I know the knowledge of this group is broad, so I thought I’d throw a side project in here.
As some who follow me may know, I recently acquired a mill. That pretty much immediately made a welder my next ‘want’.
So I picked one up. It’s a cheaper one off of Amazon. Not one of the big names, but it got good reviews and is plenty powerful enough for what I’ll be doing with it.
My first project was upgrading my collapsable trailer. This picture was from before I shrunk the bolts and painted everything.
While I was working on that project using flux-core, my gas bottle came in. My second project was a welding cart. I wanted one that would carry not only the welder and gas bottle, but the folding welding table that I picked up too. I also wanted it to be able to carry the 25’ extension cord I bought.
This is the result of that work. I still need to grind a bunch of welds and paint it, but it works for now. I think I’m going to 3d print some end caps for the open tubing.
I’ve learned that welding is about 60% settings, 30% figuring out where to stand to see what you’re doing, and 10% remembering that freshly welded parts are HOT.
I’m also lucky in that I have a good friend that is a really good welder. He’s helped me a lot. Youtube has helped too. It’s amazing how much theory you can learn just from that.
I still plan on taking a machining/welding course at some point. Just not sure when.