Finishing school. Got me welder, tools and all that, except for a proper hood. Right now? A shitty 30eur passive auto-darkening one. Are my eyes twitching? You bet!

Even though im just a hobby welder I want top notch safety. Right now, I am thinking of this:

- 3M 7502 respirator. (any other recommendations?)
- Sentinel A60 bought second-hand. (more so for its availability than cool looks i promise)

My budget is aimed at roughly 600€, so not in PAPR territory as of now. Maybe a helmet with down-the-line PAPR compatibility would be cool... anyone know?

Based in EU, so Miller and Lincoln are hard to source, from what I've gathered.

What hood are you using at home, people?

Hi all

I'm new to welding and am having trouble with my first at home machine.

The two times I've had to remove the gas nozzle from the torch (including during initial setup/feeding the wire) the has warped and come loose and deformed, making the reattachment of the nozzle impossible.

Could anyone advise if this is user error on my part, or if there might be an issue with my torch, tip holder, or gas nozzle? Or is this just meant to happen?

The machine is a Unimig Viper 180.

Thanks for your help

I got fucking burned today, too many times.

4F - MiG 90/10 gas - 1/4” steel - 0.035 wire. 240WFS 19v
(that’s an overhead t joint for non Americans)

I’m roughly 5 months into the 9 month program and I just welded a joint I was actually proud of. I even polished that Mofo up.
That being said, I still got a 36/40. I’ve yet to get a “perfect” 40 yet. Idk if I’m capable of it, but still 4 months to go.

I was wondering why it was feeling harder to cut. Lol.

I am trying to add etrack to my new trailer. The walls are made from 1x2 aluminum tubing. The etrack is steel. Metal work and fabrication is not my forte, I am a woodworker, electrician, home builder.

I have come to the conclusion a threaded nut insert would be best for attaching the etrack but want to run it by those more knowledgeable. Would threaded nut inserts be the best way to go for this? Should I use aluminum nut inserts here? Should I treat the bolts with something to prevent galvanic corrosion?

Lastly where can I purchase the tools? I am 2 hours from a city and thinking of driving to a Harbor Freight in the morning as it appears no hardware store or Home Depot seems to carry nut inserts and tools.

I welded a bit in high school and college in various automotive classes and such so I have some basic skills and knowledge running MIG, stick, and gas. I've been looking at off-road bumpers for my truck and everything prefab is in the $2k+ range, but there are some pre cut diy options for a fraction of this. My question is are there any low budget welders capable of getting decent penentration and leaving marginally clean welds on 1/4" steel?

Welding for a week now and i’m undercutting my 1st and 2nd root pass on square corner. I’m slowing down the pass, turning amps down… what am I doing wrong ?

Haven’t seen one of these posts in a while

Saw this today. Basic Carhartt jacket over twice retail. $308!

As welders, out eyes are under considerable strain, which can manifest itself into all kind of problems, and alongside that, there are also vocation specific dangers - getting your eye flashed, infections, inflammations, irradiated, "foreign objects going in"... etc.

And of all the things that could have happened, I get an infection... in the roots of my eyelashes... for the third time in the last 2 years

" You could not make this shit up! "

Apparently, the hot and humid environment underneath the welding mask is a perfect breeding ground for microorganisms which have taken residence underneath the roots of my eyelashes, inflaming the surrounding area. I will once again have to spend a whole month of evenings shoving antibiotic cream into both my eyes to get rid of them.

Still, it beats my eyelids feeling like sandpaper every time I blink. The reason I am posting this here is because you probably haven't heard of this shit before and may find it interesting.

I wrote "MT" on a bottle. I'm basically a professional now.

So im interested in getting into welding

I live in the rust belt and love cars so naturally I’ll need to pick up welding or I’ll be junking a lot of cars over my life

I’d want a flux core welder since i don’t have to deal with gas

Any advice or info I should know?

Been on the Lincoln Viking 3350s for a while. Last Miller I owned was a Digital Elite maybe 12 or so years ago.

Just bought a new Digital Infinity. Set the shade at 10.5 and then 12. Delay 0. Sensitivity 10.

X-Mode I ran a bead with TIG on these setting. 80amps. Got flashed mid arc. Twice. Acted like the sensors didnt catch arc for a split second. Nothing obstructing the view. Did just fine in Weld mode.

Read X-Mode electromagnetically senses the arc to prevent this, especially on TIG. Seemed Weld mode did what X-Mode was advertised to do.

