Welders?

[TC Chris]

Any other welders out there? The first thing I did when I finished my formal education was to head to the community college for a welding course (probably back in 1976). It just seemed that a person ought to be able to weld and braze. Later I saw a documentary film about women who worked at formerly male occupations during WW II. Most of them were pushed out when the guys came back. What struck me was that all the women who had welded said "I miss welding" or "I really liked welding." There's something satisfying about it.

At any rate, about 15 years ago the ice moved in at my little cottage on Saginaw Bay and bent over the nice flagpole that George Close had made for my Dad when he bought the place in 1954. The bottom 4' had a nice gentle curve. I cut that off and bought a length of black pipe and then the project stopped. I had not welded a lot lately and feared climbing the learning curve. But lately I've been focusing on "someday" projects so Saturday I pulled the torch and tanks out and fired them up. It came back pretty quickly. Looks like a tolerable job. Now I have to make a base--two pipes set in concrete. Maybe later this fall,maybe next spring.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

I used to be fairly proficient using grandpa's Lincoln SA-300 stick welder and I had a plasma welder when I had my shop. The plasma welder is good for light stuff, exhaust work, mostly. I was a gob welder with the LIncoln. It had a Continental F-162 flathead four that powered the welder. That thing sounded good when you were working it hard. I never considered myself a welder, although I could usually gob something together to "get me by". Uncle Fort was the welder. I never knew a better welder. Welding proficiency has a lot to do with the equipment you are using and what you are trying to weld.

[Hydrolastic]

Hello Chris. Love to weld. Prepping the metal, not so much. currently have a thermal dynamics 300 that was/is super cool machine when I had it powered off of 440 3 phase. Then I could lay a 3/8ths fillet in aluminum! But now its on the dryer outlet single phase 220 it only goes to about 150 amps . Still super nice in tig mode. My other machine is a miller 211 mig which still confounds me with it's single dial. Almost all machines I have used had two dial voltage and feed this one has a thickness gauge dial and auto feed. 5 minutes of instruction and your welding. I wish I could braze well its a skill I would really like to have. Brazing cast iron and silver soldering, total respect. My favorite machine ever though was the cybertig 500 I learned on. It had a HUGE transformer and made a sound like nothing I have heard before or since. Hydro