Seems my vision is not what it once was

[MJeff23]

I love the smell of steel working!

As a structural engineer, I have critiqued a lot of welds over the past 36 years.  Good welders are getting much harder to find.  While racing back in the 90's, I realized the necessity to learn to weld--I distinctly remember thinking that it can that hard....HA.  I discovered it was very difficult to make a weld look like what I had been taught it was to look like.  I also remember getting a beautiful weld one time, picked up the hammer to test it and the piece hit the floor...DAMN, then I picked up the grinder (or Chris's best friend)...

When we get lucky and have a good welder on jobsites, I always let them know they are appreciated!

[jvw2008]

Looking good!  Don't forget to wrap the corners of your welds...........

( typed while hiding behind some bushes )

Explain "wrap the corners" please.