In X-Mode, it doesnt darken until the arc strikes, but then it flashes me occasionally. In Weld mode, sensitivity has to be at a 4. Anything else darkens the lense. Just regular ambient light in my living room trips the sensors.

My Lincoln I can have the sensitivity at 10, and the only time it darkens is with an arc strike. Never been flashed once, but its time to replace.

I havent ran Mig yet with it, but based on this Im about ready to return it for a Lincoln. I like how everything looks when Im welding so I want to keep it, but do not feel like getting flashed or having sensitivity at a 4 and possibly not having it catch an arc when I run Mig.

Is this normal for these new Infinities? Suggestions?

Started weld school two months back, and I'm already loving it. While I don't need one now, I know that eventually I'm going to want to get my own rig set up. I'm an "invest $20 once instead of $10 three times" kind of guy, so even if I could probably buy a cheap little rig for $100 or less that would probably be enough for any little projects I take in the near future, I know that farther down the line I'll need something better, and I don't want to waste money incrementally improving my equipment. I want something I can buy once and have it stay with me for years afterwards.

Right now Arccaptain (not an advertisement btw) is having a sale where some of their stuff is almost half off. Their top of the line 9 in 1 machine looks like exactly what I want, something that will be able to do 95% of jobs as long as it isn't specialized heavy industry or something like that. Even with the sale though its still $800, which is not a small chunk of change. If I wait until the sale is over it will be $1,200, possibly more if prices rise.

Should I nut up and buy it for cheaper while I have the chance, or is there a comparable machine that goes for a similar or better price?

Hi all, hobbyist here!

I posted a pic of some welds I did a few days ago and one piece of advice was to pre-heat my workpiece better. It's a metal grid of tube steel, ~20 lbs or so, I would guess. Mostly doing flat and fillet welds.

I believe with TIG I can simply let the electrode sit at low power for a few seconds before I start laying down a puddle, but for MIG I don't have that option.

I am at a makerspace, so I don't have a large forge or big induction coils or anything like that, so I am wondering what the easiest way to preheat would be. There is an oxy acetylene torch with a braising tip that I know how to use, and very small induction forge that I could get trained on easily, but I don't know what is my best bet. My gut says the braising torch is just right, but I figured it can't hurt to ask y'all.

Ty!

To start off I'm rather new to pipe welding, I've been working as a welder for 4 years now but have only welded pipes for 7 months on and off for the past 3 years. My company sends their employees to different worksites around the world and so I'm never in one spot for too long, every time I felt like I am getting the hang of pipe welding I'm sent to a different worksite where I don't pipe weld and use mig/electrode so it feels like I lose my ability to pipe weld. Last time I pipe welded was about half a year ago and on the new worksite I thought everything was going relatively well, even asked colleagues and they said it's good until my inspector came over and essentially told me my welds from the inside are too thick and that he has no idea why I thought they'd be passable. I'm not even sure if at this point I can blame the gaps between times I'm able to pipe weld for my inadequacy, I'm kind of writing this out just to vent it out to someone as I lost all my self confidence, if anyone had a similar experience can you tell me how you coped and moved past it?

This is open to everyone, both to ask questions and to offer answers.

Simple rules:

• Unless it's a loaded question, it's fair game.
• No downvoting, this isn't a popularity thing, and we're not in high school, if someone doesn't know something, the only way to learn is to ask or do, sometimes doing isn't an option.
• No whining.
• Assume ignorance over stupidity. Sometimes we fail to see an answer in front of our faces.
• Try to back up your answers. If you're on mobile and you can't do it, say as much and try to remember to address it when you get to a terminal.
• Respect is always expected.
• if comments or questions are removed, assume it's for good reason.
• If your question isn't answered by the end of the day, either post it to the main community, or ask again next week.

Enjoy.

First picture is with 1/8. From left to right is my starting and bottom is last.

Second picture is with 5/32. From left to right is my starting and bottom is last.

Posting here because my instructor is giving me any guidance. Appreciate any feed back. Thanks

I’ve been in a fab shop in NC for 3 years and all I want to do is weld pipe lol. I do not know stick and lay down fire down with tig. I know for a fact I could pass a welding test on pipe tiging it out all the way. Everywhere I look they want like 5 years experience pipe welding and it’s usually combo. What do I do. I know there’s jobs that tig pipe out only i just need some advice on how to find them and how to get someone to take me in. Thank you

Also I know how to mig it’s easy i feel as if I could learn stick within a day or two