Re: Need some welder guru help
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: KYpatriot</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I am planning on building some stall fronts and window grills in a new barn. The prices for these are ridiculous, about 5x the materials cost, probably because the target market are the wealthy horse farms.
Bottom line, I want to learnt to weld and make these myself. would be a good backup skill to have anyway.
I guess I need to look for a class at the local c.college, but need some initial direction...I know there are some talented welders on here.
So for general farm use like this, welding up steel bar and flat stock, what would yall recommend for a decent welder I can grow into? </div></div>
A welding class would be a smart move....CC, or maybe your local highschool has adult classes they give.
For just about anything you can find on a farm that's needing building or fixing, you can find everything you need at your local Tractor Supply...for lack of a better place.
Every farm on the planet has some form or another of a plain old 220v Lincoln "AC buzz box". It's a SMAW set up, or "stick welder" that runs on the same juice you would power an electric cook stove, or a clothes dryer. Pretty simple, and fairly inexpensive, to get up and running.
Source a decent helmet, yeah I too suggest a "flash helmet" as it's much easier to learn with. Prices on those have come WAY down since I got mine which is the first model of the Hornell Speed Glass. You'll need some leather gloves, and some arm guards wouldn't be a bad idea either. Wear a long sleeve shirt regardless, and keep the "V" of your neck covered to avoid a bad "sun burn". You'll want a chipping hammer and a wire brush at a minimum, and a 4" angle grinder would be a good idea too.
Round up a pile of scrap metal and buy 10 or 15 pounds of 6013 welding rod to start...some in 3/32 and some in 1/8. If you have half a lick of sense and a smidge of mechanical aptitude, then you can teach yourself to weld everything you need to weld on a farm with just that.
Start out just running stringer beads on a flat piece of metal making them straight, and even in width. Figure out to how to get it lit and keep it burning. Pull the puddle, and don't move any faster than you NEED to. If it won't light you are too cold, if it sticks you are too cold, if the stub is cherry red when you finish the rod then you are too hot. Look for what is too much arc, and what is too little, and what is just right. When you got it it sounds like an egg frying. When you can do that much consistently then try joining two pieces together in a lap joint, or in a "T" plate weld. If the weld is pretty, and the back side shows blue heat marks and a slight scale from pentration, then you are doing it right.
After you get good with the "farmer rod" or "idiot rod" and you want to try something "better" then you can try 7018AC rod with your buzz box, but that would be overkill for what you are wanting to build now.
I wouldn't fool with a MIG at this point; by the time you purchase the machine which isn't going to be cheap, and sign a lease on a tank of gas, and buy spools of wire, and a gas regulator if the machine doesn't come with one, plus the helmet/leathers/tools...you'll be saying WTF when the first little breeze blows your sheild gas off the weld and you're staring at a weldment that looks like swiss cheese.
For welding around the farm, especially what you are saying you want to do, apply the K.I.S.S principles.....
